Hopefully complementary to Jeff VanderMeer’s An Overview of International Science Fiction and Fantasy, 2010, here’s a round-up of books (in English) that were published last year that you might want to check out. And since we’re not omniscient (well, I’m not, I don’t know about Lavie…), feel free to include your recommendations in the comments. I also like to add that on a certain level, I find “categorizing” the books and authors by country (or a continent in Okorafor’s case) problematic (and some identify with more than one culture), but hopefully it’s a start.
Africa
Who Fears Death by Nnedi Okorafor (DAW)
Australia
see 2011 Ditmar eligibility list.
Czech
Golden Age by Michal Ajvaz (Dalkey Archive Press)
India
Tamil Pulp Fiction Vol. II selected and translated by Pritham Chakravarthy (Blaft Publications)
Distances by Vandana Singh (Aqueduct Press)
Of Love and Other Monsters by Vandana Singh (Aqueduct Press)
Finland
The Quantum Thief by Hannu Rajaniemi (Gollancz)
France
A Life on Paper: Stories A Life on Paper: Stories by Georges-Olivier Châteaureynaud (Small Beer Press)
Servant of the Underworld by Aliette de Bodard (Angry Robot Books)
Japan
The Ouroboros Wave by Jyouji Hayashi (Haikasoru)
Harmony by Project Itoh (Haikasoru)
Yukikaze by Chohei Kambayashi (Haikasoru)
Loups-Garous by Natsuhiko Kyogoku (Haikasoru)
Rocket Girls by Housuke Nojiri (Haikasoru)
The Next Continent by Issui Ogawa (Haikasoru)
Dragon Sword and Wind Child by Noriko Ogiwara (Haikasoru)
Summer, Fireworks, and My Corpse by Otsuichi (Haikasoru)
Slum Online by Hiroshi Sakurazaka (Haikasoru)
The Stories of Ibis by Hiroshi Yamamoto (Haikasoru)
Philippines
The Philippine Graphic/Fiction Awards Awards: Prose Anthology (Fully Booked)
Philippine Speculative Fiction V edited by Nikki Alfar & Vincent Michael Simbulan (Kestrel IMC)
News of the Shaman by Karl R. De Mesa (Visprint)
Russia
Twilight Forever Rising by Lena Meydan (Tor)
Shadow Prowler by Alexey Pehov (Tor)
Serbia
Escher’s Loops by Zoran Živković (PS Publishing)
South Africa
Zoo City by Lauren Beukes (Angry Robot Books)
Magazines
On the magazine front, Expanded Horizons and InterNova must be given credit for regularly featuring diverse, international authors. I cannot stress the importance of that.
Having said that, here are some “special” issues which feature international writers:
World Literature Today: International Science Fiction guest edited by Christopher McKitterick
Innsmouth Free Press: Multiethnic Issue edited by Paula R. Stiles
Apex Magazine Special Arab/Muslim Issue edited by Catherynne M. Valente
Words Without Borders: Horror
Anthologies
There are also a few anthologies which featured various international writers to a certain degree:
Shine: An Anthology of Optimistic SF edited by Jetse de Vries (Solaris Books)
The Dragon and the Stars edited by Derwin Mak and Eric Choi (DAW)
The Beastly Bride: Tales of the Animal People edited by Ellen Datlow and Terri Windling (Viking)
People of the Book: A Decade of Jewish Science Fiction and Fantasy edited by Rachel Swirsky and Sean Wallace (Prime Books)
Oh! Thanks for the list. I’m planning to eventually teach a World Lit course (and maybe a World SF course), so these will definitely help.
You’ve only listed books from Viz Media for Japan. You might want to add books by Vertical in New York, and books by us here in Japan.
Edward: “And since we’re not omniscient, feel free to include your recommendations in the comments.”
I saw and noted that, but thought it a little strange for a publisher to recommend its own books.
Now that our name(s) are here, though, perhaps other people will be kind enough to recommend some of the books we publish, or that have been published by Vertical.
There are also companies like TokyoPop, for example, which has released a number of quite good books that never quite made it to the Big Time; mostly books with anime tie-ins.
Thanks for the list! I will definitely be checking some of these out.
Edward: What are some of the titles published by Vertical?