Alienation

Photo by Andrew Small on Unsplash.

The Brightest World I Knew

By Lim Sol-A

On days I wore sneakers, I was treated as abled, and on days I wore sandals, I was treated as disabled.

Translated from Korean by Clare Richards

MultimediaMultilingual

A robotic hand emerges from the bottom of the image against a blue background.

Photo by Tara Winstead on Pexels..

Photo via Rawpixels. Public domain.

The Haves and the Have-Nots

By Kristian Lundberg

When you’re a kid, being poor is hell on earth.

Translated from Swedish by Helga Edström

A picture of a street dog and the shadow of a person wearing a hat on a wall beside it.

Photo by Nesrin Öztürk. Public Domain.

Deadbeat

By Paul Tavo

Did he once have a wife? Most likely.

Translated from French by Colin Anderson

A blurred picture of a person walking in a street at night.

Art by David Hammons. Courtesy of Harvard University Art Museums. Public domain.

Black and Blue

By Paul Wamo

We shall sleep no more on the pillow of echoing pathos

Translated from French by Jean Anderson

MultimediaMultilingual

An overhead shot of an empty brick elevator shaft

Paul Sableman, CC BY 2.0, via Flickr

vox

By Iryna Shuvalova

I want to speak like a woman who burns a pile of old paper in the street / and the flame dances but you can’t see her face

Translated from Ukrainian by Uilleam Blacker

Multilingual

A hand hovering over a pill organizer filled with multicolored pills

Photo by Laurynas Mereckas on Unsplash

Boulder

By Eva Baltasar

Having a kid is the same as enrolling in a lifetime plan of suffering.

Translated from Catalan by Julia Sanches

Writing Against Estrangement in Galicia

By Scott Shanahan

No doubt a few Galicians will think it in very bad taste to inaugurate this issue with a likeness to their higher profile southern neighbors, but because there may be a great many glad for the comparison,…

You’ve Likely Never Been to a Party This Big

By Borja Bagunyà

In a house like this you imagined all the stories had happy endings.

Translated from Catalan by Scott Shanahan

A close-up of meat bound into a round shape, wrapped in plastic.

Photo by Bastenbas from Wikimedia Commons. Public domain.

The Vegetarian

By Han Kang

In this excerpt from 2024 Nobel Laureate in Literature Han Kang's Booker Prize-winning novel, a man reels as his wife suddenly decides to give up meat.

Translated from Korean by Deborah Smith

Learn

Photo by Julie Fader on Unsplash

Bonsai

By Guadalupe Nettel

If I was a cactus, what kind of plant was Midori?

Translated from Spanish by Rosalind Harvey

Picture of view of downtown Albuquerque and freeway at sunset

Photo by Andreas Rasmussen on Unsplash

The Night Sucks

By Blanca Riestra

The girl with a ponytail says: “Look at the sky,” and the other says, “The sky sucks.”

Translated from Spanish by Jonathan Blitzer

The Knight

By Olga Tokarczuk

Why are you crying? he said. Over chess, over that knight?

Translated from Polish by Jennifer Croft

From behind a Closed Window

By Ngo Tu Lap

Is there, out there, a nothingness / With no future, and no past?

Translated from Vietnamese by Martha Collins & Ngo Tu Lap

Is This Home?

By Zakaria Mohammad

For the Israelis, these hours were needed so that each and every returnee would understand the truth they wanted understood: you are coming to place yourself under our heel.

Translated from Arabic by Michael K. Scott

Memories of Lily-Colored Photographs

By Jung Mi Kyung

These pictures were for the two of us to look at, laughing, never something to keep or show someone else.

Translated from Korean by Chi-Young Kim

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