Aliide Truu, the warped murderess and tragic victim at the center of Sofi Oksansen’s astoundingly ambitious novel Purge, is an elderly woman when we meet her in the opening chapter. Living alone…

A number of books have been bought for English-language publication as a result of extracts we've published, and we've just learned of another. We're delighted to report that English-language…

African authors are few and far between at this year's PEN World Voices Festival — but the festival does offer a rare opportunity to hear Ben Okri, the Nigerian-born author of The Famished…

The Paris Book Fair (March 26-31, 2010) celebrates its thirtieth anniversary this year. The organizers invited 90 writers for the occasion, (60 of them from France and 30 from all over the world) to discuss…

She was just going to make a tour of a country that she’d never seen before

July hung over the village like a sheet of blue metal.

I climbed aboard the Little No. 5 as I did every morning on my way to work.

I hate men. Anna says good men do exist. Nice, friendly men who cook and help clean up and who earn money.

Let’s not talk about Prague.

at night maria da graça dreamed that souvenirs of life on earth were on sale outside the gates of heaven.

It was night. The ninth night. The most silent, the most oppressive.

Mr. Beneset’s son arrives at the geriatric home and greets the girl at reception

And so our company’s gigantic neon sign escapes your sight, perched atop an eighteen-story condominium.

Aren’t we simply the humble, anonymous handmaids-and-men of literature, the grateful, ever-obsequious servants of the publishing industry?

The nurse walks into Room 93 pushing a cart carrying a tray with a glass of water, a jar of capsules, a thermometer, and a file folder rest.

Better known as the author of novels such as The Sand Child and Leaving Tangier, and of nonfiction such as Islam Explained, the Moroccan-born author Tahar Ben Jelloun is also a poet. The Rising of the…

Many thanks to all the wonderful people who stopped to talk with us in Washington Square Park, to Caputo's Deli, and especially to Garth Paul Cox and Robin Randisi for filming and editing.

Alta Ifland’s writing raises important questions about the legitimacy and practice of autobiography that are too often taken for granted by American writers.

São Tomé and Príncipe is the smallest country in Africa. It consists of two islands off the coast of Gabon, with an area of 371 square miles and a total population of about 150,000.…

The Ecco Anthology of International Poetry has been out for a couple of weeks now, and as we await the critical response, I think of the most satisfying poetry review I read last year: Jon Stallworthy,…

We are as always excited about the upcoming PEN World Voices Festival, to be held this year from Monday, April 26th, to Sunday May 2nd. Notably this year the festival will travel to six other cities around…

Just prior to attending Alison Anderson’s talk through the Center for the Art of Translation, my friend and I were discussing the complexities of translation and the difficulties that translators…

Our March 2010 issue, Correspondences in the Air: International Poetry, features a diverse selection of poets, and contains work that complement the recent Ecco Anthology of International Poetry, edited…

This interview with Laura Healy, translator of Roberto Bolaño's poetry, is part of our month long look at international poetry and celebration of the release of The Ecco Anthology of International…

The March issue of Poetry includes Adam Kirsch's thrilling interview with Ilya Kaminsky about our Ecco Anthology of International Poetry.  With the erudite brilliance that characterizes his introduction,…

This article originally ran on January 7th, 2008 as part of a forum on Herbert's work. We republish it here as part of our month long look at International poetry and to celebrate the release of The…

Fiona Sampson (1968 – ) has published five collections of poetry, including, most recently, Common Prayer (2007), short-listed for the T.S. Eliot Prize. Editor of Poetry Reviews…

I first read Mohamed Choukri’s memoir For Bread Alone when I was working on A Basket of Leaves. I considered using it as one of the books I discussed for Morocco, but before I had read very far…

Then with her hands / she’d crown her son’s head,

First, we will bury you in the sand,