Skip to main content

Words Without Borders Logo

Words Without Borders Monagram
—
Discover by Country
—
Discover by Theme
—
Discover by Contributor
—
Surprise Me!
Read
Learn
Events
About
Follow Us
Go to instagram
Go to twitter
Go to facebook
Go to youtube
Read
—
Surprise Me!
Discover by Country
—
Discover by Theme
—
Discover by Contributor
—
Learn
Events
About
Outdated Browser

For the best experience using our website, we recommend upgrading your browser to a newer version or switching to a supported browser.

More Information

2023 International Booker Nominees

March 2023

Five blue patterned strips of fabric on a beige background.
Textile sample book, nineteenth century. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, Museum Accession. Public Domain.

The 2023 International Booker longlist has been announced! While you’re waiting for the shortlist, dive into these eleven stories, essays, and interviews by the nominated authors and translators in the WWB archive.

A hand hovering over a pill organizer filled with multicolored pills
Photo by Laurynas Mereckas on Unsplash
Boulder
By Eva Baltasar
Having a kid is the same as enrolling in a lifetime plan of suffering.
Translated from Catalan by Julia Sanches
A flowering bush, a leafy shrub, a bonsai tree, and a cactus stand in a row in front of a white...
Photo by Julie Fader on Unsplash
Bonsai
By Guadalupe Nettel
If I was a cactus, what kind of plant was Midori?
Translated from Spanish by Rosalind Harvey
Books hanging on light fixtures
Photo by Hatice Yardım on Unsplash
Invisible Crises
By Georgi Gospodinov
We must admit here that we, people on the side of literature, writers, publishers, and enthusiastic readers, have to a certain extent accepted our own defeat.
Translated from Bulgarian by Angela Rodel
Tarot cards from the Rider Waite Tarot deck
Photo by Viva Luna Studios on Unsplash
The Presentiment
By Emiliano Monge
I like to imagine that, in this defining moment, as my grandfather struggled with the dead man’s sinews, he was able to calm his rage for a moment and laugh.
Translated from Spanish by Frank Wynne
A dark door cracked open to reveal bright red light
Photo by Dima Pechurin on Unsplash
Yun-Fan: Singing the Variety of Queer Life
By Wanning Chen
“When I was twenty-three, I met my first girlfriend, who then went off with a man after just four months—and eventually married him.”
Translated from Chinese by Jeremy Tiang
From “Wretchedness”
By Andrzej Tichý
He said, this is real, and then he pulled up his shirt and showed us the scars under his arm.
Translated from Swedish by Nichola Smalley
Memories of Lily-Colored Photographs
By Jung Mi Kyung
These pictures were for the two of us to look at, laughing, never something to keep or show someone else.
Translated from Korean by Chi-Young Kim
You Turn Your Head, I Turn My Head
By Finn-Ole Heinrich
Do I build a tree house without you?
Translated from German by Katy Derbyshire
To sleep, perchance to dream
By Anne F. Garréta
I have long suspected that the public, exoteric text of Remembrance of Things Past is a fake.
Translated from French by Daniel Levin Becker
Multilingual
2015 Man Booker International Prize Questionnaire: Maryse Condé
By Eric M. B. Becker
Maryse Condé was born in Guadeloupe in the French Caribbean. She studied at the Université de Paris III (Sorbonne Nouvelle), where she took her doctorate in comparative literature (1975).…
2015 Man Booker International Prize Questionnaire: Richard Philcox
By Eric M. B. Becker
Richard Philcox is the translator of 2015 Man Booker Prize International finalist Maryse Condé and Franz Fanon.Words without Borders: It must be gratifying to see the writer you translate…