First Read Archives - Page 2 of 12 - Words Without Borders

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First Read—From “Stone Dreams”

By Akram Aylisli

“But there’s no one who doesn’t know Sadai Sadygly. You see, no one else in the world has played Hamlet, Othello, Aidyn, and Kefli Iskender like he has.”

Translated from Russian by Katherine E. Young

First Read—From “Anniversaries: From a Year in the Life of Gesine Cresspahl”

By Uwe Johnson

The following is excerpted from Uwe Johnson’s Anniversaries: From a Year in the Life of Gesine Cresspahl, translated from the German by Damion Searls and forthcoming with New York Review Books.…

Translated by Damion Searls

First Read—From “What We Owe”

By Golnaz Hashemzadeh Bonde

In Golnaz Hashemzadeh Bonde’s What We Owe, translated from the Swedish by Elizabeth Jane Clark Wessel and forthcoming with Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, a fifty-year-old Iranian refugee living…

Translated by Elizabeth Jane Clark Wessel

First Read—From “Drive Your Plow Over the Bones of the Dead”

By Olga Tokarczuk

The following excerpt is from Olga Tokarczuk’s Drive Your Plow Over the Bones of the Dead, translated by Antonia Lloyd-Jones and out now with Fitzcarraldo Editions. In her mid-sixties, Janina…

Translated by Antonia Lloyd-Jones

From “Pretty Things”

By Virginie Despentes

In Virginie Despentes’s Pretty Things, translated from the French by Emma Ramadan and forthcoming from the Feminist Press, twins Claudine and Pauline hatch a plan to create the “perfect woman,”…

Translated by Emma Ramadan

First Read—From “Poso Wells”

By Gabriela Alemán

In Gabriela Alemán’s Poso Wells, translated from the Spanish by Dick Cluster and forthcoming with City Lights Publishers, a journalist explores the disappearance of a leading presidential…

Translated by Dick Cluster

First Read—From “The Hospital”

By Ahmed Bouanani

Ahmed Bouanani’s The Hospital, translated from the French by Lara Vergnaud, is forthcoming from New Directions. Based on the author’s own experiences as a tuberculosis patient, the novel depicts…

Translated by Lara Vergnaud

First Read—From “The Baghdad Clock”

By Shahad Al Rawi

In Shahad Al Rawi’s The Baghdad Clock, translated by Luke Leafgren and forthcoming from Oneworld Publications, two girls hiding in an air-raid shelter in Baghdad during the Gulf War tell stories…

Translated by Luke Leafgren

First Read—From “Lion Cross Point”

By Masatsugu Ono

Masatsugu Ono’s Lion Cross Point, translated by Angus Turvill, is forthcoming from Two Lines Press. The novel follows ten-year-old Takeru, who arrives at his family’s home village amid a scorching…

Translated by Angus Turvill

First Read—From “Querido Pablito / Julissimo Querido: Selected Correspondence, 1950–1971”

By Paul Blackburn & Julio Cortázar

Edited and Translated by Ammiel Alcalay, Jacqueline Cornetta, Alison Macomber, and Alexander SoriaThe following is excerpted from Querido Pablito / Julissimo Querido: Selected Correspondence, 1950–1971,…

Translated by Ammiel Alcalay, Jacqui Cornetta, Alison Macomber & Alexander Soria

First Read—From “The Endless Summer”

By Madame Nielsen

Madame Nielsen’s The Endless Summer is a passionate love story about a Danish woman and a much younger Portuguese artist. Translated from the Danish by Gaye Kynoch and forthcoming from Open Letter…

Translated by Gaye Kynoch

First Read—From “Transit Comet Eclipse”

By Muharem Bazdulj

The following is excerpted from the opening of Muharem Bazdulj’s Transit Comet Eclipse, three subtly linked novellas that take the reader across several centuries of Yugoslav history. Translated…

Translated by Nataša Milas

First Read—From “Chintungo: The Story of Someone Else”

By Soledad Marambio

The following poems are excerpted from Soledad Marambio’s Chintungo: The Story of Someone Else, translated by K.T. Billey and recently published in a bilingual edition by Ugly…

Translated by K.T. Billey

First Read—From “Translation as Transhumance”

By Mireille Gansel

The following is excerpted from Translation as Transhumance, Mireille Gansel’s humanist meditation on translation, translated into English by Ros Schwartz and forthcoming from the Feminist…

Translated by Ros Schwartz

First Read—From “Old Demons, New Deities”

By Pema Tsewang Shastri

The following story appears in Old Demons, New Deities, a collection of twenty-one short stories from Tibet, edited by Tenzin Dickie and forthcoming from OR Books.The Flight of the Wind…

Translated by Tenzin Dickie & Pema Tsewang Shastri

First Read—From “Swallowing Mercury”

By Wioletta Greg

In Wioletta Greg’s Swallowing Mercury, translated by Eliza Marciniak and out now from Transit Books, Wiola looks back on her youth in a close-knit, agricultural community in 1980s Poland. Swallowing…

Translated by Eliza Marciniak

First Read—From “Croatian War Nocturnal”

By Spomenka Štimec

Spomenka Štimec’s Croatian War Nocturnal, translated from the Esperanto by Sebastian Schulman and published by Phoneme Media, is a fictionalized memoir of the wars in former Yugoslavia…

Translated by Sebastian Schulman

First Read—From “I Hear Your Voice”

