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Contributor

Daniel Hahn

Words Without Borders Gala

Photo credit: Beowulf Sheehan

Contributor

Daniel Hahn

United Kingdom

Daniel Hahn is a writer, editor, and translator with around a hundred books to his name. His work includes translations from Europe, Africa, and the Americas (encompassing fiction, nonfiction, children’s books, and plays), and a number of nonfiction books, including The Oxford Companion to Children’s Literature.

Articles by Daniel Hahn

Daniel Hahn stands at a podium reading his Ottaway Award acceptance speech

Daniel Hahn accepts the 2023 Ottaway Award for the Promotion of International Literature at an in-person ceremony in New York

“A Citizen in This Community”: Daniel Hahn’s Ottaway Award Acceptance Speech

We all know that translation is inevitably a collaborative practice: it’s writing, but it's writing in company.

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A Seriously Shitty Quirk of Fate

I felt uncomfortable being who I was, raised on the idea of being from a Black family.

Translated from Portuguese by Daniel Hahn

Plague Diary, March 23, 2020

By Gonçalo M. Tavares

“They say that even the smallest particles, like the virus, atoms, etc., make a sound . . .

Translated from Portuguese by Daniel Hahn

Deceptive Simplicity: International Children’s Literature

I often feel that adults forget what children’s stories are capable of.

Panic: An International Exquisite Corpse

By José Eduardo Agualusa, Theodora Dimova, Naz Tansel & Prabda Yoon

Words Without Borders partnered with SLICE to produce an International Exquisite Corpse story, written by four writer/translator teams from around the world. Below is the resulting story (in both the…

Translated by Daniel Hahn, Canan Marasligil, Mui Poopoksakul & Angela Rodel

Lua

By Ronaldo Correia de Brito

“It’s impossible for a sister recluse to sing like that. We no longer feel those emotions.”

Translated from Portuguese by Daniel Hahn

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The Ritual

By Fernando Iwasaki

“Every time someone goes to the USA, they die.

Translated from Spanish by Daniel Hahn

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Around the Globe: An Introduction to International YA Writing

By Briony Everroad & Daniel Hahn

While writing for teenagers wasn’t invented in the last decade or two, it has certainly, in that time, gained a visibility, a range, a thoughtfulness, even a sort of urgency. . .

Photo by Rosalind Chang on Unsplash

Some Other Zoo

By Rodrigo Rey Rosa

I explained at the top of my voice that my daughter had disappeared.

Translated from Spanish by Daniel Hahn

White Sand, Black Stone

By Eduardo Halfon

Your passport, señor, expired last month.

Translated from Spanish by Daniel Hahn

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Four Short Tales

By Antônio Prata

Employ hackers to adulterate the online versions of Hamlet.

Translated from Portuguese by Daniel Hahn

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Natanael

By Cristhiano Aguiar

For a diver, fear brings trouble.

Translated from Portuguese by Daniel Hahn

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The Devil Lives in Lisbon

By Berta Vias Mahou

I don’t know where Mother would go off to. I’m not sure.

Translated from Spanish by Daniel Hahn

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Good Women and Bad Women

By Eduardo Halfon

I want to know where you got this filth.

Translated from Spanish by Daniel Hahn

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Death Count

This is the shield we use to protect ourselves: with so many people involved, I’m not going to be the first to act.

Translated from Spanish by Daniel Hahn

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The Politics of Mourning

By Rafael Lemus

This is the image that for some time has been occupying and saturating public debate in Mexico: an undefined, unspeakable heap of corpses.

Translated from Spanish by Daniel Hahn

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Never Any End to Hemingway

By Eduardo Halfon

“Come now, Hemingway,” she teased, “you really don’t know this gentleman’s stories?”

Translated from Spanish by Daniel Hahn

On Reviewing Translations: Daniel Hahn

I’m a translator, whose translations get reviewed regularly in the mainstream press; I’m also a reviewer who reviews translations regularly in the mainstream press. In probably more or less…

A Practical Guide to Levitation

By José Eduardo Agualusa

I do not like parties. The idle chat, the smoke, the fatuous talk of drunks, I find them all tiresome.

Translated from Portuguese by Daniel Hahn

The Best Seller

By Germano Almeida

Rather formal, modest, weighing every word, almost fearful, he held his hand out to me hesitantly.

Translated from Portuguese by Daniel Hahn

A Dialogue on Translating Germano Almeida

By Daniel Hahn & Clifford E. Landers

Editors’ Note: This month we present the first in a series of dialogues: two translators produce versions of the same text, then discuss their choices and approaches. Here Daniel Hahn and Clifford…