For National Translation Month, observed annually during the month of September, we asked our member magazines and presses to share some of the literature they have published in translation.
Poetry
With Death, an Orange Segment Between Our Teeth by Marie-Claire Bancquart
Translated from the French by Wendeline A. Hardenberg
Orison Books | 2023
Bancquart’s poetry “combines an erudite vocabulary and references to classical literature with an earthy sensibility and a fascination with experiencing the smallest moments of everyday life fully.”
Winter Season by Carolina Esses
Translated from the Spanish by Allison deFreese
Entre Ríos Books | 2023
This bilingual collection of poems is “a lyric on what truly binds us grounded in a distinctly Argentinian landscape.”
The Year the City Emptied: After Baudelaire by Daisy Fried
Translated from the French by Daisy Fried
Flood Editions | 2022
According to Jennifer Moxley, in this collection Fried is “a grave robber, revivifying the corpse of Baudelaire to mess with him and help her to cope. His ghoulish presence accompanies her as she haunts Philadelphia, ‘that old worker,’ recording riots, suffering, stench.”
Translated from the Slovak by David Short
Black Sun Lit | 2019
In this collection, Gál “revives the forgotten art of the philo-poetic line with vicious wit and tremendous dexterity.”
Translated from the Urdu by M. Shahid Alam
Orison Books | 2018
This book presents multiple versions of Ghalib’s ghazals, highlighting “the tonal complexity of Ghalib’s work and both the limitations and possibilities of translation.”
Love Is Colder than the Lake by Liliane Giraudon
Translated from the French by Sarah Riggs and Lindsay Turner
Nightboat Books | 2024
This collection “weaves together stories dreamed and experienced, fragments of autobiographical trauma, and scraps of political and sexual violence to create an alchemical and incantatory texture.”
My Visit to the Shadow District by Vladimir Poleganov
Translated from the Bulgarian by Peter Bachev
Fabulist Editions | 2024
This chapbook is “a place where museum visits and walking tours provide cover for a clandestine mission that’s more like a waking dream.”
Translated from the Russian by Martha M. F. Kelly
Slant Books | 2023
According to Scott Cairns, “These poems are united by a rare combination of humility, candor, and confidence, and by a deep, bass note of joy undergirding their claims on my heart as well.”
Whoever Drowned Here by Max Sessner
Translated from the German by Francesca Bell
Red Hen Press | 2023
Gathered here for the first time in English, Sessner’s poems “employ a matter-of-fact magical realism to engage the profound, philosophical mysteries of the everyday.”
Material Exercises by Blanca Varela
Translated from the Spanish by Carlos Lara
Black Sun Lit | 2023
This collection is “a display of the vatic exorcism of the unconscious and a phenomenological investigation of space and intersubjective incarnation.”
Natural History by José Watanabe
Translated from the Spanish by Michelle Har Kim
Georgia Review Books | 2022
According to Carmen Giménez Smith, these poems are “menageries and tales synthesized through physics, philosophy, and materialism,” in which “Watanabe’s singular gaze is a master lesson in the poetic gaze.”
Drama
Seven Against Thebes by Aeschylus
Translated from the Ancient Greek by John Tipton
Flood Editions | 2015
This play “concerns a battle between the sons of Oedipus for control of Thebes” in which “the city awaits its destruction, weighing the lives of citizens and the responsibilities of kings.”
mPalermu, Dancers, and Other Plays by Emma Dante
Translated from the Sicilian, Neapolitan, and Italian by Francesca Spedalieri
Swan Isle Press | 2020
The seven plays in this anthology “challenge stereotypes of the country and stage acts of resistance against the social, political, and economic conditions of Sicily.”
Children’s Literature
Dis Net Vel, My Pel by Nina Jablonski and Holly McGee
Translated from the English by Izak de Vries
Catalyst Press | 2023
This Afrikaans-language children’s book, also published in English by Catalyst Press, takes readers “on an adventure through human history to find out why skin is the hardest working organ in the body business.”
John the Skeleton by Triinu Laan
Translated from the Estonian by Adam Cullen
Restless Books | 2024
In this book for young readers, Laan “weaves death and grief into the bright fabric of life, crafting a tender, humorous portrait of what it means to care for one another.”
Nonfiction
Grieving: Dispatches from a Wounded Country by Cristina Rivera Garza
Translated from the Spanish by Sarah Booker
Feminist Press | 2020
“Drawing together horror theory and historical analysis” in this hybrid collection, Rivera Garza “posits that collective grief is an act of resistance against state violence, and that writing is a powerful mode of seeking social justice and embodying resilience.”