By Young-ha Kim

In Young-ha Kim’s I Hear Your Voice, translated by Krys Lee and published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, the narrator, Donggyu, and his friend Jae grow up on the streets of Seoul and seek friendship,…

Translated by Krys Lee

First Read—From “Adua”

By Igiaba Scego

Igiaba Scego’s Adua, translated by Jamie Richards, is out now from New Vessel Press. Adua emigrates from Somalia to Italy to escape an oppressive regime, and dreams of becoming a film star. After…

Translated by Jamie Richards

First Read—From “Rhapsody in Quebec” by Akos Verboczy

By Akos Verboczy

Casey Roberts’s translation of Akos Verboczy’s Rhapsody in Quebec, On the Path of an Immigrant Child was recently published by Baraka Books. “The Dreams of My Mother” is one of…

Translated by Casey Roberts

First Read—From “Literature Class”

By Julio Cortázar

Julio Cortázar’s Literature Class, from the lectures the Argentine writer delivered at UC Berkeley in 1980, will be published by New Directions on March 28, edited by Carles Álvarez…

Translated by Katherine Silver

First Read—From “Camanchaca” by Diego Zúñiga

By Diego Zúñiga

Diego Zúñiga’s Camanchaca, translated by Megan McDowell and out March 7 from Coffee House Press, follows a young man on a long, near-silent drive with his father across Chile’s…

Translated by Megan McDowell

First Read—From “The Gringo Champion” by Aura Xilonen

By Aura Xilonen & Andrea Rosenberg

And to think I swore I’d stay out of trouble on this side of the world.

Learn

First Read—From “The Tongue of Adam” by Abdelfattah Kilito

By Abdelfattah Kilito

How, from Babel onward, can we explain the plurality of language? In The Tongue of Adam, translated from the French by Robyn Creswell and forthcoming from New Directions, Moroccan writer Abdelfattah Kilito…

Translated by Robyn Creswell

First Read: From “Landing”

By Laia Fàbregas & Samantha Schnee

Image: From the cover of Landing (Hispabooks).Landing, by Laia Fàbregas and translated by Samantha Schnee, is forthcoming from Hispabooks (September, 13, 2016).He died while we were landing.During…

First Read: From “Instructions Within” by Ashraf Fayadh

By Mona Kareem & The Operating System

Image: Cropping of the cover of Instructions Within by Ashraf Fayadh (The Operating System, 2016).The following poems, translated from the Arabic by Mona Kareem, are excerpted from Ashraf…

First Read: From “Istanbul Istanbul”

By Burhan Sönmez & Ümit Hussein

Image: From the cover of Istanbul Istanbul (OR Books)Istanbul Istanbul, by Burhan Sönmez and translated by Ümit Hussein, is forthcoming from OR Books. Burhan Sönmez appeared in New…

First Read: “Performing Writers”

By Alek Popov & Angela Rodel

For Rob ListIn the story I am about to tell, three Bulgarian writers have been invited to a literary reading in a small English city with notable architecture and an unpronounceable name that begins with…

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First Read

An Adventure Worthy of an Author

Slash and Burn

Peach Blossom Paradise

An Archipelago in a Landlocked Country

A Pre-Columbian Bestiary: Tepeyólotl

New Ways of Saying “We”

What Happens When We Sleep?

Bodies

Discovering Murakami

Birds in Formation

“An Immigrant Like an Automobile”

First Read—From “No Presents Please”

First Read: From “Breathing Through the Wound”

First Read—from “Songs We Learn from Trees”

First Read—From “Cockfight” by María Fernanda Ampuero

First Read—From “Roxy”

First Read—From “Second Sister”

First Read—From “The Sweet Indifference of the World”

First Read—From “Come to Me”

First Read—From “Return to the Enchanted Island”

First Read—from “Celestial Bodies”

First Read—from “The Collector of Leftover Souls”

First Read—From “History. A Mess.”

First Read—From “Among the Lost”

First Read—“Knowingly Willingly,” from “A New Divan”

First Read—From “Curl”

First Read—From “Camouflage”

First Read—From “The White Book”

First Read: From “Incomprehensible Lesson”

First Read—From “Away! Away!”

First Read—From “Stone Dreams”

First Read—From “Anniversaries: From a Year in the Life of Gesine Cresspahl”

First Read—From “What We Owe”

First Read—From “Drive Your Plow Over the Bones of the Dead”

From “Pretty Things”

First Read—From “Poso Wells”

First Read—From “The Hospital”

First Read—From “The Baghdad Clock”

First Read—From “Lion Cross Point”

First Read—From “Querido Pablito / Julissimo Querido: Selected Correspondence, 1950–1971”

First Read—From “The Endless Summer”

First Read—From “Transit Comet Eclipse”

First Read—From “Chintungo: The Story of Someone Else”

First Read—From “Translation as Transhumance”

First Read—From “Old Demons, New Deities”

First Read—From “Swallowing Mercury”

First Read—From “Croatian War Nocturnal”

First Read—From “I Hear Your Voice”

First Read—From “Adua”

First Read—From “Rhapsody in Quebec” by Akos Verboczy

First Read—From “Literature Class”

First Read—From “Camanchaca” by Diego Zúñiga

First Read—From “The Gringo Champion” by Aura Xilonen

First Read—From “The Tongue of Adam” by Abdelfattah Kilito

First Read: From “Landing”

First Read: From “Instructions Within” by Ashraf Fayadh

First Read: From “Istanbul Istanbul”

First Read: “Performing Writers”