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A river winds through the hilly green countryside in northern Sweden
Photo by Fredrik Posse on Unsplash
The Same River Twice: Notes on Reading, Time, and Translation
By Saskia Vogel
I have been opening this book since 2018 and over the years, I have become many different readers.
January-2023-WomanLifeFreedom-Roya-Amigh-artwork-feature
Close-up of "#WomanLifeFreedom," Roya Amigh. Thread on paper, 2022. By arrangement with the artist.
WomanLifeFreedom
By Roya Amigh
I aim to commemorate the many beloved lives taken from us during the Woman, Life, Freedom uprising in Iran. 
Portrait of author Claudia Durastanti
Photo: Civitella Ranieri Foundation
The City and the Writer: In Rome with Claudia Durastanti
By Nathalie Handal
It must be an effect of the light, but Rome can be a maze . . .
Two snowy mountain peaks
Mt. Huandoy, Ancash, Peru. Inti Runa Viajero, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons
Another Man’s Name
By Renato Cisneros
“You don't want to appear as the father, do you?”
Translated from Spanish by Fionn Petch
The covers of the books featured in the Watchlist
The Watchlist: January 2023
By Tobias Carroll
Tobias Carroll recommends exciting new books translated from Arabic, Kalmyk, Spanish, and Italian.
WWB announces the first annual Momentum Grant for Early-Career Translators. Apply by February 15,...
Words Without Borders Announces First Annual Momentum Grant for Early-Career Translators
This grant aims to support early-career translators seeking to bring international work into the English-language marketplace.
Words Without Borders Receives 2023 National Endowment for the Arts Grant
The award will support WWB’s digital magazine of international literature, education programs, and events.
A man paddles a canoe in a river at sunset
Photo by Inu Etc on Unsplash
Roots
By Madhurima Barua
The stench of country liquor assaults her. Her husband is tottering.
Translated from Assamese by Syeda Shaheen Jeenat Suhailey
MultimediaMultilingual
Portrait of writer Paul Hetherington reading from a book in front of a microphone
Photo: FUKAHORI Mizuho
The City and the Writer: In Canberra with Paul Hetherington
By Nathalie Handal
The city is ghosted by otherness, living in the shadow of the many world cities that preceded its planning and influenced its conception and development.
Portrait of Lídia Jorge next to the cover of O Vento Assobiando nas Gruas
Literature, a Triumphant Art: A Conversation with Lídia Jorge
By Margara Russotto & Patrícia Martinho Ferreira
As a writer I feel like I am a creator of marginal lives, or, more appropriately, a kind of witness of time passing.
Translated from Portuguese by Tanya Pérez-Brennan
Ernst Blofeld crying and holding a cat, an image from Matti Hagelberg's graphic work How Ernst...
Image copyright © Matti Hagelberg
How Ernst Stavro Blofeld Saved Christmas
By Matti Hagelberg
Just as Hansel and Gretel are destroying the evidence, down through the chimney plops Ernst Stavro Blofeld . . .
Translated from Finnish by Lola Rogers
A bookshelf filled with old books
Photo by Iñaki del Olmo on Unsplash
My Saint’s Day
By Luis García Montero
I guess that’s one approach to pitching an encyclopedia sale.
Translated from Spanish by Katie King
A wagtail perching on a stick by a body of water
Photo by Nikita Nikitenko on Unsplash
A Wagtail’s Song
By Bikash Dihingia
How was it possible that there was another me buried within? And how could someone else feel his presence even before I could?
Translated from Assamese by Harsita Hiya
Multilingual
The covers of the books featured in the list
The Best Books of 2022—And What We’re Looking Forward to in 2023
By Words Without Borders
Our staff, contributors, and board members share their favorite translated books of the year and the titles they're looking forward to in 2023.
Woman Life Freedom, #mashaamini, and #iranrevolution written in chalk on pavement
Farshid
By Somayeh Noroozi
You might not believe this, but in that little autumn prison courtyard, the dogs and humans are grieving together, wishing for freedom together.
