They'd take the girls to the hills for three or five days.

I was bound. I was a registered piece of inventory. I was a liability. I wasn’t going anywhere.

Words Without Borders is pleased to announce the election of Kalpana Raina to its board of directors.“Kalpana brings a deep connection to international literature, expertise in global…

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 it contains.—Italo Calvino,…

WWB’s Translator Relay features an interview with a different translator each month. This month’s translator will choose the next interviewee, adding a different, sixth question. For…

On World Refugee Day, and as we honor the courage and the strength of the millions of people fleeing or forcibly displaced by war, violence, and famine, we at WWB are revisiting stories in our archives that…

Igiaba Scego’s Adua, translated by Jamie Richards, is out now from New Vessel Press. Adua emigrates from Somalia to Italy to escape an oppressive regime, and dreams of becoming a film star. After…

Independent publishers Peter Owen and Istros Books have launched an intriguing new series in their bid to bring contemporary literature from around the world to English readers. Sam Oates, assistant…

Congratulations to longtime Words Without Borders contributor Jessica Cohen, who has been awarded the 2017 Man Booker International Prize, along with David Grossman, for the translation of A…

The people are the best part of the city.

Eric M. B. Becker speaks with Paul Binding about his translation of Hans Christian Andersen’s The Ice Virgin (Angel Classics, 2016; The Overlook Press, 2017). Binding’s is the…

Every month, Words Without Borders reviews editor M. Bartley Seigel shares a handful of recently released or forthcoming titles he’s excited about, books he hopes you’ll agree are…

Words Without Borders partnered with Slice Literary to produce an International Exquisite Corpse story, written by five writer/translator teams from around the world. Below is the resulting story…

When my in-laws occasionally make the trip from rural China to visit us in Beijing, they find my behavior around the house an endless source of fascination. My brother-in-law once found the sight of a…

When the thunder of guns tears out the tongue from the nightingale

Are they more beautiful than me?

In this troubling context, the need for portrayals of queer lives around the world becomes even more urgent.

Hyacinth! Lift your head your head from within the mud

You kindled hope in me. Now fill my cups.

The texts we were working with were profoundly unstable.

The Fang forest is a free space. Now you are free.

He was a candy you wanted to pop in your mouth and suck real slow.

Go and find a father for your child.

There are feminist or postcolonial translation strategies so why not queer ones, too?

© 2017 Beldan Sezen. Translation of the text © 2017 Charlotte Collins. Translation of the signs and newspaper headlines © 2017 Canan Marasligil. All rights reserved.

It's this: we’re seeking water / Where there is only thirst.

Damned parents,” he said in a soft voice, “look what they’ve made of me.”

You cover it up, disguise it, use Vaseline, soap . . .

Because of all that, I only rode buses that were almost empty.

For Jamaican–born Jacqueline Greaves Monda, home cooking was traditional Jamaican fare with its rich culinary influences, including Africa, Asia, and Europe. Her marriage to a Southern Italian required…