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Colombia

Closeup of a desk globe in a library

Photo by Sandro Gonzalez on Unsplash

In Praise of the Invisible

By Juan Gabriel Vásquez

In this essay, Colombian writer Juan Gabriel Vásquez praises the translator and translation’s ability to increase our access to the world and broaden our sense of humanity.

Translated from Spanish by Anne McLean

Multilingual

February-2024-Mother-Language-Day-List-Feature (1)

Clockwise from top left: Bikash Dihingia, Risten Sokki, Imran Sada'i, Boubacar Boris Diop, Gawani Gaongen, Jean D'Amerique, Adriana Paredes Pinda, Emiliana Bernard-Stephenson

International Mother Language Day: 8 Writers to Read Now

By Words Without Borders

In celebration of International Mother Language Day, we’re spotlighting 8 writers working in their heritage languages, from Wolof and Kankanaey to Uyghur and Mapudungun.

National Book Award semifinalists Lizzie Davis at left and Juan Cárdenas at right

The National Book Award Interviews: Lizzie Davis and Juan Cárdenas

By Words Without Borders

“Trust creates room for play, which, in my opinion, is vital to the act of translation and to any artistic collaboration,” says translator Lizzie Davis.

Multimedia

Headshots of translator Lisa Dillman and writer Pilar Quintana semifinalists for the 2023 National...

Credits: Lisa Dillman by April Hunt. Pilar Quintana by Danilo Costa.

The National Book Award Interviews: Lisa Dillman and Pilar Quintana

By Words Without Borders

“This novel is my answer to that fear, to that childhood fear” says Pilar Quintana of her Abyss, longlisted for the 2023 National Book Award for Translated Literature.

Multimedia

The covers of the five books featured in the Watchlist: Dandelion Daughter, The Stone Breakers,...

The Watchlist: September 2023

By Tobias Carroll

Tobias Carroll recommends new books in translation you won’t want to miss from Canada, Colombia, France, the Republic of the Congo, and Russia.

A rocky stream in a tropical forest

Photo by Livestart Stiven on Unsplash

Catalina Loango

By Bernardino Pérez Miranda

There was only one way to escape the enchantment: the victim’s godmother had to call her name out loud three times at the door of Palenque’s church.

Translated from Palenquero by Armin Schwegler

MultimediaMultilingual

Dark coral reefs under aquamarine ocean water

Coral reefs in McBean Lagoon, off the coast of Providencia. Photo by Felviper, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Kriol Soldier

By Emiliana Bernard-Stephenson

These days Kriol is a song many people do not want to sing

Translated from San Andrés–Providencia Creole by the author

MultimediaMultilingual

Portrait of writer Cristina Bendek in front of green plants

Photo: Karen Bendek

The City and the Writer: In San Andrés with Cristina Bendek

By Nathalie Handal

Violence—slow, fast, indirect, direct—is exercised against the islands and our way of living here.

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.

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.

Portrait of writer Felipe Restrepo Pombo

Photo copyright © R. Trejo

The Paradox of Unrestrained Power

By Ezra E. Fitz

It’s always struck me how many rich people in our countries end up hiring their own private armies: a very Colombian phenomenon.

Photo of a newspaper being printed

Photo by Bank Phrom on Unsplash

Juan Gabriel Vásquez: Fiction as the News

By Juan Gabriel Vásquez

Like most Colombians, I had several close encounters with “chaos” during those years.

Cereté, Córdoba

By Raúl Gómez Jattin

I love you all even more in exile

Translated from Spanish by Katherine M. Hedeen & Olivia Lott

A Thundering Silence

By Felipe Restrepo Pombo

She stared at me in horror before hurrying off as fast as she could.

Translated from Spanish by Ezra E. Fitz

Bobotá

By Yolanda Reyes

I hated this image that you invented: me, running, happy, slow motion, as if it were easy to call you Mama, Mommy, Mom so suddenly.

Translated from Spanish by Susannah Greenblatt

I Never Wanted to Sock You in the Face, Javier

By Juan Álvarez

Why didn’t you let the old man go, dude?

Translated from Spanish by Megan McDowell

The Double

By Juan Gabriel Vásquez

Isn’t it strange (the letter said to me), in Spanish there’s no word for what I am.

Translated from Spanish by Anne McLean

Bubblegum and Baldy

It all began by chance, when Arcadio heard the song “Melancholy” by the Orquestra Zodiac.

Translated from Spanish by Frances Riddle

from “Latitudes”

By Piedad Bonnett

We searched for the words. We sipped our tea / looking down the bitter well of the past . . .

Translated from Spanish by Ezra E. Fitz

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“Bird Spirit” and “Handful of Earth”

By Fredy Chicangana

These songs to Mother Earth in a major key / are whispers that come from distant forests

Translated from Spanish by Lawrence Schimel

“Wayuu (II)” and “Roots”

By Vito Apushana

We are life, this way

Translated from Spanish by Lawrence Schimel

The Origins of the FARC: An Interview with Sergeant Pascuas

By Alfredo Molano

Renowned journalist Alfredo Molano interviews one of the founders of the FARC.

Translated from Spanish by Ezra E. Fitz

A Different Solitude: Colombian Literature Today

By Eric M. B. Becker

The writers here capture the past and present of a country remaking itself and its history.

Living to Tell New Tales

By Silvana Paternostro

The old story is changing.

An Orphan World

By Giuseppe Caputo

Wouldn't you pay to speak to your house?

Translated from Spanish by Sophie Hughes

Lost Causes

By Oscar Collazos

Respect, I now understood, was nothing more than the fear of his reaction.

Translated from Spanish by Ezra E. Fitz

Madres Terra

By Carlos Saavedra

A photo essay of mothers of the disappeared.

Multimedia

House of Beauty

By Melba Escobar

When I left Colombia, mothers still made sure their daughters’ knees weren’t showing; now nothing is left to the imagination.

Translated from Spanish by Elizabeth Bryer

Gabo: A Magical Life

By Oscar Pantoja, Tatiana Córdoba & Felipe Camargo

Gabo saw a shattered landscape, aged, forgotten by its people.

Translated by Lawrence Schimel

The Queer Issue V: Impressions from a Passing Train

By Rohan Kamicheril

The appeal of the Queer Issue is in seeing that great ambition writ small, in discovering the swarm of details and experience that cohere into the big picture of world writing.

Death

By Alonso Sanchez Baute

If a queen cries an entire sea, she has to cry the Mediterranean or, at least, the Aegean

Translated from Spanish by George Henson

Multilingual

Six Months on Minimum Wage

By Andrés Felipe Solano

One afternoon I counted 1,253 items of clothing.

Translated from Spanish by Samantha Schnee

“Survivors,” from “The Ears of the Wolf”

By Antonio Ungar

I wake up. The bus stops, and a village full of horses appears.

Translated from Spanish by Katherine Silver

Wings, Two for One

By Triunfo Arciniegas

In these wicked times people aren't interested in wings. Even at two for the price of one.

Translated from Spanish by Steve Dolph

From “The Lost Cause: A Memoir of My Life with Gabriel García Marquez”

By Plinio Apuleyo Mendoza

My friend,'' his voice explodes, Why don't you come have lunch with me?

Translated from Spanish by Timothy Pratt

I Am Spartan

...and she didn't get that what socialism talks about is opportunity, not inborn talent;

Translated from Spanish by Nancy Festinger