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Brazil

Brazilian writer Stênio Gardel on the left and translator Bruna Dantas Lobato on the right finalists...
The National Book Award Interviews: Bruna Dantas Lobato and Stênio Gardel
By Words Without Borders
“This was just being at the right place at the right time,” says translator Bruna Dantas Lobato.
Multimedia
A portrait of Brazilian writer Itamar Vieira Junior alongside the cover of his novel Crooked Plow,...
Reading to Coexist: A Conversation with Itamar Vieira Junior
By Ana Laura Malmaceda
Itamar Vieira Junior, whose novel Crooked Plow was published this summer in Johnny Lorenz’s translation, speaks with Ana Laura Malmaceda about land justice and the legacies of colonialism in Brazil.
Translated from Portuguese by the author
The covers of the books featured in the Watchlist: Offshore Lightning, The Country of Too, No One...
The Watchlist: July 2023
By Tobias Carroll
Tobias Carroll recommends new and forthcoming books translated from Arabic, French, Japanese, Portuguese, and Spanish.
Two men's shadows
Photo by Robert V. Ruggiero on Unsplash
A Kiss between Boys
By Victor Heringer
They all eyeballed one another, weighing up the possibility of a mass brawl.
Translated from Portuguese by James Young
A row of building windows facing another row of windows in front of it
Photo by Sabri Tuzcu on Unsplash
Parentheses
By Felipe Franco Munhoz
The vinyl record turns three thousand four hundred and fifty-six degrees. I counted.
Translated from Portuguese by Alison Entrekin
The covers of the books featured in the list
Your #IWD2023 Reading List
By Words Without Borders
In honor of International Women's Day 2023, WWB recommends 10 forthcoming books written and translated by women and published by small presses.
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.
The covers of the books featured in the Watchlist
The Watchlist: October 2022
By Tobias Carroll
Tobias Carroll recommends noteworthy new books in translation from Brazil, Egypt, Hungary, Colombia, South Korea, and Norway.
White and yellow filter on empty blue swimming pool wall without water
Photo by Antonio Jiménez Macías on Unsplash
verses of circumstance
By Laura Erber
sometimes i don’t want to be saved
Translated from Portuguese by Pedro Vainer
Global Blackness: Black Writers in Translation
By Eric M. B. Becker
Engaging the evolving dialogue that broadens definitions of global Blackness.
Toward Our Common Destruction: Humans and the Environment
By Eric M. B. Becker
The protagonist of this month’s work is the natural world in its multitudes.
Being Mangrove: Eliseu Cavalcante in Belmonte, Bahia, Brazil
By Eliseu Cavalcante
In Being Mangrove, Eliseu Cavalcante explores the relationship between humans and the mangrove forests of Bahia, Brazil.
Climates: On Environment
By Susan Harris
Global warming manifests in obvious ways.
Liberty and Hope
By Francisco de la Mora
So this is how it all ends . . .
Translated from Spanish by Nina Perrotta
A Message to Our Friends on the Moon: The Pandemic of 2020
By Milton Hatoum
The wars never ceased, the surveillance and control wrought by our digital world eroded our liberties, unemployment and poverty grew.
Translated from Portuguese by Eric M. B. Becker
The top of a medical IV pole with an IV bag
Photo by Marcelo Leal on Unsplash
Letter to the Father
By Ricardo Domeneck
I ask myself / if mother's ban / against confessing / . . . is still in place
Translated from Portuguese by Hilary Kaplan
Ricardo and Vânia
By Chico Felitti
She can't count how many times she had silicone applied to her body.
Translated from Portuguese by Flora Thomson-DeVeaux
Shelter in Poems: Poetry to Break the Isolation of Social Distancing
By Words Without Borders
Words Without Borders is leaning into poetry's ability to fill the void of isolation.
Forced Confessions: On True Crime Writing
By Susan Harris
The pieces here map the translation of event into prose—the creation of true crime writing.
