Louise Glück Asked to Help Small Spanish-Language Press in Dispute With Wylie Agency

The Swedish Academy published Louise Glück's Nobel Prize acceptance speech this week. Now, the New York Times's Raphael Minder reports that "Glück has found herself at the heart of less-welcome publicity, because of a dispute over who should hold the Spanish-language rights to her work." More from this story:

Pre-Textos, a publisher based in Valencia, Spain, which has translated and released seven of her books, has called on the American poet to intervene in its favor after her literary agent selected another Spanish-language publisher a month after her award. Pre-Textos had let the Spanish rights to Glück’s work expire, but it maintains that it should be rewarded for broadening her readership and publishing, at a loss, her work.

“We want some kind of justice for 14 years of loyalty to an author who was almost completely unknown” to Spanish-language readers until the Nobel, Manuel Borrás, the literary director of Pre-Textos, said in a phone interview. “For years, we have lost money with pleasure, in the name of promoting great poetry and a wonderful author.”

Borrás acknowledged that he had little ground for a lawsuit against the agent, Andrew Wylie, but he said that “there is also something called ethics.…”

Read more about the dispute at the NYT.