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Interviews

The Translator Relay: Kristin Dykstra
By Words Without Borders
 WWB’s Translator Relay features an interview with a different translator every few months. The current month’s translator will choose the next interviewee, adding a different,…
The City and the Writer: In Delhi with Sudeep Sen
By Nathalie Handal
Old Mughal monuments stand at ease with glass-and-steel office towers.
The Translator Relay: Urayoán Noel
By Words Without Borders
WWB’s Translator Relay features an interview with a different translator every few months. The current month’s translator will choose the next interviewee, adding a different, sixth…
Lily Meyer and Mona Kareem on Their New Series, Close-Up: An Experiment in Reviewing Translation
By Words Without Borders
Today WWB launches its new series Close-Up: An Experiment in Reviewing Translation, a response to the dearth of book reviews that take translators and translation into account. In the conversation…
“Sheltering in the Prose of a Master”: Padma Viswanathan on Translating Graciliano Ramos
By Miguel Conde
Last week, NYRB Classics released Padma Viswanathan's translation of São Bernardo, a classic novel by early twentieth-century Brazilian writer Graciliano Ramos. Today on WWB…
“Imagining Our Own Death”: On Writing Times of Crisis
By Amanda Michalopoulou & Patricia Felisa Barbeito
Amanda Michalopoulou's latest novel, God's Wife, was published by Dalkey Archive Press in Patricia Felisa Barbeito's translation late last year. In today's interview, the author…
The City and the Writer: In Annaba, Algeria, with Janette Ayachi
By Nathalie Handal
For me, there is no Algeria, only Annaba, where the Barbary coast yawns out.
The City and the Writer: In Paris with John Freeman
By Nathalie Handal
The Paris I grew to love isn’t gone, but right now it is shutting down.
The Translator Relay: Regina Galasso
By Words Without Borders
WWB’s Translator Relay features an interview with a different translator every few months. The current month’s translator will choose the next interviewee, adding a different, sixth…
The City and the Writer: In Lisbon with Patricio Ferrari
By Nathalie Handal
Returning to Lisbon means savoring another delectable local delicacy: the mouthwatering Portuguese language with its varied assortment of vowels.
Alejandro Zambra on His Latest Book, the Protests in Chile, and Giving Away His Personal Library
By Victor Meadowcroft
Victor Meadowcroft attended the 2019 international book fair in Guadalajara, where he interviewed writers María Fernanda Ampuero, Ariana Harwicz, and Alejandro Zambra, and publishers…
The City and the Writer: In Berlin with Rajeev Balasubramanyam
By Nathalie Handal
There is a permanent solace in the knowledge that you can’t be the weirdest person in this city.
Bringing History Back to Life: Best-selling Turkish Writer Zulfu Livaneli on “Serenade for Nadia”
By Jim Ottaway, Jr.
Turkish writer, musician, and human rights activist Zulfu Livaneli talks about his latest novel to appear in English, Serenade for Nadia (translated by Brendan Freely), out from Other Press on March 3.Zulfu…
The City and the Writer: In Amman with Amjad Nasser (1955–2019)
By Nathalie Handal
There is another life that unfolds in this low-lying area at the foot of the seven hills.
Utopia and Dystopia in Beirut: A Conversation with Barrack Rima
By Carla Calargé & Alexandra Gueydan-Turek
An excerpt from Barrack Rima's graphic novel Beirut Trilogy appears in WWB's current issue of graphic literature in translation. In conversation with translators Alexandra Gueydan-Turek…
Literary Pseudoscience and a New Generation of Argentine Writers: An Interview with Roque Larraquy
By Susannah Greenblatt
When I bought my copy of Comemadre by Argentine novelist Roque Larraquy, the bookseller looked up at me from behind the cash register and said, “Be prepared—this book blew my wife’s…
The City and the Writer: In Rome with Peter Covino
By Nathalie Handal
Returning to Rome makes the blood rush in unpredictable ways.
The City and the Writer: In Auckland, New Zealand with Chloe Honum
By Nathalie Handal
There’s no forgetting that we’re on an island at the bottom of the Pacific, looking up, heading into the morning while much of the world is still making its way through the day we just left behind.
