Each year, WWB is proud to publish over a dozen writers whose work has never before appeared in English. This IWD, meet eight women writers who we introduced to anglophone readers this past year.

1. Emma Braslavsky

Emma Braslavsky writes, moderates, curates, and directs. In her short story “The VANISHÄVEN Furniture System: A Demonstration,” Braslavsky introduces a furniture system that aims to solve one of the world’s crises—but creates a few problems of its own. This short story marks the English-language debut of not only Braslavsky but also translator Holly Yanacek.

2. Olivia Duchesne

Olivia Duchesne is a theater maker and teacher from New Caledonia. Multidisciplinary in her practice, Duchesne often acts in the plays she directs, and has written a short story, “Éden,” as well as four plays. Published as part of WWB’s June 2024 issue, “Francophone Writing from the South Pacific,” Duchesne’s English-language debut is excerpted from her play I Shall Live in the Night and was translated by Siân Robyns. In a stream-of-consciousness monologue, a man ruminates on the discord in his family and his path to where he is now: two days out of prison.

3. Fadma Farras

Fadma Farras is an award-winning author born in Agadir, Morocco. Farras is an advocate for the literary output of her homeland, Tamazgha—which encompasses the Maghreb and its present-day states—and its language, Tamazight. “Tomorrow I Will Celebrate Myself,” translated by Ezzahra Benlahoussine, is a liberatory poem that asserts the narrator’s newfound independence.

4. Małgorzata Gorczyńska

Scholar and essayist Małgorzata Gorczyńska holds a PhD in literary theory and teaches literature and creative writing at University of Wrocław, Poland. In her essay “A Rolled-up Paper Gun,” translated by Mira Rosenthal, Gorczyńska contemplates connections and asymmetries between Eastern European and Western perspectives and approaches to literature.

5. Lira Konys

Lira Konys is a writer and linguistics researcher whose short stories and novellas are staples for other Kazakh women’s coming-of-age reading. In “Shakharbanu’s Curse,” translated by Mirgul Kali, a relative’s hostile energy lives on through a necklace that is passed down from generation to generation. 

6. Lana al-Majali

Lana al-Majali is a Jordanian writer, poet, and cultural journalist who is currently working on her first children’s novel. In her wide-ranging essay “On the Outskirts of Utopia,” translated by Addie Leak in WWB’s collection of Jordanian writing, al-Majali writes about the vitality of poetry and cites its place in the world’s thought and daily life.

7. Soňa Uriková

Soňa Uriková is the writer of award-winning short story collections, and a children’s book, in Slovak. Her short story “Snail Diaries,” published by WWB in Magdalena Mullek’s translation, tells of a homework assignment met with excitement by two siblings and disgruntlement by their mother.

8. Fatema Haidari

Fatema Haidari is a writer and schoolteacher from Herat, Afghanistan, now living in Iran. Haidari’s short story “The Greenhouse” was developed through Untold Narratives, a development program for writers marginalized by community or conflict, and the Paranda Network, which aims to create a community of Afghan women writers living in Afghanistan and the diaspora. Published in Shekiba Habib’s translation, “The Greenhouse” exemplifies the tenderness with which women working under the glaring sun welcome each other as they try to get through a day—or life—of manual labor.