The Muse in Rebellion: Maru Ayase on The Forest Brims Over
In Maru Ayase’s The Forest Brims Over, Rui, a woman who is muse for her writer husband’s literary efforts, has enough of being exploited for inspiration, swallows a bowl of seeds, and sprouts into a...
View ArticleIntroducing WWB’s Editorial Fellow, Alexander Aguayo
What drew you to Words Without Borders (and literature in translation more generally)? What is your personal relationship to language and translation? I remember learning about Words Without Borders...
View ArticleIntroducing WWB’s Social Media Editor, Eleanor Stern
What drew you to Words Without Borders (and literature in translation more generally)? What is your personal relationship to language and translation? My first really memorable encounter with WWB...
View ArticleIntroducing WWB’s Digital Humanities Fellow, Jessika Davis
What drew you to Words Without Borders (and the digital humanities more generally)? What is your personal relationship to language and translation? The field of digital humanities (DH) is a hotly...
View ArticleMystery, Taboo, and Class Barriers: A Conversation with Marie NDiaye
Recently, I had the pleasure of interviewing Marie NDiaye at Brooklyn’s Community Bookstore. It was a special night—NDiaye had run into a force majeure-style transit issue but no one left the event,...
View ArticleIntroducing WWB’s Administrative and Development Assistant, Zaporah Price
What drew you to Words Without Borders (and literature in translation more generally)? What is your personal relationship to language and translation? Literature in translation was a meaningful part of...
View ArticleMeet WWB’s Poetry Editor, Sohini Basak
What is your personal relationship to language and translation? What drew you to Words Without Borders (and literature in translation more generally)? It is impossible for me to talk about my relation...
View ArticleRevitalizing the Rajasthani Language: An Interview with Vishes Kothari
Vishes Kothari is the translator of The Timeless Tales of Marwar and A Garden of Tales by Vijaydan Detha, one of India’s most prominent Rajasthani writers. Kothari has always viewed the act of...
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An Interview with Luke Leafgren on Tale of a Wall by Nasser Abu Srour
In April, New York-based Other Press published Tale of a Wall, a memoir by Nasser Abu Srour, translated from Arabic by Luke Leafgren. Abu Srour is a Palestinian prisoner serving a life sentence in an...
View Article“A Hidden but Necessary Labor”: Kate Briggs on Translation and Parenthood
The Long Form is the debut novel by the award-winning writer and translator Kate Briggs. Published in 2023, it narrates a day in the life of a mother caring for her baby girl and trying to find time to...
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“This, Here, Is Home”: Shalim M. Hussain on Miyah Poetry from Assam
In a new anthology titled Again I Hear These Waters, poet and translator Shalim M. Hussain has collected poetry and songs from the Miyah community of Assam, a state in the northeast of India. The...
View Article“Magical, But Also a Trust Exercise”: Jen Calleja in Conversation with...
From 2015–2017, I was Translator in Residence at the Austrian Cultural Forum London. As part of this residency, I organized a series of public events, including a reading and conversation evening in...
View ArticleTranslating Palestine: Lena Khalaf Tuffaha Interviews Huda Fakhreddine
Readers of Palestinian poetry in translation are likely to have encountered some of Huda Fakhreddine’s exquisite work online this year. She has translated some of the most urgent and resonant poems...
View ArticleThe National Book Award Interviews: Fernanda Trías and Heather Cleary
Can the two of you talk about how Pink Slime came into the world—first, the germ of the original language, and then the translation? Fernanda Trías: I met Heather in 2013 while I was studying at NYU....
View ArticleThe National Book Award Interviews: Samar Yazbek and Leri Price
What particular translation challenges arose as this book was brought into English? Were they points that the author anticipated, or was there something of a process of discovery in which the author...
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The National Book Award Interviews: Solvej Balle and Barbara J. Haveland
Can the two of you talk about how On the Calculation of Volume (Book I) came into the world—first, the germ of the original language, and then the translation? Solvej Balle: : The idea for the book...
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The National Book Award Interviews: Linnea Axelsson and Saskia Vogel
Can you talk about how Ædnan came into the world—first, the germ of the original language, and then the translation? Listen to Linnea Axelsson discuss the origins of Ædnan Linnea Axelsson: The...
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The National Book Award Interviews: Bothayna Al-Essa, Ranya Abdelrahman,...
Can you talk about how The Book Censor’s Library came into the world—first, the germ of the original language, and then the translation? Listen to Bothayna Al-Essa discuss her novel The Book...
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The National Book Award Interviews: Sophie Hughes and Annie McDermott
What particular translation challenges arose as you brought Layla Martínez’s Woodworm into English? Listen to Sophie Hughes discuss her co-translation of Layla Martínez’s Woodworm Sophie Hughes:...
View ArticleIntroducing WWB’s 2024–25 Editorial Fellow, Elete Nelson-Fearon
What drew you to Words Without Borders (and literature in translation more generally)? What is your personal relationship to language and translation? I have known of Words Without Borders for as long...
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