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United Kingdom

A portrait of translator Donald Rayfield standing by a brick building
Tarnished Flask
By Donald Rayfield
Distinguished scholar and translator Donald Rayfield details his ethical objections to accepting a lifetime achievement award from Georgia’s Writers’ House. This is a slightly edited version of the speech he delivered at the March 2025 ceremony.
A photo of many jellyfish with blue-green colors.
Photo by Alison M on Pexels..
Face Value: Translating Divergence
By Clare Richards
Clare Richards underscores the significance of D/deaf, disabled, and/or neurodivergent writers and translators presenting their community on their own terms.
white sofa with pillows
Photo by iSAW Company on Unsplash.
Is That a Familiar Feeling?
By Rosalind Harvey
What if translation were a person? If it were, then for me it would be male, and it would most definitely be avoidant.
A colour photo of several Handheld Tools on White Printer Paper
Photo by Pixabay from Pexels.. Public Domain.
Translation-adjacent
By Kotryna Garanasvili
Can this translation-adjacent labor be done, and done properly, if it must be squeezed in around . . . actually translating?
Side by side portraits of translators Annie McDermott and Sophie Hughes. At left, Annie McDermott...
The National Book Award Interviews: Sophie Hughes and Annie McDermott
By Words Without Borders
“Although the two protagonists have ostensibly opposing views on lots of things and are also two generations apart, they share a lot of linguistic mannerisms, as family members often do.”
Side by side portraits of 2024 National Book Award nominees translators Sawad Hussain and Ranya...
The National Book Award Interviews: Bothayna Al-Essa, Ranya Abdelrahman, Sawad Hussain
By Words Without Borders
I wanted to create a journey for a book censor who becomes eventually a reader, and then he needs to protect this new identity as a reader in a world that deals with it as if it's a crime or something.
Side by side portraits of 2024 National Book Award nominees translator Barbara J. Haveland and...
The National Book Award Interviews: Solvej Balle and Barbara J. Haveland
By Words Without Borders
I was working on tuning my instrument with the next books at the same time as Barbara was tuning her English instrument with the books.
Multimedia
Left, the cover of Samar Yazbek's Where the Wind Calls Home; right, a portrait of translator Leri...
The National Book Award Interviews: Leri Price
By Words Without Borders
I know that the first time I read the book I was very confused, which is the point.
A picture of author and translator Jen Calleja next to a picture of author and translator Carolina...
“Magical, But Also a Trust Exercise”: Jen Calleja in Conversation with Carolina Schutti
By Jen Calleja & Carolina Schutti
I have learned that imperfection can be a motor for creativity.
Left, a black-and-white portrait of Kate Briggs; right, the cover of her novel The Long Form
“A Hidden but Necessary Labor”: Kate Briggs on Translation and Parenthood
By Lauren Goldenberg
Mothering and translating get described in similar ways; they are often devalued in similar ways.
The covers of the thirteen books featured in the list arranged in three rows and overlapping slightly
Foodie World Kid Lit: Food and Eating in International Children’s and YA Literature
By Ruth Ahmedzai Kemp
Join Ruth Ahmedzai Kemp on a mouth-watering tour of four continents through thirteen picture books, middle grade and YA fiction, and graphic novels.
At left Sam Taylor and at right David Diop both finalists for the 2023 National Book Award for...
The National Book Award Interviews: Sam Taylor and David Diop
By Words Without Borders
When I translate, it’s just me and the text, and I work quickly, intuitively. If I ever try to slow down or analyze what I’m doing, I lose that sense of flow.
Multimedia
Photos of National Book Award semifinalists Sophie Hughes and Fernanda Melchor
The National Book Award Interviews: Sophie Hughes and Fernanda Melchor
By Words Without Borders
Trust is the lifeblood of successful author-translator collaborations, and by trusting me so unwaveringly, Fernanda has also shown me how to trust myself.
Multimedia
Daniel Hahn stands at a podium reading his Ottaway Award acceptance speech
Daniel Hahn accepts the 2023 Ottaway Award for the Promotion of International Literature at an in-person ceremony in New York
“A Citizen in This Community”: Daniel Hahn’s Ottaway Award Acceptance Speech
By Daniel Hahn
We all know that translation is inevitably a collaborative practice: it’s writing, but it's writing in company.
Multimedia
Esther Allen stands at a podium reading her laudatory remarks
Esther Allen makes laudatory remarks at the 2023 Ottaway Award ceremony honoring Daniel Hahn
The Multitudinous Daniel Hahn: A Laudation
By Esther Allen
He sees an opportunity, creates a network of support for it, and makes something transformative happen.
