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Denmark

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: November 2022

By Tobias Carroll

Tobias Carroll recommends exciting new books in translation from Denmark, Argentina, Palestine, Mexico, and Poland.

Portraits of Olga Ravn and Martin Aitken

Left: Olga Ravn, photo credit: Lærke Posselt; Right: Martin Aitken

The National Book Award Interviews: Olga Ravn & Martin Aitken

By Words Without Borders

“I think my task was less linguistic than it was a matter of representing the environment in my mind and sensing its moods emotionally, entering that strange atmosphere so it could seep through into the translation.”

The book covers of Policing the City, Scattered All Over the Earth, Palestine +100, The Way Spring...

The Watchlist: March 2022

By Tobias Carroll

Tobias Carroll recommends noteworthy new books translated from Arabic, Chinese, Danish, French, and Japanese.

After Inger Christensen: Humans, Plants, and Planets in New Danish Poetry

By Katrine Øgaard Jensen

So what happens next in Danish translation?

Blue morning glories on a yellow background

Morning Glories by Suzuki Kiitsu. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, Seymour Fund, 1954.

from “Everything Shimmers”

By Naja Marie Aidt

Danish poet Naja Aidt blends nature and myth in this freewheeling ode to a child.

Translated from Danish by Susanna Nied

MultimediaMultilingual

from “Poems 2014”

By Theis Ørntoft

don’t remember how we ended up watching Rambo / but it was a disappointing experience.

Translated from Danish by Julia Cohen & Jens Bjerling

from “Third-Millennium Heart”

By Ursula Andkjær Olsen

I will remain unwritten.

Translated from Danish by Katrine Øgaard Jensen

Multimedia

Face (still life)

By Niels Lyngsø

What’s the deal with your face, Dad?

Translated from Danish by Gregory Pardlo

Father My Unborn Son

By Yahya Hassan

A Stone-Age hand a paperback Koran

Translated from Danish by Kuku Agami & Al Agami

The round table is the eye

By Sissal Kampmann

I suddenly notice/that I've vanished.

Translated from Faroese by Randi Ward

Multilingual

on the bed

By Vónbjørt Vang

The car you plan to make your escape in isn't registered

Translated from Faroese by Randi Ward

Multilingual

the expiration date

By Tóroddur Poulsen

i’m the same age / as this morning’s darkness

Translated from Faroese by Randi Ward

Multilingual

A Car Trip

By Naja Marie Aidt

After Nikolaj slams the car door shut they realize that Tobias isn't in the car.

Translated from Danish by Mark Kline

The Psychiatrist

My new position gave me contact with refugees from various communities in Copenhagen.

Translated from Arabic by William Maynard Hutchins

It Could be Grass

So now we've begun packing. I've carried empty cardboard boxes home from the supermarket.

Translated from Danish by Mark Kline