Ouch

"The U.S. is too isolated, too insular. They don't translate enough and don't really participate in the big dialogue of literature," Engdahl said. "That ignorance is restraining."

Endahl=permanent secretary, voting member, spokesman for the secretive panel that selects the winners of the nobel prize in literature.

This article was, I think, originally posted in the nytimes. It is kind of fun to read the comments pile up on the nytimes book blog, papercuts.

Also, guess who's birthday it is, today?