Translated from Persian by Poupeh Missaghi
An old, sepia toned photograph of a young girl
Photo by Robin Myers
Hosts and Guests
By Robin Myers
Translation, an obsessive interpretive art in which the boundaries between guest and host are tenderly and strenuously unstable, is my constant companion while I learn what it means to build a life in a country and culture different from the one I was…
Multimedia
The covers of the books featured in the list
World Kid Lit: The Best of 2022
By Jackie Friedman Mighdoll, Johanna McCalmont & Claire Storey
Join the editors of the World Kid Lit blog on a tour of their favorite international children's books of 2022, from picture books to YA fiction and graphic novels.
Jenny Bhatt (left) and Rita Kothari (right)
On the Evolution and Craft of Gujarati Literature in Translation
By Jenny Bhatt
We do not see translations of books that will unsettle the reading community, and provoke them to be different than who they want to be.
WWB Receives Major Grant from the Whiting Foundation
The $75,000 grant will support the expansion of WWB Campus, WWB's education program.
A hospital waiting room with green seats next to bright windows
Photo by Greg Rosenke on Unsplash
Ito Returns to Japan and Finds Herself in a Real Pinch
By Hiromi Itō
Early the next morning, I got a call from Mom. The first words out of her mouth: Will you take me to the hospital today?
Translated from Japanese by Jeffrey Angles
The covers of the books featured in the Watchlist
The Watchlist: December 2022
By Tobias Carroll
Tobias Carroll recommends exciting new books in translation from Mauritius, Romania, Japan, Spain, Germany, and Puerto Rico.
A game of hopscotch on asphalt
FranHogan, CC BY-SA 4.0, via WikiMedia Commons
Writing in Mother Tongue and an Other Tongue
By Pratishtha Pandya
Every time I write something in English, I’ve been left feeling guilty, as if I had betrayed someone.
We’re Hiring: Full Stack Web Developer (Contract)
By Words Without Borders
Words Without Borders (WWB) seeks an individual or agency to manage technology needs for its website, wordswithoutborders.org.
The covers of the ten books featured in the gift guide
Your 2022 Holiday Gift Guide to Reading in Translation
By Isabella Corletto
Ten recent books in translation that the readers in your life are sure to enjoy this holiday season.
Left, the Romanian cover of Mircea Cartarescu's Solenoid; center, translator Sean Cotter; right,...
Romanian Translation’s Johnny Appleseed: An Interview with Sean Cotter
By Clara Burghelea
We shall see if the hype in the United States reaches the levels Cărtărescu garners in Colombia, where he needed a police cordon to get through his crowd of fans.
Portrait of writer Deniz Dağdelen Düzgün
The City and the Writer: In Izmir with Deniz Dağdelen Düzgün
By Nathalie Handal
The thing that surprises me the most is that parchment paper was invented in Izmir.
Tree of life carving at the Sidi Saiyyed Mosque
Bernard Gagnon, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons
Ahmedabad
By Bharat Trivedi
Those days of leaping carefree into the Sabarmati / Are long gone
Translated from Gujarati by Mira Desai
A large wave crashes in a stormy ocean
Photo by Todd Turner on Unsplash
The Strength of Water
By Gawani Gaongen
“Do not make the water angry,” they say.
Translated from Kankanaey by the author
Multilingual
A rusty lighter sitting in the dirt
Photo by Patrick Hendry on Unsplash
After Time
By Fahd Razy
Today, you finally saw the earth after its rebirth.
Translated from Malay by Adibah Abdullah
Sunset over a field with melting snow
Photo by Vitali Adutskevich on Unsplash
Umbilical
By Julia Cimafiejeva
I thought I unburdened / myself / but even invisible / the braid grows / with memory
Translated from Belarusian by Valzhyna Mort & Hanif Abdurraqib
Multilingual
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