I Found Out I Was Dead
By João Paulo Cuenca
She’s the one who identified the body with your name, address, and document number.
Translated from Portuguese by Elizabeth Lowe
Other Lives, Other Worlds
By Susan Harris
The results of these confrontations range from triumphant to catastrophic as the boundaries between worlds dissolve.
His Very Last Case
By Luiz Carlos Lisboa
His dead friend had asked him to talk to Janice but hadn’t explained why.
Translated from Portuguese by Clifford E. Landers
Multimedia
Conflicting Stories
By Susan Harris
These works reflect a striking range of existential challenges shaping lives across the globe.
February 2019 International Graphic Novel Love Hate Relationship Andre Diniz Feature
A Love-Hate Relationship
By André Diniz
I prefer a Paulistano's frown over a Carioca's smile.
Translated from Portuguese by Pedro Bouça
Multimedia
Works Cited In Franciane Conceição Silva’s Panorama of Afro-Brazilian Literature
By Franciane Conceição Silva
References and Further Reading Alves, Miriam.Mulher Mat(r)iz. Belo Horizonte: Nandyala, 2011.Alves, Miriam. Entrevista. Duke, Dawn (Org.). A escritora afro-brasileira: ativismo e arte literária.…
Translated from Portuguese by Bruna Dantas Lobato
Another Country: Afro-Brazilian Writing, Past and Present
By Eric M. B. Becker & John Keene
If the literature of a country with the second largest black population worldwide (only Nigeria has a larger black population) does not include that population in its literature, one must ask which Brazil we’re speaking of when we speak of Brazilian…
Insurgent Voices: A Panorama of Afro-Brazilian Writing
By Franciane Conceição Silva
Politicians know I’m a poet. And that poets face death when their people are oppressed.
Translated from Portuguese by Bruna Dantas Lobato
Multilingual
Black Teeth and Blue Hair
By Afonso Henriques de Lima Barreto
“I’m sorry, I’m sorry. I didn’t know. Ignorance is a kind of blindness.”
Translated from Portuguese by Eric M. B. Becker
Afro-Brazilian Crusader: On Lima Barreto
By Felipe Botelho Correa
According to Barreto himself, the aim of his crusade was to produce a type of literature that he defined as “militante,” engaging with the society’s most pressing issues and communicating these issues to a wider audience in accessible language.
In Aflitos
By Jean Wyllys
She was furious! She grew silent again, went upstairs, and searched the nightstand. The pistol was there.
Translated from Portuguese by John Keene
Three Poems
By Ricardo Aleixo
A Black man is always somebody's Black man.
Translated from Portuguese by Dan Hanrahan
Multimedia
Four Poems
By Cristiane Sobral
Time, lord of the hours / reigns sovereign
Translated from Portuguese by John Keene
Multilingual
Joyful, Painful, Surreal: Life As a Parent
By Karen M. Phillips
The intensity of the parent-child relationship, with its high emotional stakes, life-and-death responsibility, and inescapable physical proximity, makes for powerful stories.
That Deep Ocean…
By Ana Candida de Carvalho Carneiro
This month, we bring you the first of three winning entries in the Words without Borders - Play for Voices Radio Drama Contest.
Translated from Italian by Stephen Pidcock
The Forest of Midwives
By Eliane Brum
Sculpted from the blood of mothers and the water of children, their hands birth a piece of Brazil.
Translated from Portuguese by Julia Sanches
Fact or Fiction: Latin American Reportage
By Eric M. B. Becker
The writers in this month’s feature provide assurance that the genre is source of some of today’s most vibrant and compelling stories, fictional or otherwise.
And What If Love Is Stronger? The Queer Issue
By Susan Harris
In this troubling context, the need for portrayals of queer lives around the world becomes even more urgent.
Shit about Love
By Caio Fernando Abreu
You cover it up, disguise it, use Vaseline, soap . . .