María Fernanda Ampuero on “Cockfight,” Visceral Writing, and the Cruelty of Family Life
By Victor Meadowcroft
Victor Meadowcroft attended the 2019 international book fair in Guadalajara, where he interviewed writers María Fernanda Ampuero and Ariana Harwicz, and publishers Diego Rabasa (Sexto Piso) and…
Sexto Piso’s Diego Rabasa on Existential Selfies and Publishing the Books He Loves to Read
By Victor Meadowcroft
Victor Meadowcroft attended the 2019 international book fair in Guadalajara, where he interviewed writers María Fernanda Ampuero and Ariana Harwicz, and publishers Diego Rabasa (Sexto Piso) and…
Language as a Virus: Ariana Harwicz on Writing Bilingually
By Victor Meadowcroft
Victor Meadowcroft attended the 2019 international book fair in Guadalajara, where he interviewed writers María Fernanda Ampuero and Ariana Harwicz, and publishers Diego Rabasa (Sexto Piso) and…
Looking Outside the Mainstream: Charco Press’s Carolina Orloff on Publishing Fiction in Translation
By Victor Meadowcroft
Victor Meadowcroft attended the 2019 international book fair in Guadalajara, where he interviewed writers María Fernanda Ampuero and Ariana Harwicz, and publishers Diego Rabasa (Sexto Piso) and…
The City and the Writer: In Toledo, Ohio, with Charles Kell
By Nathalie Handal
Toledo is a city marked with scratches, indentations, ashes of other cities, shadows, fugitive trails, clouds of smoke, dust, and slamming doors.
Translating the Real J. P. Cuenca: An Essay and Interview
By Elizabeth Lowe
Elizabeth Lowe’s translation of an excerpt from Brazilian writer João Paulo Cuenca’s I Found Out I Was Dead appears in the current issue of international true crime writing. Lowe…
The City and the Writer: In Vicenza with Carlo Pizzati
By Nathalie Handal
Is it possible to ever fully outgrow the place that first left its mark on you? The town, city, or village where you lived for the first fifteen years of your life?
The City and the Writer: In Amman with Lena Khalaf Tuffaha
By Nathalie Handal
Amman consumes me when I’m there and it can feel like an entire world. It demands so much attention even as it grumbles about its own frustrations.
Telling Truths with New Words: Jeffrey Zuckerman on Translating Mauritian Literature
By Ariel Saramandi
Jeffrey Zuckerman’s translations of Ananda Devi’s The Living Days (The Feminist Press) and Shenaz Patel’s Silence of the Chagos (Restless Books) were both released this week. Through…
Silvina Ocampo in English
By María Agustina Pardini
In anticipation of City Lights’s publication of Silvina Ocampo’s Forgotten Journey (tr. Suzanne Jill Levine and Katie Lateef-Jan) and The Promise (tr. Suzanne Jill Levine and Jessica Powell),…
Igor Štiks on Obsessing about Traumatic Historical Events and Human Agency
By Olivia Snaije
Igor Štiks was born in Sarajevo, fled to Croatia with his family during the war, and now lives in Belgrade. He writes about citizenship in former and post-Yugoslavia and is the author of two novels, A…
The City and the Writer: In Abidjan with Véronique Tadjo
By Nathalie Handal
The moment you think that you know Abidjan, the city escapes your embrace.
The City and the Writer: In New York City with Kathy Engel
By Nathalie Handal
The place that keeps having me back, its moonless nights, its raucous urban sea, anonymous and also memory-crammed, people- and ghost-filled.
The City and the Writer: In Athens with Alicia E. Stallings
By Nathalie Handal
If each city is like a game of chess, the day when I have learned the rules, I shall finally possess my empire, even if I shall never succeed in knowing all the cities it contains.—Italo Calvino, Invisible…
Children’s Literature in Translation: Amazon Crossing Kids
By Words Without Borders
In recent years, a proliferation of books in translation for children and young adults has brought imaginative stories from around the world to new readers. We’re speaking with some of the extraordinary…
An Interview with WWB Poetry Contest Winner Jacob Rogers
By Words Without Borders
Jacob Rogers’s translation of “An Apocryphal History of the Discovery of Migration” by Alba Cid was one of four winners of WWB’s poetry in translation contest, presented in…
An Interview with WWB Poetry Contest Winners Lee Young-ju and Jae Kim
By Words Without Borders
“Roommate, Woman” by Lee Young-ju, translated from Korean by Jae Kim, was one of four winners of WWB’s poetry in translation contest, presented in partnership with the Academy of…
An Interview with WWB Poetry Contest Winners Claudia Masin and Robin Myers
By Words Without Borders
“Tomboy” by Claudia Masin, translated from Spanish by Robin Myers, was one of four winners of WWB’s poetry in translation contest, presented in partnership with the Academy of American…
The City and the Writer: In Turin with Angie Cruz
By Nathalie Handal
Torino wears an elegant three-piece suit of the most beautiful fabric, but it’s frayed at the cuffs, missing some buttons.
The City and the Writer: In Lisbon, Portugal, and Orkney, Scotland with Rachael McGill
By Nathalie Handal
There’s nowhere that I don’t feel like an outsider. It’s always been that way . . . For me that’s something joyful.
How to Ask a Question Like the Little Prince: An Interview with Filmmaker Marjoleine Boonstra
By Susannah Greenblatt
There will be a screening of The Miracle of the Little Prince at the Film Forum in New York City on Friday, August 30, followed by a Q&A with Marjoleine Boonstra. “What…
The City and the Writer: In Calgary with Marcello Di Cintio
By Nathalie Handal
Passion lives in the realization, especially among Calgary’s creative class, that everything is permitted here.
