Skip to main content
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

Madagascar

Portrait of writer Naivo
The City and the Writer: In Antananarivo, Madagascar, with Naivo
By Nathalie Handal
Its name, “the city of thousands,” is synonymous with multitude.
Global Blackness: Black Writers in Translation
By Eric M. B. Becker
Engaging “the evolving dialogue that broadens definitions of global Blackness.”
A Pun, an Idiom, and an Expletive Walk into a Bar: International Humor
By Susan Harris
When we think of translating humor, we may think in terms of capturing jokes.
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.
Hauntings: International Ghost Stories
By Susan Harris
Ghosts and all they represent lurk perennially in the universal consciousness and in literature around the world.
Water in the Rice Fields up to My Knees!
By Johary Ravaloson
Since when do dead people care about rice?
Translated from French by Allison M. Charette
Knowing the Unknowable: Writing from Madagascar
By Allison M. Charette
Not a single novel from Madagascar, whether written in French or Malagasy, has ever appeared in English.
Abandoning Myself
By Magali Nirina Marson
Besides, poverty’s not interesting, and I don’t want them to pity me
Translated from French by Allison M. Charette
Multilingual
The Conspiracists
By Naivo
First and foremost, what proves to me that you are what you say you are?
Translated from French by Allison M. Charette
Omeo Zamako
By Charlotte-Arrisoa Rafenomanjato
Lehilahy tells his son that he must work harder in order to succeed, that knowledge is not easily attained.
Translated from French by Sophie Lewis
from “The Lamenting Land”
By Andry Andraina
We made God wait his turn, because we wanted to eat meat.
Translated from Malagasy by Mialy Andriamananjara & Allison M. Charette
Nenitou
By David Jaomanoro
Story, story. If there is a falsehood in my tale, it is not I who has lied to you.
Translated from French by Allison M. Charette
Blastomycosis
By Bao Ralambo
The adults didn’t risk wandering about in broad daylight . . .
Translated from French by Allison M. Charette
Wife Sold at Auction
By David Jaomanoro
If you don’t take advantage of the rainy years, you’d better have some jump in your legs in the dry years.
Translated from French by Margaret Besser
Auntie’s Eggs
By Iharilanto Patrick Andriamangatiana
It’s a well-known fact that rhyming jingles attract customers.
Translated from French by Allison M. Charette
One Times Two
By Cyprienne Toazara
In the house on the hill, a bright, spacious room was waiting for a cradle.
Translated from French by Allison M. Charette
from “Za”
By Jean-Luc Raharimanana
“They are saying that this man is a fridge full of organs!”
Translated from French by Sophie Lewis
Famine
By Jean-Luc Raharimanana
The gecko got it right
Translated from French by Antoine Bargel & Alexis Pernsteiner
Multilingual
Kratos
By Jean-Luc Raharimanana
Now chant. / Dêmos / Kratos
Translated from French by Alexis Pernsteiner & Antoine Bargel
Multilingual
But Your Eyes
By Esther Nirina
Smooth is the beach / Like the arch of my entrance / Refusing your doors.
Translated from French by Alison Anderson