It is no secret in the book world that far more books are translated into other languages than into English. Having lived in Japan (a nation that seems to devour far more literature than the U.S.) in my early 20s and then returning to the U.S., I’ve seen this firsthand — a marked provincialism of America as a symptom of the country’s complacency of empire.

The NEA seems to be trying to help to change this with the first grants for translation, which were recently announced. The news can be found here.

The National Endowment for the Arts offers the NEA International Literature Awards to provide American readers with greater access to quality foreign literary work in translation. The NEA conducts this initiative together with partner governments, with the first awards focusing on the literature of Greece and Spain. The NEA announces today that the 2007 award recipients are three nonprofit literary presses that will translate and publish a work from these countries and promote the book to American readers. The three American presses that each will receive a $10,000 NEA award are Archipelago Books of Brooklyn, NY; Dalkey Archive Press of Champaign, IL; and Etruscan Press of Wilkes-Barre, PA.

As you could probably guess, $10,000 is a drop in the bucket, but at least it’s a start.

… the Edgar Awards has a new Web site.

The Edgars are the top awards from the Mystery Writers of America:

Mystery Writers of America is the premier organization for mystery writers, professionals allied to the crime writing field, aspiring crime writers, and those who are devoted to the genre. MWA is dedicated to promoting higher regard for crime writing and recognition and respect for those who write within the genre.

Head-to-head action of big-titles in search of the best. Cast your votes today. Go here.

…and a nice headline from mediabistro, at this link.

Short story writers, you got until March 1 to submit your story or stories to this contest. (There’s a submission fee.) Details here.

The Adirondack Review is an independent on-line quarterly of literature and the arts published by Black Lawrence Press. It is dedicated to publishing quality poetry, fiction, artwork, and photography, as well as interviews, articles, book reviews, and film reviews. TAR was established in the spring of 2000, with its first issue appearing that summer.

An NBCC board member gives an inside look at what it means to be a judge. It involves a lot of reading of books, and then some more reading of books.

From the Book Standard:

The American Library Association today announced the winners of several major literary awards for children’s and young adult books, including the Caldecott and Newbery Medal, from its Midwinter Meeting in Seattle.

Susan Patron, author of The Higher Power of Lucky, won the 2007 John Newbery Medal, for the most outstanding contribution to children’s literature. The winner of the 2007 Michael L. Printz Award for excellence in young adult literature is the graphic novel American Born Chinese, by Gene Luen Yang.

The story is here.