Spotlight on Catalan Writing

Nonfiction by The Editors of Words Without Borders

Editorial Note: Change Is Coming

A note to readers

Fiction by Nathalie Handal

The City and the Writer: In Abu Dhabi with Deepak Unnikrishnan

Philip Cheung   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

Interviews by Samantha Schnee

Writing the Universal: A Conversation with Catalan Author Marta Orriols

"I think that people rediscovered reading in that period of calm when everything was standing still, and no one could go out or do anything."

Translated from Spanish by Samantha Schnee

Nonfiction by Jhumpa Lahiri

In Praise of Echo: Reflections on the Meaning of Translation

The myth of Echo and Narcissus is particularly resonant when considered from a translator's point of view.

Dispatch by The Editors of Words Without Borders

Voices from Ukraine: A Reading List

Seven works of poetry and prose from Ukraine to read now.

Fiction by Kseniya Fuchs

Conservation

I knew I was born here and I would die here.

Translated from Ukrainian by Ali Kinsella

Fiction by Maria Borio

Seventh Scene

In the third scene we talk / motionless across a screen in the ether

Translated from Italian by Danielle Pieratti

Poetry by Danyil Zadorozhnyi

The Lights of the Donbas

then there’s the war / that flabby, shriveled, animal word “war”

Translated from Russian by Yuliya Charnyshova and Isaac Stackhouse Wheeler

Nonfiction by Tobias Carroll

The Watchlist: April 2022

Tobias Carroll recommends noteworthy new books translated from Ukrainian, Indonesian, Persian, Japanese, and Spanish.

Poetry by Tuhin Das

Exile Poem

Afterwards, heads of hushed army snipers / pop up on every rooftop.

Translated from Bengali by Arunava Sinha

Dispatch by Nathalie Handal

The City and the Writer: In Manila with Miguel Syjuco

Architectural gems crumble on street corners, shrouded in grit till they’re decreed too ugly to save.

Fiction by Kyung-sook Shin

Something No One Else Has

San feels reassured that Namae’s body is as skinny and pathetic as her own.

Translated from Korean by Anton Hur

Nonfiction by Sergio Chejfec

The Story of a Notebook: Sergio Chejfec on Writing by Hand

One is drawn toward handwritten manuscripts because, unlike more mediated forms of writing (whether produced by typewriters, word processors, or automatic transcription tools), they alone retain the signs of hesitation.

Translated from Spanish by Jeffrey Lawrence

Interviews by M. Lynx Qualey

The Present and Future of Arabic Kid Lit: A Conversation

There are many great Arabic children’s books that haven’t reached their young readers yet.

Fiction by Gogu Shyamala

Ellamma Is Distressed

They may even throw us out of this village.

Translated from Telugu by P. Pavana

Poetry by Danyil Zadorozhnyi

February 23rd, 2022

“second time I’ve lost my home,” she utters with hatred / “officially, this time”

Translated from Ukrainian by Isaac Stackhouse Wheeler and Yuliya Charnyshova

Nonfiction by Tobias Carroll

The Watchlist: March 2022

Tobias Carroll recommends noteworthy new books translated from Arabic, Chinese, Danish, French, and Japanese.

Interviews by Suhasini Patni

“Women with Highly Irregular Minds”: Nisha Susan on Translating KR Meera from Malayalam into English

In all these years that I’ve spent writing in English, I’ve always felt that my leaning toward literariness was informed by Malayalam.

Poetry by Aleksey Porvin

Until the Threads Burn to Ash

Hold an assault rifle with my hand, use my mouth

Translated from Russian by Isaac Stackhouse Wheeler

Poetry by Olga Bragina

There’s No Getting Out

we won't recognize this city anymore

Translated from Russian by Elina Alter

Nonfiction by Peppe Fiore

Elena Rigby: Beatlemania, Neapolitan-style

The microphones of Radio Antenna Capri are rapt witnesses to a minor page of modern history—even if the chapter of history in question is the saga of the Neapolitan gasconade, not the annals of the pop beat.

Translated from Italian by Antony Shugaar

Poetry by Alla Gorbunova

The Water Freezes

Your cheeks are pinked with Parnassus rose.

Translated from Russian by Elina Alter

Nonfiction by Michael F. Moore

The Lost Translator

It is all the more disturbing, then, that neither Gyllenhaal in her interviews nor the film’s end credits or press kit makes any mention of the translator whose work was the basis for the script: Ann Goldstein.