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Malaysia

The covers of the six books featured in the Watchlist in a 2x3 grid on a sand-colored background:...

The Watchlist: January 2025

By Tobias Carroll

Tobias Carroll kicks off 2025 with recommendations of six new titles in translation, from Japanese mystery-horror to Cuban prose poetry to a classic Vietnamese novel.

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.

A rusty lighter sitting in the dirt

Photo by Patrick Hendry on Unsplash

After Time

Today, you finally saw the earth after its rebirth.

Translated from Malay by Adibah Abdullah

yellow smoke curling against a black background

Photo by Олег Жилко on Unsplash

kretek-ing

By Zahid M. Naser

bloodrush like the swell of desire in a room / surging higher and higher to my eyes, craving life

Translated from Malay by Pauline Fan

MultimediaMultilingual

Various wooden letter blocks

Photo by Amador Loureiro on Unsplash

9 Writers to Read on International Mother Language Day

By Words Without Borders

We highlight 9 writers working in their heritage languages, from Galician and Cebuano to Guaraní and Kaaps.

Multimedia

The Voices of Contact Languages in Asia: An Introduction

By Stefanie Shamila Pillai

For multilingual writers, choosing to write in their heritage languages can be seen as an expression of agency, an active choice to communicate in a nondominant language.

The Gut Demons

By Melaka Portuguese Oral Tradition

“When you go in search of food, you must do so at night, and you must only go with your head and intestines.”

Translated from Melaka Portuguese by Sara Frederica Santa Maria

Multilingual

Pantun

By Nironjini Pillay, Shagina Bhalan, Nadarajan Mudalier & Mahendran Pillay

We are known as the Chetti of Melaka, / Guardians of tradition and culture.

Translated from Chetti Malay by Nurul Huda Hamzah & Stefanie Shamila Pillai

MultimediaMultilingual

The Slow Burn of Inner Chaos: Six Works in Translation from Malaysia

By Pauline Fan & Adriana Nordin Manan

The sense of slipping slowly into chaos is an everyday reality here.

Dark as a Boy

Pretty much everyone knew Saw Ai’s family had problems.

Translated from Chinese by Natascha Bruce

Mona Fandey’s Cassette, or Gray Feather

Who would smile like that after such a thing?

Translated from Tamil by Sreedhevi Iyer

Sinarut 1994

By Alis Padasian

Why couldn’t Mama just leave Father?

Translated from Malay and Dusun by Siti Malini Mat

Palm trees and other foliage against heavy, dark gray clouds

Ramesh Kunnappully, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Monsoon Fable

frog cries saturate. life inundates. crane stares blacken. death curdles. ancestral winds whirl.

Translated from Malay by Thira Mohamad

MultimediaMultilingual

The Lovers of Muharram

By Fatimah Busu

On this terrible morning, everything is relentless.

Translated from Malay by Pauline Fan

Poem in June

By T. Alias Taib

a field stretches, a pilgrim shuffles in despair

Translated from Malay by Eddin Khoo

MultimediaMultilingual

Theo

By Fahmi Mustaffa

I'm not like you, Pak.

Translated from Malay by Adriana Nordin Manan

The Thrill of Reading Obliviously

By J. R. Ramakrishnan

A translated work’s pitch is aided by comparisons.

Fragile States: Artwork from freeDimensional

By freeDimensional

A visual exploration of the physical and psychological experiences of persecution and forced displacement.

Multimedia