A portrait of Will Forrester
Photo credit: Grace Hutchison
Fostering Bibliodiversity: English PEN’s Will Forrester on the Goals of the PEN Presents Program
By Samantha Schnee
It’s in everyone’s interest to fund the often-unpaid labor of sample translation.
A black and white portrait of writer and editor Khairani Barokka holding a pen
Photo: Derrick Kakembo
“Curiosity and Excitement”: An Interview with Khairani Barokka
By Samantha Schnee
It’s about showing how poetry in translation is intertwined with innumerable parts of society, and can create resonances and collaborations that are precious, that last, that matter.
September-2022-International-Translation-Day-Feature
From left to right: Nicholas Glastonbury, Sawad Hussain, Yilin Wang, Stefan Tobler
What Comes after #NameTheTranslator?
By Yilin Wang, Stefan Tobler, Sawad Hussain & Nicholas Glastonbury
When we celebrate the increasing visibility of translation, we should also ask about what languages and literatures—and, consequently, what human experiences—are afforded visibility.
Portraits of Bibiana Mas and Aina Marti
Bibiana Mas (left); Aina Marti
An Interview with Two New Publishers of Women in Translation
By Words Without Borders
I thought I could create a space for sharing women’s global experiences through literary fiction. 
Map of German East Africa
Unknown author, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
German Medicine
By Abdulrazak Gurnah
Her mother was dead, she knew that, but she did not know why her aunt and her uncle were the ones who took her in.
Febrary-2022-City-and-Writer-Fiona-Sampson
Fiona Sampson. Photo copyright © Ekaterina Voskresenskaya.
The City and the Writer: In London with Fiona Sampson
By Nathalie Handal
London, which seems all sprawl and braggadocio, is at the same time self-contained and fiercely defended.
“The Joy of Cultural Mixing”: Daljit Nagra on Retelling the Classic Ramayana in Punglish
By Samantha Schnee
Humor was essential for my Ramayana.
Double portrait of writer Jhumpa Lahiri
Where I Find Myself
By Jhumpa Lahiri
I have come to think of any “definitive text” largely the same way that I think of a mother tongue, at least in my case: an inherently debatable, perpetually relative concept.
The Thrill of Reading Obliviously
By J. R. Ramakrishnan
A translated work’s pitch is aided by comparisons.
The Comparison Game
By Laurence Laluyaux
This game of comparisons, while not always accurate, can open doors and be thought-provoking.
History Interrupted: Georgia’s Broken Thread
By Maya Jaggi
Geography has been destiny for Georgia and its literature.
Multimedia
Portrait of writer Maya C. Popa
The City and the Writer: In Oxford with Maya C. Popa
By Nathalie Handal
Oxford is one hidden city layered over another.
A portrait of Chinese literary critic and science fiction writer, Tang Fei.
Photo courtesy of Tang Fei.
Sexism and Science Fiction: An Interview with Tang Fei
By Nicky Harman & Natascha Bruce
When a female writer has been objectified and put on such a pedestal, how is she supposed to get down again?
Translated from Chinese by Nicky Harman
The City and the Writer: In London with Jay Parini
By Nathalie Handal
London is a self-enclosed world that contains all worlds.
And What If Love Is Stronger? The Queer Issue
By Susan Harris
In this troubling context, the need for portrayals of queer lives around the world becomes even more urgent.
Queerying Translation
By B. J. Woodstein
There are feminist or postcolonial translation strategies so why not queer ones, too?
Me and Mycobacterium tuberculosis
By Shahaduz Zaman
“And that shadowy bit you see up there, that’s the thing that has me worried.”
Translated from Bengali by Shabnam Nadiya
Horsemeat of the Brothel
By Wang Bang
A “new girl” is always more desirable to the regular clients.
Melody in A Flat
By Ian Monk
in the basement she coughs then lights a smoke
Translated from French by the author
Multilingual
Making the Ordinary Extraordinary: Pablo Neruda’s Odes
By Adam Feinstein
Neruda’s odes are neither didactic nor artificial.
Partners in Crime: Bitter Lemon Press
By Laurence Colchester & François von Hurter
Astonishing as it may seem, we haven’t published any crime novels from Scandinavia.
A World of Editing
By Rebecca Carter
It is clear that there is a strong link between the strength of a novelistic tradition in a country and the power of the editor.
