Skip to main content

Words Without Borders Logo

Words Without Borders Monagram
—
Discover by Country
—
Discover by Theme
—
Discover by Contributor
—
Surprise Me!
Read
Learn
Events
About
Follow Us
Go to instagram
Go to twitter
Go to facebook
Go to youtube
Read
—
Surprise Me!
Discover by Country
—
Discover by Theme
—
Discover by Contributor
—
Learn
Events
About
Outdated Browser

For the best experience using our website, we recommend upgrading your browser to a newer version or switching to a supported browser.

More Information

Heritage

A picture of the mast of a Hōkūleʻa (a Polynesian double-hulled voyaging canoe.)
Picture by Miliefsk, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons
Regeneration: The Seeds of Life
By Virginie Hoifua Te Matagi Tafilagi-Takala
Intrepid long canoes leap out / Driving for the coral gap
Translated from French by Colin Anderson
Multilingual
Family in a tunnel
Photo by Lute on Unsplash
Because of a Woman: Two Poems
By Babeth Fonchie Fotchind
I would praise your bravery when you were twenty-eight / when you boarded an airbus a330 a child in tow
Translated from Dutch by Michele Hutchison
Shadows in a dark room
Photo by Parker Coffman on Unsplash
Ancestors: Two Poems
By Alfred Schaffer
well you’re right we’re stone dead / nothing to worry about
Translated from Dutch by Michele Hutchison
MultimediaMultilingual
The Rahue River winding through lush greenery
Manuel cossu, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons
Reductions
By Jaime Huenún Villa
Jaime Huenún Villa remembers his Huilliche-Mapuche ancestors and their wise way of being in the territory.
Translated from Spanish by Cynthia Steele
Multilingual
Black and white photograph of Sámi people traveling with reindeer
Swedish National Heritage Board, No restrictions, via Wikimedia Commons
The Deportation of the Northern Sámi
By Elin Anna Labba
The children ask where they are going. They, too, have begun to grasp that they are not heading home.
Translated from Swedish by Fiona Graham
This Language Called Kaaps: An Introduction
By Olivia M. Coetzee
Language is more than just a method of communication. It is about the ability to lay down roots, to settle into an identity, to have a place in history, in the present, and in the future. Language is…
Children of the Xam
By Khadija Tracey Heeger
Watch Khadija Tracey Heeger read her poem “Children of the Xam” in the original Kaaps.Poet Khadija Tracey Heeger honors a rich and complex heritage.Between the vertebrae of the Langeberg…
Translated from Kaaps by Olivia M. Coetzee & Khadija Tracey Heeger
Multilingual
The Voices of Contact Languages in Asia: An Introduction
By Stefanie Shamila Pillai
For multilingual writers, choosing to write in their heritage languages can be seen as an expression of agency, an active choice to communicate in a nondominant language.
The Forsaken
By Aichetou
Listen, all of you, to what will later be said of the Forsaken by one of their descendants.
Translated from French by Edward Gauvin
Adabai
By Cheikh Nouh
Their nayffara is a flutelike instrument heavy with history, deeply immersed in sorrow.
Translated from Arabic by Sawad Hussain
You Will Tell Them
By Mariem Mint Derwich
You will say to them that she sleeps in the calabash of worlds
Translated from French by Emma Ramadan
Multilingual
A wrecked wooden ship lying on its side, half-buried in the sand
Photo by Tradd Harter on Unsplash
Sinkings
By Haukur Ingvarsson
the glacier is black / polar bears run on hot sand
Translated from Icelandic by Meg Matich
Multimedia
[My mother works in a cannery]
By Luisa Castro
Love is a work of art in a can.
Translated from Galician by Laura Cesarco Eglin
Multilingual
Basma’s Dream
By Amna al-Fadl
She hovers overhead, aimless, surrendering herself to fate.
Translated from Arabic by Katherine Van de Vate
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
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
Ñe’ ẽ: An Introduction to Contemporary Guaraní Poetry
By Elisa Taber
A real work of Amerindian literature makes perceptible another way of ordering and being in the world.
Time-Travelers, Fisherwomen, and Sleuths: Arabic Young Adult Literature
By Elisabeth Jaquette
While Arabic publishing has historically focused on literature for adults and young children, recent years have seen an increasing number of titles aimed at a young adult readership.
Beyond Representation: Life Writing by Women in Arabic
By Sawad Hussain & Nariman Youssef
One cannot write about real-life experiences from the place of the “I” without laying claim to a place in the world.
Razor Blade Rattle and the Beginnings of Being Tamed
By Ishraga Mustafa
How could they, when these women themselves had been through so much pain?
Translated from Arabic by Sawad Hussain
Multilingual
Lamb and ewe
Photo by Denise Jans on Unsplash
Fatoum and Hamoud and Hamed
By Qatari Oral Tradition
The mother sheep would warn her children of the wolf that prowled the town.
Translated from Arabic by Rana Elmaghraby
Al Fisaikra
By Qatari Oral Tradition
Set me free and I'll make you rich.
Translated from Arabic by Kholoud Saleh
The Sunni and His Friend
By Qatari Oral Tradition
Cats. Carry cats!
Translated from Arabic by Tariq Ahmed
Enduring Tales: The Qatari Oral Tradition
By Autumn Watts
The stories are abundant with social wisdom, moral instruction, and cultural knowledge.
Writing Against the Grain
By Alice Guthrie
The writers here are pushing the boundary of the known and working against the grain of the status quo.
photo of a half-open blue wooden door with a latch
Photo by Jan Tinneberg on Unsplash
The Latch
By Amar Nyaupane
Why did he have to sleep with his bride?
Translated from Nepali by Ajit Baral