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Announcing the winners of our 2020 Poems in Translation Contest in partnership with the Academy of American Poets. Read more.
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Who Writes Peru: Asian Peruvian Writers

Image: Eduardo Tokeshi, Lost Objects (cropped), 32 X 60 in, 2000. By arrangement with the artist.

Nonfiction by Jennifer Shyue

A Slice of Writing by Nikkei and Tusán Peruvian Writers

Some of them have often called upon their Chinese or Japanese roots; others have alighted upon the topic only a few times, if at all.

Fiction by Augusto Higa Oshiro

Simple Heart

Nobody knows why he went to such great lengths.

Translated from Spanish by Jennifer Shyue

Poetry by Julia Wong Kcomt

The Red Rooster and Inevitable Saint

“She was hot, your aunt Carmen, / she didn’t look Chinese.”

Translated from Spanish by Jennifer Shyue

bilingual

Nonfiction by Julio Villanueva Chang

Life Is a Pose

In his spare time, he wears clothes.

Translated from Spanish by Nicolás Medina Mora

Poetry by Doris Moromisato

Here in Chorrillos

My eyes fill with rowboats

Translated from Spanish by Margaret Wright

bilingual

feature

Winning Selections from the Poems in Translation Contest

Nonfiction by The Editors of Words Without Borders

The Winners of the 2020 Words Without Borders—Academy of American Poets Poems in Translation Contest

A note on our September feature, which showcases four exciting poets and their translators as part of WWB and the AAP's "Poem-a-Day" collaboration.

Poetry by Nguyễn Hoàng Quyên

Learning Late Letters

The dead don't let us go, I say to my friend Sirius, putting my father's letters in a drawer.

Translated from Vietnamese by Nguyễn Hoàng Quyên

bilingual

Poetry by Julio Pazos Barrera

Pegasus Autopsy

Soon the volunteers will arrive

Translated from Spanish by Bryan Mendoza

bilingual

A Critic at Large: Maya Jaggi in Arequipa

Critic at Large by Maya Jaggi

White City Blues in Arequipa: Peru’s Writers Face the Legacies of Racism and Colonialism

Maya Jaggi

Silvana Paternostro in Tokyo

Nonfiction by Silvana Paternostro

A Japanese Lesson

Silvana Paternostro in Tokyo
When do the provocative girlie girls turn into discreet wives who put on conservative dresses?

WWB Daily

September 23rd, 2020

The Translator Relay: Don Mee Choi

by Words Without Borders 

WWB’s Translator Relay features an interview with a different translator every few months. The current month’s translator will choose the next interviewee, adding a…read more

September 22nd, 2020

An Interview with WWB Poetry Contest Winner Bryan Mendoza

by Words Without Borders 

Bryan Mendoza’s translation of Julio Pazos Barrera's "Pegasus Autopsy" was one of four winners of WWB’s 2020 Poems in Translation contest, presented in partnership with…read more

September 17th, 2020

The City and the Writer: In London with Jay Parini

by Nathalie Handal 

If each city is like a game of chess, the day when I have learned the rules, I shall finally possess my empire, even if I shall never succeed in knowing all the cities it contains. —Italo…read more

September 15th, 2020

An Interview with WWB Poetry Contest Winner Nguyễn-Hoàng Quyên

by Words Without Borders 

Nguyễn-Hoàng Quyên’s self-translation of “Learning Late Letters” was one of four winners of WWB’s 2020 Poems in Translation contest,…read more

September 14th, 2020

Hiding in Plain Sight: Carlos Fonseca and Megan McDowell on Translating “Natural History”

by Megan McDowell 

Carlos Fonseca's Natural History (Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2020) is a singularly difficult book to describe. It’s always hard to sum up an entire novel in a few words, but…read more

September 11th, 2020

Shining a Light on Children’s Books in Translation: Ruth Ahmedzai Kemp on World Kid Lit Month

by Words Without Borders 

September is World Kid Lit Month—a celebration of translated literature for young people. We invited World Kid Lit advocate and children’s book translator Ruth Ahmedzai Kemp to tell…read more


Book Reviews

Now Trending: How to Be a Fascist

Reviewed by Jamie Richards

In Murgia's book, fascism is presented as a form of semantic sleight of hand whereby anything goes under the right terminology.

Dan Beachy-Quick Casts an Elegiac Look at Ancient Greece in “Stone-Garland”

Reviewed by George Fragopoulos

How does one bring back to life the eroded fragments of authors we know next to nothing about? Gathering six lesser known figures of the Greek lyrical tradition, this anthology puts together translations in which a sense of loss goes hand in hand with the attempt to let these ancient poets sing again.

Fancy a Trip through (Other People’s) Misery? Yun Ko-Eun’s “The Disaster Tourist” Has You Covered

Reviewed by Lily Meyer

Tragedies become great business opportunities in this entertaining, if troubling, novel about a travel agency specializing in touristic excursions to disaster zones.

Humans Are the Ultimate Food Staple in Agustina Bazterrica’s Dystopian “Tender Is the Flesh”

Reviewed by Kevin Canfield

After a fatal virus infects its livestock, a panicked nation is herded by political demagogues toward human slaughter and cannibalism in this disturbing Argentinian novel.

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