The Translator Relay: Chantal Ringuet
By Words Without Borders
WWB’s Translator Relay features an interview with a different translator every few months. The current month’s translator will choose the next interviewee, adding a different, sixth…
August-2019-Chinese-Poetry-Interview-with-Tsering-Woeser-Boyden-Woeser
Tibetan poet Tsering Woeser (left) and translator Ian Boyden
The Presence of the Dalai Lama’s Absence: A Conversation with Tibetan Poet Tsering Woeser
By Ian Boyden
At a time when Tibet is largely ignored by the international community, Woeser vividly conveys what it is like to experience the destruction of her culture.
The City and the Writer: In Worcester with Oliver de la Paz
By Nathalie Handal
From certain vantage points you can see the bones of the old city. Graying old buildings. Brickworks. Row houses stacked up on the hill.
The City and the Writer: In Bangalore with Madhuri Vijay
By Nathalie Handal
Bangalore was a small, sleepy cantonment town that woke up one day to find it had become a booming metropolis.
Starting at the Surface: An Interview with Lee Hyemi
So J. Lee’s translation of Lee Hyemi’s “The Cupboard with Strawberry Jam” from Unexpected Vanilla appears in this month’s Queer issue. After a year of emailing back and forth,…
수면에서 시작하기: 이혜미 작가와의 인터뷰
이혜미의 시 <딸기잼이 있던 찬장>의 영문 번역이 Words without Borders 이번…
The City and the Writer: In Bombay with Jeet Thayil
By Nathalie Handal
Nothing exists outside Bombay. From the moment you get off the plane, you know you have entered a room full of mirrors: everything is self-referential.
The City and the Writer: In Nablus with Isabella Hammad
By Nathalie Handal
Even in the Nablus of my mind I remain outside, peering in at windows, opening stale cupboards, looking for abandoned objects from the past.
The Translator Relay: Lazer Lederhendler
By Words Without Borders
WWB’s Translator Relay features an interview with a different translator every few months. The current month’s translator will choose the next interviewee, adding a different, sixth…
The City and the Writer: In Tripoli, Lebanon with Ruth Awad
By Nathalie Handal
Tripoli is my father’s birthplace, and it always evokes existential questions about my identity: can I be of a place but not from it?
An Interview with Ma Jian and Flora Drew
By Words Without Borders
We spoke with Chinese author Ma Jian and his English-language translator, Flora Drew, who is also his partner, about their collaboration on his work. Words Without Borders (WWB): Flora—are you Ma…
An Interview with Man Booker International Shortlisters Alia Trabucco Zerán and Sophie Hughes
By Susannah Greenblatt
Alia Trabucco Zerán’s debut novel, The Remainder, which is shortlisted for the Man Booker International Prize in Sophie Hughes’s translation, probes the lingering shadows of Chile’s…
The City and the Writer: In San José, Costa Rica with David Cruz
By Nathalie Handal
Outside San José, the world exists, but it is a city that, despite its smallness, tries to contain you.
The Taste of a Silver Spoon: María Gainza’s “Optic Nerve”
By Tamara Tenenbaum
Tamara Tenenbaum, winner of Argentina’s inaugural Premio Ficciones, reflects on María Gainza’s just-released Optic Nerve (tr. Thomas Bunstead, Catapult Books, 2019) in…
Tilted Axis’s “Translating Feminisms” Chapbook Series
By Jessie Chaffee
We spoke with Esther Kim, marketing and publicity manager of Tilted Axis, about the press’s recently released chapbook series, Translating Feminisms, which features translated poetry by women writers…
An Interview with Sang Young Park
By Anton Hur
The title story of Sang Young Park’s debut collection, Tears of an Unknown Artist, or Zaytun Pasta (Munhakdongne, 2018), is serialized in Words Without Borders in Anton Hur’s translation.…
The City and the Writer: In Taipei with Afaa Weaver
By Nathalie Handal
What comes to us of places we have not seen is not what that place actually is. This important fact is ignored more and more.
Five Translators on the Joys and Challenges of Translating Children’s Books
By Emma Ramadan
Emma Ramadan, whose recent translations include Who Left the Light On? and The Boy (co-translated with Tom Roberge), spoke with five top translators—of Spanish, Japanese, Portuguese,…
An Interview with Pierre Jarawan
By Zachary Issenberg
Pierre Jarawan is one of the featured German-language authors at the 2019 Festival Neue Literatur, which will occur March 29–31 in New York City. Zachary Issenberg, who will be interviewing Jarawan…
An Interview with Linnea Axelsson
By Saskia Vogel
Saskia Vogel, guest editor of WWB’s March 2019 issue of Swedish-language writing, spoke with Linnea Axelsson about her August Prize-winning epic poem, Ædnan, which appears in the issue in Vogel’s translation.…
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