The Neustadt Challenge

Alisia of Book Haven is hosting The Neustadt Challenge.  This challenge focuses on the Neustadt International Prize for Literature, which awards a prize every two years to novelists/poets/playwrights from any country.  Beginning  May 1 and running through August 2008, the challenge is to read either three novels/plays/essays/poetry by one of the winners, or by three different winners:

2006 Claribel Alegría (Nicaragua/El Salvador)
2004 Adam Zagajewski (Poland)
2002 Alvaro Mutis (Colombia)
2000 David Malouf (Australia)
1998 Nuruddin Farah (Somalia)
1996 Assia Djebar (Algeria)
1994 Kamau Brathwaite (Barbados)
1992 João Cabral de Melo Neto (Brazil)
1990 Tomas Tranströmer (Sweden)
1988 Raja Rao (India)
1986 Max Frisch (Switzerland)
1984 Paavo Haavikko (Finland)
1982 Octavio Paz (Mexico)
1980 Josef Škvorecky  (Czechoslovakia/Canada)
1978 Czeslaw Milosz (Poland)
1976 Elizabeth Bishop (USA)
1974 Francis Ponge (France)
  1972 Gabriel García Márquez (Colombia)
1970 Giuseppe Ungaretti (Italy)              

I chose to participate in this challenge because I want to read works by authors from countries other than English-speaking.  Last year, I only read two such works.  As I looked down this list, I realized I am not familiar with any of these authors.  But one name jumped out at me, that of Czeslaw Milosz.  Ironically, I received a book I had ordered (Eveless Eden by Marianne Wiggins) last week.  As I was looking through it, I noticed a poem by Milosz quoted at the beginning.  That same day I discovered this challenge and, lo and behold, there was Milosz again!  So I am planning to read three works by Czeslaw Milosz - two books of poetry and a book of essays written in Warsaw during the Nazi occupation of Poland.

I have also decided to take this challenge a step further.  When I looked through the Neustadt International Prize for Literature website, all the finalists for each prize year were named in addition to the winner.  I would like to read something by each finalist and winner, even if it is nothing more than one poem.  This would be a fantastic way to be able to read authors from many different countries.  This for me, of course, will be a project rather than a challenge as there are more than 140 authors on the list!

Thanks, Alisia, for hosting such a great challenge!

Comments

[daphne sayed]

sharon, How do I find your Challenge blog or have you cancelled it now that a group has been set up?Hope you are well only not heard from you for ages.

[Ex Libris]

Daphne, nice to hear from you! I've e-mailed you off list. The Russian Reading Challenge is alive and well, not to worry! I think the Russian lit group will compliment it nicely.

[J. Kaye Oldner]

Welcome to the 100+ Challenge! It's gonna be fun, fun, fun! :)

[Ex Libris]

J. Kaye, thanks very much! I'm looking forward to it.

[Seachanges]

I shall think about this! there are just too many books to read, although I'm very tempted by a reading challenge of non-English speaking authors. How about all the Russians?

[Ex Libris]

There you go, Seachanges! Sounds like a good idea to me :)

[Alisia]

I like how you're taking this a step further, that's great!

[Ex Libris]

Thanks, Alisia, I hoped you wouldn't mind.

[Anthony]

This is new to me...but it sounds like a great idea. How do we "prove" we've read the books? (sorry for the newb question). Thanks!

[Ex Libris]

Anthony, you'll need to check with Alisia at Book Haven to be sure, as it is her challenge, but I would imagine that reviewing the book would be adequate proof. (That's how it works in most challenges and reading projects.) If you're interested in signing up for the challenge (which I hope you are), then just follow the links in the post which will take you to Alisia's blog and the challenge notification.

[Alisia]

Hey, if you want to be entered to win Love in the Time of Cholera as part of the Neustadt Challenge, come by and visit (especially this post: http://nyssaneala.blogspot.com/2008/04/neustadt-challenge-starting-soon.html) by May 1.