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Work

William James Müller painting
William James Müller, CC0, via Wikimedia Commons
Tripoli, 1911
By Aisha Ibrahim
As Italy invades Tripoli in 1911, a young girl witnesses the beginnings of war in this excerpt from Aisha Ibrahim’s Box of Sand, longlisted for the 2023 International Prize for Arabic Fiction.
Translated from Arabic by Nashwa Nasreldin
Color photo of books stacked in a fireplace.
Photo by Svetlana Gumerova on Unsplash..
Abusive Motherland
By Yulia Yakovleva
Russian refugee Anya struggles with the trauma of immigrant life in Norway in this excerpt from Yulia Yakovleva’s Abusive Motherland.
Translated from Russian by Lindsay Munford
sound waves
Photo by Pawel Czerwinski on Unsplash.
The Hearing-Aid Brigade
By Adèle Rosenfeld
Suddenly the world felt incredibly sad. What battle to fight, and for who, if each battle bore the seed of its own destruction?
Translated from French by Jeffrey Zuckerman
MultimediaMultilingual
florist shop
Photo by Anastasia Koren on Pexels.
The Paradise Lily
By Sirpa Kähkönen
I couldn’t get my heart to calm down that morning no matter how much I breathed and built a day out of the pieces I had to work with.
Translated from Finnish by Lola Rogers
MultimediaMultilingual
space gray iPhone
Photo by Nicolas Thomas on Unsplash.
Viral
By Mahua Sen Mukhopadhyay
Not even in my wildest dreams did I imagine that Mukul would upload the video to Facebook. It went viral in a day.
Translated from Bengali by Sayari Debnath
A close-up photo of a puzzle on a table.
Photo by Maria Sol Ponce on Unsplash
A Brand-New Language
By Dinçer Güçyeter
After all, I was nearly seven and could take on some responsibility.
Translated from German by Lucy Jones
A cargo ship in a dock.
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
Close-up of cucumber plant hanging from a green fence
Photo by Markus Spiske on Unsplash
The Greenhouse
By Fatema Haidari
I could see her white hands and long, thin fingers among the green stems and huge leaves of the cucumber plants.
Translated from Dari by Shekiba Habib
A zoo sign with three green elephants and a giant yellow arrow pointing the way
"Oliwa Zoo Giant Road Sign March 2010” by Artur Andrzej. Public domain via Wikimedia Commons.
The Pavilion for Small Mammals
By Patryk Pufelski
I find myself moved by these evenings at the zoo.
Translated from Polish by Dawid Mobolaji
Bright green fabric
Photo by Alexander Grey on Unsplash
Man of Satin
By Souhaib Ayoub
He smoked incessantly. I watched him with a silent longing.
Translated from Arabic by Sharon Grosso
A black-and-white image of battered market kiosks
Photo copyright © Kseniya Fuchs
Conservation
By Kseniya Fuchs
I knew I was born here and I would die here.
Translated from Ukrainian by Ali Kinsella
Blue Days
By Fríða Ísberg
That same month, she realizes that she’s never going to stop striving as long as she’s in Reykjavik.
Translated from Icelandic by Larissa Kyzer
At the Coffee Shop
By Rania Mamoun
This man must be high on something, I thought.
Translated from Arabic by Nesrin Amin
MultimediaMultilingual
Simple Heart
By Augusto Higa Oshiro
Nobody knows why he went to such great lengths.
Translated from Spanish by Jennifer Shyue
Life Is a Pose
By Julio Villanueva Chang
In his spare time, he wears clothes.
Translated from Spanish by Nicolás Medina Mora
Özdamar’s Tongue
By Mariana Oliver
Özdamar knew that arriving in a country with no return ticket meant voluntarily surrendering to an indeterminate foreignness.
Translated from Spanish by Julia Sanches
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.
Mossy rocks at the edge of the coastline in Gaza
Photo by Emad El Byed on Unsplash
Against the Tide
By Taghreed Najjar
Who ever heard of a fisherwoman in Gaza, much less a young girl?
Translated from Arabic by Elisabeth Jaquette
The Head of Household Manifesto
By Catalina Mena
The hearth is a fire that’s always being extinguished.
Translated from Spanish by Susannah Greenblatt
Multimedia
The World at Home: US Writing in Translation
By Susan Harris
This issue is not a departure but a continuation.
I Am Not Your Cholo
By Marco Avilés
In San Marcos I could be poor and cholo and I didn’t have the pressure of hiding or explaining myself.
Translated from Spanish by Sophie Hughes
Multilingual
Bahaa and Shareef Escape to New York
By Ezzedine Fishere
They didn’t get any satisfaction from coming out.
Translated from Arabic by Jonathan Smolin
Multilingual
House Taken Over
By Yuri Herrera
The house knew how to determine what was important.
Translated from Spanish by Lisa M. Dillman
Multilingual
The Madman of Bonanjo
By Alain Mabanckou
You can hang a man from a tree, but you cannot hang History with him.
Translated from French by Helen Stevenson
Multilingual
A cup of tea with mint leaves
Photo by FIsh God on Unsplash
The Book of Disappearance
By Ibtisam Azem
We inherit memory the way we inherit the color of our eyes and skin.
Translated from Arabic by Sinan Antoon
MultimediaMultilingual
Seven Stories
By Osama Alomar
A strange thing began to happen in the country.
Translated from Arabic by C.J. Collins
Roadkill
By Hiromi Itō
“Roadkill’s something you get used to seeing in America”
Translated from Japanese by Jeffrey Angles
Multilingual
A dirty black chair illuminated in a dark cell
Photo by Spencer Tamichi on Unsplash
A Slice of Darkness
By Hossein Mortezaeian Abkenar
“Why do you think they brought you here?”
Translated from Persian by Sara Khalili
After the Inferno
By Zhang Xinxin
“I’m the Girl-Homer with her eyes wide open.”
Translated from Chinese by Helen Wang
The Assassin
By Tuhin Das
Still we couldn't stop writing.
Translated from Bengali by Arunava Sinha
MultimediaMultilingual
The Sound of Snow
By Khet Mar
While snow was striking the windowpanes, my ears could only hear the sound of screaming and crying from a distant land.
Translated from Burmese by Maung Maung Myint
Multimedia
My Grandfather and Sitt Biba
By Mohammed Abdelnabi
I was convinced that I really had caused the death of the one I loved most.
Translated from Arabic by Nariman Youssef
Ali Muhsin Market
By Nadia Al-Kokabany
He tossed and turned in his bed, trying to wrest those hours from his memory.
Translated from Arabic by Thoraya El-Rayyes
Hands
By Anwara Syed Haq
The things he could mend! From jewelry to shoe soles, from punctured tires to bent bicycle spokes–he fixed it all.
Translated from Bengali by Shabnam Nadiya
From “Kumait”
By Najem Wali
After reading Crime and Punishment when he was a student he had contemplated killing Umm Husayn.
Translated from Arabic by William Maynard Hutchins