Translated from the English by Alexandra Viteri Arturo and Alejandra Martorell
53rd State Press | 2023
Guía de campo de iLANDing is a Spanish-language translation of A Field Guide to iLANDing, published in 2017 by 53rd State Press.
Tree Spirits Grass Spirits by Hiromi Ito
Translated from the Japanese by Jon L Pitt
Nightboat Books | 2023
This series of essays “adopts a non-linear narrative flow that mimics the growth of plants, and can be read as a companion piece to Ito’s beloved poem ‘Wild Grass on the Riverbank.’”
The Communicating Vessels by Friederike Mayröcker
Translated from the German by Alexander Booth
A Public Space Books | 2021
The Communicating Vessels is “an intensely personal book of mourning, comprised of 140 entries spanning the course of a year and exploring everyday life in the immediate aftermath” of Ernst Jandl’s death.
Migratory Birds by Mariana Oliver
Translated from the Spanish by Julia Sanches
Transit Books | 2021
In these essays, Oliver “trains her gaze on migration in its many forms, moving between real cities and other more inaccessible territories.”
Translated from the Spanish by Scott Spanbauer
Veliz Books | 2017
According to Daniel Borzutzky, this book is a story about “how a person lives through and survives the vilest of man-made hells, yet the speaker somehow maintains a spiritedness and determination that is itself an act of political force and resistance.”
Fiction
The Book Censor’s Library by Bothayna Al-Essa
Translated from the Arabic by Ranya Abdelrahman and Sawad Hussain
Restless Books | 2024
Longlisted for the 2024 National Book Award in translation, this novel is “a perilous and fantastical satire of banned books, secret archives, and the looming eye of an all-powerful government.”
Translated from the German by Rachel Hildebrandt
Catalyst Press | 2020
Winner of the 2015 German Crime Writing Prize, this “taut, terse novel is based on the foundational premise behind John Carpenter’s iconic film Assault on Precinct 13.”
The Hebrew Teacher by Maya Arad
Translated from the Hebrew by Jessica Cohen
New Vessel Press | 2018
In these three novellas, Arad “probes the demise of idealism and the generation gap that her heroines must confront.”
The Flying African by Areg Azatyan
Translated from the Armenian by Nazareth Seferian
Frayed Edge Press | 2024
Written in 54 chapters, this book “follows the journey of an unnamed traveler, a young Armenian writer who spends fifty-four adventurous days in Africa, one day in each of the continent’s countries.”
The Propagandist by Cécile Desprairies
Translated from the French by Natasha Lehrer
New Vessel Press | 2024
According to Ruth Ben-Ghiat, this “haunting autobiographical novel shows that the Nazi occupation of France is not an event in the distant past but part of family histories and memories that still go unspoken.”
On Your Feet: A Novel in Translations by Jacqueline Feldman
Translated from the French by Jacqueline Feldman
dispersed holdings | 2024
Featuring a translated story by French poet Nathalie Quintane as well as work by Jacqueline Feldman, this book is “at once an artist’s book combining evidence of every stage of a highly personal translation process and a series of intense experiments in the composition of bilingual prose.”
Nauetakuan, a silence for a noise by Natasha Kanapé Fontaine
Translated from the French by Howard Scott
Book*hug Press | 2024
This novel is “a timely, riveting story of reclamation, matriarchies, and the healing power of traditional teachings.”
Blessed Hands by Frume Halpern
Translated from the Yiddish by Yermiyahu Ahron Taub
Frayed Edge Press | 2023
Featuring “protagonists on the fringes of American society,” this collection features short stories originally published over several decades in Yiddish-language outlets in mid-20th century New York.
The Maroons by Louis Timagène Houat
Translated from the French by Aqiil Gopee with Jeffrey Diteman
Restless Books | 2024
The Maroons is “a fervid account of slavery and escape on nineteenth-century Réunion Island” and the only known novel by Black abolitionist and political exile Houat.
Translated from the Greek by Peter Bien
Laertes | 2024
According to Ewa Chrusciel, this novel is “framed by two funerals: the protagonist’s father and a murdered woman. It is also marked by more invisible griefs, the grief of linguistic dislocation, displacement, and internalized exile.”
Translated from the German by Damion Searls
Dorothy, a publishing project | 2024
According to Luke Kennard, this novel is a “bizarre and beautiful psychodrama about hospitality, control, and domination” that “seems to take place half in the ‘real world’ and half in a Leonora Carrington painting.”
Translated from the Spanish by Sophie Hughes and Annie McDermott
Two Lines Press | 2024
Longlisted for the 2024 National Book Award in translation, this debut novel “with its grisly, mystical vision of justice for an unjust world, announces a terrifying new voice in international horror.”
