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Peru

Two snowy mountain peaks
Mt. Huandoy, Ancash, Peru. Inti Runa Viajero, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons
Another Man’s Name
By Renato Cisneros
“You don’t want to appear as the father, do you?”
Translated from Spanish by Fionn Petch
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.
Nuestra Ciudad: Writing the City in Spanish
By Ulises Gonzales
Today, a young writer working in Spanish arrives in New York City to find no shortage of role models.
A Slice of Writing by Nikkei and Tusán Peruvian Writers
By Jennifer Shyue
Some of them have often called upon their Chinese or Japanese roots; others have alighted upon the topic only a few times, if at all.
Simple Heart
By Augusto Higa Oshiro
Nobody knows why he went to such great lengths.
Translated from Spanish by Jennifer Shyue
The Red Rooster and Inevitable Saint
By Julia Wong Kcomt
“She was hot, your aunt Carmen, / she didn’t look Chinese.”
Translated from Spanish by Jennifer Shyue
Multilingual
Life Is a Pose
By Julio Villanueva Chang
In his spare time, he wears clothes.
Translated from Spanish by Nicolás Medina Mora
Here in Chorrillos
By Doris Moromisato
My eyes fill with rowboats
Translated from Spanish by Margaret Wright
Multilingual
The Final Stretch
By Siu Kam Wen
The old woman refused to wear any clothing she had not sewn herself.
Translated from Spanish by Julie Hempel
Four Short Poems
By Sui-Yun
I have licked the tip of evil
Translated from Spanish by Jennifer Shyue
The Golden Children of Sexual Alchemy
By Tilsa Otta
Ever since our orgasms became supernatural, we’ve been taking better care of our energies.
Translated from Spanish by Jacob Steinberg
Multilingual
White City Blues in Arequipa
By Maya Jaggi
The colonial system is still alive in Peru.
Eight Meters
By Juan Carlos Cortázar
The señora is not going to back down.
Translated from Spanish by Jennifer Shyue
Road Stories: International Writing on Travel
By Susan Harris
Some of the writers here document their own trips, while others invent characters and send them on the road.
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.
Flight: An International Exquisite Corpse
By Pema Bhum, Claudia Salazar Jiménez, Krys Lee, and Kanako Nishi
Four writer/translator teams work together to create a single story in multiple languages.
Translated by Elizabeth Bryer, Kang Daehoon, Tenzin Dickie, and Allison Markin Powell
The Ingenious Gentleman of the Andes—On Translating Cervantes’s Classic into Quechua
By Lucas Iberico Lozada
His translation of Don Quixote was simply the best-known example of his decades-long effort to create a standardized literary Quechua.
History of a Conversion: A Political Profile of Mario Vargas Llosa, Part Two
By Felipe Restrepo Pombo
I truly believe that Latin America is much better today than it was during my youth.
Translated by Ezra E. Fitz
History of a Conversion: A Political Profile of Mario Vargas Llosa, Part One
By Felipe Restrepo Pombo
There is a kind of insecurity that makes people want to return to a tribal idea: the illusion of a closed community that has never existed.
Translated by Ezra E. Fitz
The World at Home: US Writing in Translation
By Susan Harris
This issue is not a departure but a continuation.
I Am Not Your Cholo
By Marco Avilés
In San Marcos I could be poor and cholo and I didn’t have the pressure of hiding or explaining myself.
Translated from Spanish by Sophie Hughes
Multilingual
Señor Socket and the Señora from the Café
By Julio Villanueva Chang
This is a tiny country famed for its happy cows, football fanatics, and melancholy.
Translated from Spanish by Sophie Hughes
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.
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.
Three
By Gabriela Wiener
I’ve been unfaithful on Good Friday, Mother’s Day, Christmas and even during a coup d’état.
Translated from Spanish by Lucy Greaves
Multilingual
The Scream
By Claudia Salazar Jiménez
The Party. The Revolution. Blood. All of it, together.
Translated from Spanish by Elizabeth Bryer
Graphic Novels at WWB: The First Ten Years
By Susan Harris
The narrative threads that weave through the last ten years tell a tale in themselves.
Lessons for a Boy Who Arrived Late, Part II
By Carlos Yushimito
I hated how Margarita cracked her knuckles when it was her turn to play the piano.
Translated from Spanish by Valerie Miles
Geography of the Peruvian Imagination
By Valerie Miles
The stories here are indicative of the wide variety of styles in contemporary Peruvian literature, where individual approaches trump the need to fit into some imposed stylistic collective.
Living with the Beast
By Santiago Roncagliolo
To tame this beast, two reins are needed.
Translated from Spanish by Lawrence Schimel
Multilingual
Like a Rolling Stone
By Enrique Prochazka
That extraordinary screeching had been artificial: it hadn’t come from the ice, but from a weapon.
Translated from Spanish by Megan McDowell
Multilingual
A Sign
By Julio Durán
On the first attempt, the trigger jammed.
Translated from Spanish by Lisa M. Dillman
Multilingual
At Peace
By Claudia Salazar Jiménez
My skull rolls on the floor. Damn it.
Translated from Spanish by George Henson
1-02
By Victoria Guerrero Peirano
I must imitate my sister in order to be her mother
Translated from Spanish by Anna Guercio Rosenwong
Lessons for a Boy Who Arrived Late
By Carlos Yushimito
Understanding what she desired, I said yes.
Translated from Spanish by Valerie Miles
The Shower
By Patricia de Souza
“It was just an idea,” Yves responded cynically, his face red, his lips damp.
Translated from Spanish by Mara Faye Lethem
Multilingual
Recording: Nguxtapax, Yoxi, and the Five Countries
By The Ministry of Culture of Peru
Recording of the Tikuna oral storytelling tradition, accompanied by English translation via Spanish.
Translated from Spanish by Lucas Aznar Miles
Multilingual
Lindbergh
By Ivan Thays
I told her everything, except for the blood.
Translated from Spanish by Christina MacSweeney
Multilingual
Frail Before the Squalor
By Carmen Ollé
I’ve got no desire to erect a childhood.
Translated from Spanish by Yvette Siegert
Multilingual
A Trip through Ayahuasca
By Gabriela Wiener
It is said after the vomiting comes the visions. I wasn’t seeing anything yet.
Translated from Spanish by Lucas Aznar Miles
MultimediaMultilingual
The Ritual
By Fernando Iwasaki
“Every time someone goes to the USA, they die.
Translated from Spanish by Daniel Hahn
Multilingual
The Age of Acurio
By Sergio Vilela
Gastón Acurio is not a genius or a vanguardist or a great maestro of world cuisine.
Translated from Spanish by David Kurnick
Multilingual
Distinguishing Marks: None
By Jorge Eduardo Benavides
You had known Ramiro from the years of the First Dictatorship, those long-ago days of pick-up soccer games and fruit popsicles.
Translated from Spanish by Gabriel Saxton-Ruiz
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