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Writing That Mattered in 2022

January 2023

Textile sample book, ca. 1840–50. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, Gift of the Estate of Benjamin E. Marks, 1967.

As we venture into 2023, we’re taking a moment to look back at the essays, stories, and poems that helped us better understand some of the most significant global issues and events of the past year, including the war in Ukraine and the ongoing protests in Iran.

Black Persian text on a white background

Photo by Zia Nabavi on Instagram

In Conversation with the Prison

He needed a phone more than anyone in our prison ward.

Translated from Persian by Poupeh Missaghi

A woman in a pink sari walks in the street in front of an apartment building

Photo by Akshar Dave on Unsplash

Writing in Troubled Times

By Geetanjali Shree

Fiction came to us from the West. Creativity did not.

Dramatic clouds over a mountain and ocean in Puerto Rico

Photo by Rick Lipsett on Unsplash

Onto Dust We Shall Come

By Manuel Ramos Otero

I return to the world as I depart, / having birthed another phantom, / a dweller of nebulous coasts, / a brief enemy of metaphors.

Translated from Spanish by Cristina Pérez Díaz

Two log cabins, one with a grass roof, in a field next to the water

I, Argus fin, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Sharing Stories: A Brief Introduction to Sámi Literary History

By Mathilde Magga

For Sámi literature to continue playing its essential role in our culture and to expand its benefits, we need more writers, readers, and translators, which is impossible without support—both financially and through the education system.

Jenny Bhatt (left) and Rita Kothari (right)

On the Evolution and Craft of Gujarati Literature in Translation

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.

A person pours tea into cups alongside pastries on a table

Photo copyright © Darren Byler

Translation as Transgression: Bringing the Uyghur Novel The Backstreets into English

By Darren Byler

In 2014, translating Uyghur knowledge into English felt like a subversive act in itself.

whitewashed exterior of santo crist crhuch in veracruz mexico

© Alejandro Borbolla. Used under Creative Commons license.

Life’s Not Worth a Thing

By Fernanda Melchor

Two go-betweens working a corrupt legal system find themselves being recruited by a dangerous employer in this story from Fernanda Melchor's This Is Not Miami, nominated for the 2023 National Book Award for Translation.

Translated from Spanish by Sophie Hughes

June-2022-Tokarczuk-Ognosia-Flammarion-Engraving Flammarion engraving, unknown artist

Ognosia

By Olga Tokarczuk

We will need new maps as well as the courage and humor of travelers who won’t hesitate to stick their heads outside the sphere of the world-up-to-this-point, beyond the horizon of existing dictionaries and encyclopedias.

Translated from Polish by Jennifer Croft

Mirror over Water at Sunset

Photo by Zoltan Tasi on Unsplash

We Only Live Twice

By Adel Tincelin

The transworld was so beautiful, so vast! There was so much to explore!

Translated from French by Evan McGorray

Multimedia

September-2022-International-Translation-Day-Feature

From left to right: Nicholas Glastonbury, Sawad Hussain, Yilin Wang, Stefan Tobler

What Comes after #NameTheTranslator?

By Yilin Wang, Stefan Tobler, Sawad Hussain & Nicholas Glastonbury

When we celebrate the increasing visibility of translation, we should also ask about what languages and literatures—and, consequently, what human experiences—are afforded visibility.

There’s No Getting Out

By Olga Bragina

we won't recognize this city anymore

Translated from Russian by Elina Alter

Multilingual

February 23, 2022

By Danyil Zadorozhnyi

“second time I’ve lost my home,” she utters with hatred / “officially, this time”

Translated from Ukrainian by Isaac Stackhouse Wheeler & Yuliya Charnyshova