Translating Dino Buzzati: A Conversation with Marina Harss
By Michael McDonald
In addition to her freelance writing for the New Yorker’s Goings On About Town and her frequent forays into dance criticism, Marina Harss is also a versatile and prolific translator from French, Spanish,…
A Dialogue on Translating Germano Almeida
By Daniel Hahn & Clifford E. Landers
Editors’ Note: This month we present the first in a series of dialogues: two translators produce versions of the same text, then discuss their choices and approaches. Here Daniel Hahn and Clifford…
Petty Tyrants
By Conceição Lima
Petty tyrants / who founded kingdoms at the foot of their sorrow
Translated from Portuguese by Amanda Hopkinson
The House
By Conceição Lima
Here I wanted my house built.
Translated from Portuguese by Amanda Hopkinson
The Tale of the Sorceress
By Conceição Lima
San Malanzo was old, so old. San Malanzo was poor, so poor.
Translated from Portuguese by Amanda Hopkinson
Friends
By Tirdad Zolghadr
A warden takes me by the arm as I slip on my blindfold and step out of the cell.
From “Desertion”
By Abdulrazak Gurnah
He forced himself to take shallow breaths, even though his instinct was to swallow huge heaving gulps to relieve the sense of suffocation he felt in the crowds and the alleyways.
Sprouts
By Zakariya Tamer
These essays don't even deserve a zero.
Translated from Arabic by William Maynard Hutchins
Omega: Definitions
By Zeina B. Ghandour
I don't usually talk about my religion.
Translated from Arabic by Catherine Cobham
Love
By Esther Kinsky
Short said nothing, and no one found a word of comfort.
Translated from German by Martin Chalmers
An orange spinycheek scorpionfish swims in the Gulf of Mexico.
Photo by NOAA Photo Library Flickr
Nausea
By Elif Shafak
Sorrow is a dirt for her, the moment she notices a speck of it smeared on her body, she scrubs it off her skin.
Translated from Turkish by the author
Women Writers, Islam, and the Ghost of Zulaikha
By Elif Shafak
First, the woman writer systematically refrains from writing on sexuality until she is old.
Translated from Turkish by the author
“God, It’s as Though You’re Sewing a Dress For a Flea”
By Hanan al-Shaykh
She whispers in my ear that she wants to be a singer in Nadia El-Arees's famous salon, and makes me promise to keep this desire of hers a secret.
Translated from Arabic by Randa Jarrar
From “In Other Words”
By Christopher J. Moore
These are among the words discussed by Christopher Moore in In Other Words:Arabic taarradhin Many commentators have pointed out that Arabic has no word for “compromise,” in the sense of reaching…
In Other Words: A Foreword
By Simon Winchester
The moment you understand the words and phrases and the wonderfully sensible concepts that they frequently encapsulate, you have come some small way toward understanding the people who employ them.
O for the Wings
By Christine De Luca
Smooth, dark slabs; floor to roof boxed / with stone shelfs like doorless cupboards.
Translated from Shetlandic by the author
Multilingual
Chance of a Lifetime
By Christine De Luca
From the airplane, streaks of light pick out / a little town, plumped down there by chance:
Translated from Shetlandic by the author
Multilingual
Star Sign
By Christine De Luca
Birth's struggle done, the midwife sets off home / down Neegirt's fields, with lit peat held for light.
Translated from Shetlandic by the author
Multilingual
Head over Heels
By Christine De Luca
And all the pointless fights that come / from thinking we can only see one way,
Translated from Shetlandic by the author
Multilingual
The Calendar
By Ray Edwards
The Emperor Constantine / battling with a traitor / three hundred years later
Translated from Cornish by the author
A pair of beige stone earspools with an eight-pointed star motif sit on a gray background.
Pair of Earspools with Eight-Pointed Star Motif, 1200–1400, Mississippian. Courtesy of Art Institute of Chicago. Purchased with funds provided by Mrs. Leonard S. Florsheim, Jr. Public domain.
With These Rings
By Janet Paisley
You are fresh words / on the old stone of time.
Translated from Scots by the author
Multilingual
A Wish
By Christopher Whyte
I’d like to make picturesinstead of poems.That wayeach one would have its taleof sales and robberiesof rooms where it had hungof women and dear friendswho got it as a gift.They would have to be…
Translated from Scottish Gaelic by the author
Multilingual
scotland
By Janet Paisley
she'll turn your dreams to Scotch mist, / bone comb your hair with tugging wind / scrub your faces with rain.
Translated from Scots
Multilingual