Translated from Portuguese by Ed Moreno
People Behaving Badly
By Susan Harris
Many greet the clean slate of a new year by pledging to chalk up only virtue and moderation.
Moonshine
By Felipe Franco Munhoz
It wasn't our fault . . . it was mostly the fault of William Faulkner.
Translated from Portuguese by Eric M. B. Becker
The World on Stage: Micro-Plays in Translation
By Sarah Maitland
It is this ready route to the public, and the immediacy of response to some of the most urgent questions of our time, that gives microtheater its enduring appeal.
Visitors from on High
By Roberto Athayde
“Believing in flying saucers . . . is one thing. What is difficult is believing concrete facts.”
Translated from Portuguese by the author
Brazil Beyond Rio
By Eric M. B. Becker
The writers here—both those from abroad and those from Brazil—set out to rediscover and portray the diverse Brazils within this dynamic country.
Grande Sertão: Veredas (Bedeviled in the Badlands)
By João Guimarães Rosa
Are you like me, sir? I didn’t buy a word.
Translated from Portuguese by Alison Entrekin
Multilingual
The Time Left
By Carlos Henrique Schroeder
Work is too ambiguous a word. Does life work? No, it always wrecks.
Translated from Portuguese by Zoë Perry
Death in the Amazon
By Artur Domosławski
But first they sever José Cláudio’s right ear.
Translated from Polish by Antonia Lloyd-Jones
Lua
By Ronaldo Correia de Brito
“It’s impossible for a sister recluse to sing like that. We no longer feel those emotions.”
Translated from Portuguese by Daniel Hahn
MultimediaMultilingual
Beauty, a Terrible Story
By Caio Fernando Abreu
“Who cares about an old wreck?”
Translated from Portuguese by Bruna Dantas Lobato
Esperança Terena
By Eliseu Cavalcante
While he was with the Terena, he captured their lives: a mix of hope, spirituality, and a constant fear of losing their land once again.
Quipapá Gold
By Hubert Tézenas
He recruits men and trains them and organizes all sorts of crime from his cell.
Translated from French by Allison M. Charette
Falling in Love with Bahia & Brazil: On Negritude, Saudade, & Surrender
By Naomi Jackson
I’d taken a few capoeira classes that left me barely able to walk.
The Pharmacist’s First Report
By Lúcio Cardoso
“One does not kill wolves with poison.”
Translated from Portuguese by Margaret Jull Costa & Robin Patterson
Coral Reef
By Micheliny Verunschk
Everything clamors: / an hour hand gone berserk.
Translated from Portuguese by Eric M. B. Becker
MultimediaMultilingual
Bright blue water in a harbor in Ithaca, Greece
Photo by James West, licensed under CC BY-NC-ND 2.0
ithaca
By Angélica Freitas
if you want to journey to ithaca / call ahead
Translated from Portuguese by Hilary Kaplan
Ephemeral Invention
By Edival Lourenço
my children look to me / and grasp after / absolute truths.
Translated from Portuguese by Eric M. B. Becker
MultimediaMultilingual
In Praise of Nonconformity: The Queer Issue
By Susan Harris
Behind the bigotry and hyperbole lurk the fear of the unknown, the threat to the status quo.
Car Accident without Victims
By Alexandre Vidal Porto
At home, no one suspects I do this. Imagine. It’d destroy my marriage.
Translated from Portuguese by Alison Entrekin
From “What are the Blind Men Dreaming?”
By Noemi Jaffe
The compassionate understand pain, but pain cannot be understood; those who suffer understand nothing.
Translated from Portuguese and Serbian by Julia Sanches & Ellen Elias-Bursać
From “Um País”
By Flávia Rocha
How to explain / the heat a language exhales
Translated from Portuguese by Idra Novey
MultimediaMultilingual
Cousins from Overseas
By Gerson Lodi-Ribeiro
His pains originate in another continent. They are graver, and more ancient.
Translated from Portuguese by Sarah Ann Wells