Guilty Pleasures
By Associated Press
Posthumous memoir by Russian opposition leader Navalny to be published Oct. 22
NEW YORK | A memoir Alexei Navalny began working on in 2020 will be published this fall. “Patriot,” which publisher Alfred A. Knopf is calling the late Russian opposition leader’s “final letter to the world,” will come out Oct. 22.
Navalny’s widow, Yulia Navalnaya, said in a statement released Thursday by the publisher, “This book is a testament not only to Alexei’s life, but to his unwavering commitment to the fight against dictatorship—a fight he gave everything for, including his life. Through its pages, readers will come to know the man I loved deeply—a man of profound integrity and unyielding courage. Sharing his story will not only honor his memory but also inspire others to stand up for what is right and to never lose sight of the values that truly matter.”
Navalny, 47, died in February while serving a 19-year prison sentence on extremism charges that he condemned as politically motivated. He was jailed after returning from Germany in January 2021, where he was recuperating from the 2020 nerve agent poisoning he blamed on the Kremlin, and was given three prison terms since.
He died in a remote penal colony above the Arctic Circle. Russian officials have vehemently denied involvement both in the poisoning and in his death.
According to Knopf, Navalny began working on the book in Germany, and continued writing it in Russia, both in and out of prison.
“In vivid, page-turning detail, including never-before-seen correspondence from prison, Navalny recounts, among other things, his political career, the many attempts on his life, and the lives of the people closest to him, and the relentless campaign he and his team waged against an increasingly dictatorial regime,” Knopf’s announcement reads in part.
“Written with the passion, wit, candor, and bravery for which he was justly acclaimed, ‘Patriot’ is Navalny’s final letter to the world: a moving account of his last years spent in the most brutal prison on earth; a reminder of why the principles of individual freedom matter so deeply; and a rousing call to continue the work for which he sacrificed his life.”
In a thread on X, formerly Twitter, Navalnaya said Thursday that she had envisioned her husband writing a memoir much later in his life, when they’re both “around 80” and have grandchildren.
Many prompted Navalny to start writing after the poisoning, she said, but he initially brushed off these suggestions: “What kind of memoir is it when you’re 44? It’s only been a little more than half (his) life. He wasn’t in a rush — so much was yet to come. But it turned out the way it turned out. Horrible and very, very unfair. It turned out there was no other half ahead.”
She said the memoir has already been translated into 11 languages and will “definitely” be published in Russian, as well. It wasn’t clear from her remarks if the book will come out in Russia, however, where Navalny was convicted as a leader of an extremist group, and his foundation and offices were outlawed.
Mister Cee, a famed hip-hop DJ, dies at 57
LOS ANGELES | Mister Cee, one of hip-hop’s pioneering DJs and a New York City radio personality who played an instrumental role in the Notorious B.I.G.’s debut album, has died. He was 57.
The famed disk jockey’s death was confirmed Wednesday by Skip Dillard, the brand manager at 94.7 The Block NYC, where Cee had a show. The cause of death has not been announced.
“We’ve lost one of the most important figures in the industry,” 94.7 The Block said in a social media post.
Mister Cee was a key player in the rap community. He was formerly Big Daddy Kane’s DJ and an executive producer on The Notorious B.I.G.’s groundbreaking 1994 debut, “Ready to Die.”
The New York native was also a radio personality on his hometown’s Hot 97. But he briefly quit his gig in 2013 after arrests in connection with soliciting prostitutes. Audio of one encounter surfaced online.
After that last incident, Mister Cee denied trying to solicit sex from a male, and said an undercover female police officer approached him. He also denied being homosexual.
But Mister Cee soon went back on air for an interview on Hot 97 with Ebro Darden and confessed in a tearful interview to having same-sex encounters with prostitutes. However, he also said he didn’t consider himself gay or bisexual.
During the interview, Mister Cee worried if his admission might hurt him: “Am I still going to be looked at the same way?”
But Mister Cee gained support from some within hip-hop — which was surprising at the time, given that the community had often been branded homophobic due to anti-gay lyrics by some of its biggest stars.
“Whatever Mister Cee does with his personal life, more power to him,” said Ahmir “Questlove” Thompson, leader of The Roots in a 2013 interview. “He shouldn’t be ashamed of that. We got to grow up eventually.”
Mister Cee ultimately decided not to quit his job at Hot 97 and go to therapy after Darden persuaded him to stay put. At the time, he teamed up with the AIDS Health Foundation for a “new sexual revolution” campaign where he encouraged others to open up about their sexuality and use protection.
But Mister Cee’s return to the station was short lived. He left in 2014.
Throughout the years, Mister Cee maintained his respect within the rap industry and kept working on other radio programs, spinning throwback tracks on his show on 94.7 The Block before his death.
“I’m so blessed to have known him,” Dillard said on social media.
Ten emerging writers each receive $50,000 Whiting Awards
NEW YORK | Fiction writer Aaliyah Bilal, a National Book Award finalist last fall for her story collection “Temple Folk,” is among 10 winners of the Whiting Award for emerging authors. Bilal and the other recipients, who include fellow fiction writers Yoon Choi, Gothataone Moeng and Ada Zhang, will each be given $50,000.
On Wednesday, the Whiting Foundation announced that Whiting prizes also were awarded to dramatists Shayok Misha Chowdhury and Frances Ya-Chu Cowhig; as well as poets Taylor Johnson, Charif Shanahan and Elisa Gonzalez; and to poet and nonfiction writer Javier Zamora.
“The rigor and fluid beauty of their writing makes us excited for the work to come,” Courtney Hodell, Whiting’s director of Literary Programs, said in a statement about this year’s honorees.
The awards were established in 1985, with previous winners including Tony Kushner, Mary Karr and Jeffrey Eugenides. The Whitings are designed to “identify exceptional new writers who have yet to make their mark in the literary culture.”
Jailed Vietnamese dissident Pham Doan Trang to
be honored by PEN America
NEW YORK | Imprisoned Vietnamese author-blogger-journalist Pham Doan Trang will be this year’s recipient of PEN America’s Barbey Freedom to Write Award, given by the literary and free expression organization to a “jailed writer of conscience.”
Trang, 45, has written several books, among them “Politics of a Police State” and “Politics for the Common People.” She has been a prominent critic of the Vietnamese government and a leading advocate for democratic reform who was beaten by police in 2015 and now walks with a limp. In 2020, she was arrested on charges of “propaganda against the state” and sentenced to nine years in prison.
PEN, Amnesty International and Reporters Without Borders are among those who have condemned her treatment.
“Pham Doan Trang has galvanized the Vietnamese people through her writings on democracy, human rights, environmental degradation, and women’s empowerment,” PEN CEO Suzanne Nossel said in a statement Thursday. “The Vietnamese government has persecuted and jailed Trang in an effort to still her voice. She has sacrificed her health and freedom in the pursuit of justice. Despite the government’s crackdown on dissent and activism, her powerful words continue to inspire people across Vietnam and throughout the world.”
Previous Freedom to Write winners include Iranian activist Narges Mohammadi and Ukrainian freelance journalist Vladyslav Yesypenko.
Trang’s lawyer, Dang Dinh Manh, and friend Quynh-Vi Tran, co-founder and executive director of Legal Initiatives for Vietnam, will accept the award on her behalf during PEN’s annual gala on May 16. Other honorees will include musician Paul Simon and Dow Jones CEO Almar Latour.
—From AP reports
