A man who escaped childhood poverty in Malmö to become a writer is forced to return to a job he held in his youth at a harbor export hub in this excerpt from Kristian Lundberg’s autobiographical novel detailing the collapse of Sweden’s welfare state…

In this monologue from New Caledonian playwright Olivia Duchesne’s I Shall Live in the Night a man’s release from prison spurs reflections on a violent family conflict.

In this excerpt from Panamanian playwright Xavier Stanziola’s The Myth of Gravity, a lesbian couple fight social prejudice and petty bureaucracy to regain custody of their adopted son.

Whenever I think of the old woman, I remember her not as my great-grandmother but as the first person I learned to loathe.

“Mom was like, ‘The Himalayas? She’s never even climbed the Mosor, right here on her doorstep.’”