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Mothers

Image of a vibrant assortment of jewelry

Photo by János Venczák on Unsplash

Sins of the Mother: Unsettling Matrilineal Inheritance in East Europe, Central Asia, and the Caucasus

By Sabrina Jaszi, Mirgul Kali & Ena Selimović

The translators of the four stories in the Matrilineal collection consider matriarchal influence and the uncanny power of feminine inheritance.

Two halves of a brown egg shell

Photo by Dennis Anderson on Unsplash

Mamali

By Leyla Shukurova

The news that Mamali’s youngest daughter has decided to go study in Baku somehow spreads quickly through their village—much more quickly than Ulfet has counted on.

Translated from Russian by Sabrina Jaszi

MultimediaMultilingual

Breathtaking image of a temple in Nepal with snowy mountains in the background

Photo by Sebastian Pena Lambarri on Unsplash

Nepal

By Marina Gudelj

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

Translated from Croatian by Ena Selimović

MultimediaMultilingual

A bed of red and yellow busy lizzies

Photo by Michael Elliott Photography

A Mother’s Voice

By Silvia Arazi

Over coffee, my brother pulls up his chair and discreetly asks me if I’m going to write that book about our mother.

Translated from Spanish by Charlotte Coombe

The White Tablecloth

Eight years and I’m still not over it.

Translated from Catalan by Mara Faye Lethem

Voracious

By Emma Pedreira

Even though I hate her, my mother probably wrote me letters that she never sent.

Translated from Galician by Kathleen March

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

Helicopter seeds on a maple tree

Photo by bales on Unsplash

When did their language mingle with ours

By Vénus Khoury-Ghata

The female branches made off with the laundry on our lines

Translated from French by Marilyn Hacker

Multilingual

A Bullet Fired into the Night

No one knows he used to be a man

Translated from Vietnamese by Martha Collins & Ngo Tu Lap