In Case of Emergency by Mahsa Mohebali
Translated from the Farsi by Mariam Rahmani
Feminist Press | 2021
This novel “takes a darkly humorous, scathing look at the authoritarian state, global capitalism, and the gender binary.”
The Villain’s Dance by Fiston Mwanza Mujila
Translated from the French by Roland Glasser
Deep Vellum Publishing | 2024
Longlisted for the 2024 National Book Award in translation, in this novel, according to Publishers Weekly, “Mujila’s virtuosic narrative shifts, feverish magical realism, and dizzying chronological leaps make for an intoxicating reading experience.”
The Case of Cem by Vera Mutafchieva
Translated from the Bulgarian by Angela Rodel
Sandorf Passage | 2024
This novel, “presented as a series of depositions by historical figures before a court, tells a straightforward tale: Upon the death of Ottoman Sultan Mehmed the Conqueror in 1481, his eldest son Bayezid takes the throne.”
Translated from the Swedish by Saskia Vogel
Book*hug Press | 2024
This novel is “a gothic tale set at the dawn of modern gynecology, when the female body appears as a cryptic landscape and male hubris reigns.”
Life After Kafka by Magdaléna Platzová
Translated from the Czech by Alex Zucker
Bellevue Literary Press | 2024
This novel tells the story of Felice Bauer, Franz Kafka’s onetime fiancée, and “depicts the magic and poison of memories, and what we cling to when all else is lost.”
The Impostor by Edgard Telles Ribeiro
Translated from the Portuguese by Kim M. Hastings and Margaret A. Neves
Bellevue Literary Press | 2023
In these two novellas, Ribeiro elucidates his characters’ situations “in surprisingly inventive ways that explore devastating questions of reality, consciousness, and loss.”
Translated from the Spanish by Denise Kripper
Veliz Books | 2024
This novel “explores daughterhood and unearths a family’s intricate past and secretive present.”
Jellyfish Have No Ears by Adèle Rosenfeld
Translated from the French by Jeffrey Zuckerman
Graywolf Press | 2024
In this novel, Rosenfeld “shines an extraordinary light on the black hole of losing a sense and on the vibrancy that can arise to fill the void.”
New Moon: Day One by Thanassis Valtinos
Translated from the Greek by Jane Assimakopoulos and Stavros Deligiorgis
Laertes | 2024
According to Nicholas Gage, this novel “tells a coming-of-age tale of two boys who struggle to deal with their emerging sexual impulses as they try to survive the brutalities of a vicious civil war.”
Translated from the Dutch by Kristen Gehrman
Sandorf Passage | 2024
Originally published in 1969 and set in 1950s Suriname, this novel “makes it all too clear what women have had to, and continue to, sacrifice in the name of claiming their identity.”
Taiwan Travelogue by Yáng Shuāng-zǐ
Translated from the the Mandarin Chinese by Lin King
Graywolf Press | 2024
Longlisted for the 2024 National Book Award in translation, this novel “unburies lost colonial histories and deftly reveals how power dynamics inflect our most intimate relationships.”
Literary Magazines
Arabic Stories from Chad, South Sudan, and Eritrea
The Common | 2024
This portfolio of short fiction features Ahmed Shekay, translated by Addie Leak; Abu Bakr Kahal, translated by Perween Richards; Tahir Annour, translated by Mayada Ibrahim; and more.
“The Midpoint of My Life” by Almog Behar
Translated from the Hebrew by Shoshana Olidort
Ayin Press | 2023
This poem begins, “1. At the midpoint of my life, preparing a cup of tea with ginger in the kitchen, / searching for the edge of a thread, an idea that was in me and was forgotten, / I recall the plague…”
Three Poems by Sambhunath Chattopadhyay
Translated from the Bengali by Kingshuk Sarkar
Another Chicago Magazine | 2024
The poem “Flow” begins, “I’m not one to tell the flower-stalk, ‘Hold on.’ / If the sickle-moon sets (out of habit), I’m not one / to wrap it round my sad fingers.”
Translated from the Chinese by Nicholas Wong
The Cincinnati Review | 2024
This poem begins, “Leaning on the cold mirror in a hotel / I keep thinking about a cruel question / I’ve heard that if a flatworm is cut into halves…”
Front Lines: Poems from Ukraine
Full Bleed | 2024
Translated from the Ukrainian by students at Dartmouth College in collaboration with students from the Ivan Puluj National Technical University in Ternopil, Ukraine, this folio features six poems and two prose pieces written by Ukrainian authors, most of whom are serving on the frontlines.
