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Global Warnings: Writing on Climate and the Environment, I

Image: Francisco de la Mora, from "Liberty and Hope"

Nonfiction by Susan Harris

Climates: On Environment

Global warming manifests in obvious ways.

Fiction by Ariadna Castellarnau

The Water Man

“Get it through your head: God and me, we’re the same person.”

Translated from Spanish by Adrian Nathan West

Nonfiction by Andri Snær Magnason

Farewell to the White Giants

Chaos is not confined to the glacier’s edge.

Translated from Icelandic by Lytton Smith

Fiction by Duanwad Pimwana

All Trash on the Eastern Side

What use is it for us humans to cling to our freedom in the midst of all this trash?

Translated from Thai by Mui Poopoksakul

Nonfiction by Amy Brady

Climate Fiction for Climate Action

No single means of communication can be solely effective, because climate change is such a “wicked” problem—it is truly planetary in scale.

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

Poetry by Yau Ching

Trial Run

nothing is certain but and taxes

Translated from Chinese by Chenxin Jiang

bilingual

Poetry by Enrique Villasis

Birds in Flight, 1965

Not as a multitude, but as one.

Translated from Filipino by Bernard Capinpin

bilingual

WWB Daily

October 29th, 2020

The Watchlist: October 2020

by Tobias Carroll 

Each month, Tobias Carroll shares a handful of recently released or forthcoming titles in translation that he’s especially excited about.  From Valancourt Books | The Valancourt…read more

October 28th, 2020

A Pre-Columbian Bestiary: Tepeyólotl

by Ilan Stavans 

In A Pre-Columbian Bestiary: Fantastic Creatures of Indigenous Latin America, Ilan Stavans collaborates with illustrator Eko to tell the stories of religious and mythical…read more

October 20th, 2020

Conjuring Up a Nocturnal Montreal: Stéphane Larue and Pablo Strauss on Translating “The Dishwasher”

by Pablo Strauss and Stéphane Larue 

When Stéphane Larue’s The Dishwasher won the 2020 Amazon.ca First Novel Award (formerly the Books in Canada First Novel Award), it was the first translated novel selected in the…read more

October 19th, 2020

New Ways of Saying “We”

by Jenny Hval 

Girls Against God, the latest novel from Norwegian writer and musician Jenny Hval, came out earlier this month with Verso Books. Translated by Marjam Idriss, the novel blends experimental…read more

October 16th, 2020

Sexism and Science Fiction: An Interview with Tang Fei

by Natascha Bruce and Nicky Harman 

Tang Fei (the pen name of Wang Jing) was born in 1983 in Shanghai. She is well known as a writer of science fiction and fantasy and is also a literary critic and essayist. Tang Fei was one of…read more

October 15th, 2020

What Happens When We Sleep?

by Haytham El Wardany 

Egyptian writer Haytham El Wardany's The Book of Sleep, translated from Arabic by Robin Moger, is out today with Seagull Books. Throughout the book, and in the four fragments below, El…read more


Book Reviews

What Turned Mexico Into a ‘Visceraless’ State? Cristina Rivera Garza Has a Few Ideas

Reviewed by Jeremy Klemin

In "Grieving," a collection of essays spanning over a decade, the talented author attempts to explain how her nation succumbed to a project that uses its citizens as "cannon fodder in exchange for maximum profit."

In ‘The Death of Comrade President,’ A Sophisticated Portrait of a Country in Crisis

Reviewed by Kevin Canfield

Mabanckou imbues his narrative with the qualities of a minor epic, placing his young protagonist at the heart of a frightening yet wry tale about politics and murder, family and loyalty, necessary lies and storytelling itself.

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.

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