“Mania/Lines” by Katarina Frostenson
Translated from the Swedish by Bradley Harmon
The Hopkins Review | 2024
This poem begins, “Line, the word exerts a pull / the thought of being drawn out to the end / the string wants to be tightened…”
“We Were Not Always Indigenous” by Yásnaya Elena Aguilar Gil
Translated from the Spanish by JD Pluecker
Adi Magazine | 2022
This essay begins, “Systems of oppression dole out many notions of identity on platters, ready for consumption. I didn’t find out that I was Indigenous until I moved to the city.”
Translated from the Croatian by Marina Veverec
ANMLY | 2024
The poem “The Body” begins, “I gave birth to a son and dreaded his nature, / bore holes in plates, / day after day I overspilled meals with prayers…”
Three Poems by Raúl Gómez Jattin
Translated from the Spanish by Katherine M. Hedeen and Olivia Lott
manywor(l)ds.place | 2024
The poem “Not One Sweet Night” begins, “This fevered love tortuous This waiting / for the moon amid coconut palms Just in case she’d / bring me signs of your body But nothing…”
“To the Man I Pulled Back” by Senka Marić
Translated from the Bosnian by Mirza Purić
Off Assignment | 2021
This essay begins, “You wore a winter coat. I wore a thin, summer dress. A breeze was blowing on my bare legs. When I revisit that moment, I don’t feel the weight of clothes.”
“The Diver” by Jadranka Milenković
Translated from the Serbian by Petar Penda
Apple Valley Review | 2024
This poem begins, “walking isn’t the only way / to pass distances and reach the bottom / with closed eyes I dive…”
Tupelo Quarterly | 2024
Curated by Ming Di, this special feature contains works by nine writers—including Katica Kulavkova, Keshab Sigdel, and Gouthama Siddarthan—translated from Macedonian, Nepali, Tamil, Arakan, Portuguese, Xibe, and more.
Translated from the Russian by Yana Kane
Another Chicago Magazine | 2024
This feature contains poetry by Dmitry Blizniuk, Anastasia Zelenova, and Vadim Zhuk.
Three Poems by Jean-Joseph Rabearivelo
Translated from the French and Malagasy by B. P. Otto
ANMLY | 2024
The poem “Translated from The Night #3” begins, “The skin of the black cow is stretched, / stretched without setting to dry, / stretched on a septuple shadow.”
Translated from the German by Christina Henemann
manywor(l)ds.place | 2023
This poem begins, “Where-are-you-headed-so-late-at-night, and I answer, do we know each other? no-not-yet, but why / do I stop, why does the stranger’s face tempt me, resemblance to a forgotten wish, undefined…”
Translated from the Old English by Ophelia Eryn Hostetter
New England Review | 2024
This poem begins, “This jawn’s in majesty— / didn’t you know? / My tongue trips its tricks, / modulates in remix.”
Runes on Stone, Wood, Metal, and Bone
Translated by Eirill Alvilde Falck
The Hopkins Review | 2024
These runic translations feature poetry found etched on stone, wood, metal, and bone surfaces in Norway and Sweden.
“My Paths under Snow” by Mario Rigoni Stern
Translated from the Italian by Marla Moffa and Oonaugh Stransky
New England Review | 2024
This essay begins, “‘At the end of September,’ an old shepherd used to say to me, ‘the mountain up high becomes wild and inhospitable. The frost burns away any grass left from the sheep’s grazing, and the chamois and roe deer descend to places by the woods where there’s still vegetation.’”
Translated from the Arabic by Maitha and Maha
Wellspringwords | 2021
This poem begins, “A path / Over there, away from sight / Celestial spirits descend upon this Earth….”
“Once Upon a Time” by Dato Turashvili
Translated from the Georgian by Mary Childs with Lia Shartava and Elizabeth Scott Tervo
Apple Valley Review | 2023
This memoir excerpt begins, “This book begins as a fairytale, because this story began as a fairytale, and it is called a romance because this story, truthfully, is a tale of love.”
Translated from the Burmese by ko ko thett
Adi Magazine | 2021
This poem begins, “There’s a hole the size of a pencil tip / in the bamboo wall of our house.”
The Water Alphabet: Turkish Jewish Poetry in Translation
Translated from the Turkish by Dalia Kandiyoti and Nesi Altaras
Ayin Press | 2023
Featuring the poetry of J. Habib Gerez, Roni Margulies, and Anita Sezgener, this folio is “a generative place to explore the complexities of Turkish national identity and literature.”
Translated from the Arabic by Khaled Mattawa
The Cincinnati Review | 2024
The poem “Night Flight” begins, “These planes that creep away / in the middle of the night, / their engines off, / careless and lumbering, / where do they go?”
