If a written, spoken language is one of the characteristics that distinguishes humans from other animals, what would happen if the ability to speak—to even comprehend the spoken word—suddenly vanished...
News, Reviews, and Interviews
Up at Words Without Borders this week, Suzanne Jill Levine remembers all of the times she sat down to dinner with Pablo Neruda over his lifetime...
News, Reviews, and Interviews
To celebrate the start of political relations between the United States and Cuba, Restless Books has begun a new blog series asking Cuban writers what it...
News, Reviews, and Interviews
This week, author Valeria Luiselli sat down with NPR to talk about why she chooses to have her work translated, despite being bilingual. (Luiselli’s fort...
News, Reviews, and Interviews
We want to send our congratulations to all of the recipients of this year’s Hemingway Grant, recognizing excellence in French literature translation.
Ahe...
News, Reviews, and Interviews
In an announcement before the holidays, the Anton Chekhov Foundation revealed that it is working to translate over 500 of Chekhov’s earliest works into E...
News, Reviews, and Interviews
Libyan poet and translator Khaled Mattawa was recently announced as one of the MacArthur Foundation Genius Grant recipients, and in an interview with NPR...
News, Reviews, and Interviews
An exciting new discovery was recently made in Northern China: a tomb, dated approximately 1,000 years old, contained no human remains, but was filled wi...
News, Reviews, and Interviews
We sadly note the passing of two literary greats this week: first, former U.S. poet laureate Mark Strand, who passed away at the age of 80; second, Egypt...
2014 Neustadt Prize Laureate Mia Couto
News, Reviews, and Interviews
Last weekend, PEN International asked the international literary community to stand in solidarit...
Photo by Joede Sousa
News, Reviews, and Interviews
This week, the world remembered the fall of the Berlin Wall, which took place 25 years ago on November 9, 1989. Th...
Maaza Mengiste. Photo by Shevaun Williams
News, Reviews, and Interviews
Maaza Mengiste spoke with Mantle contributor Emmanuel Iduma this week about her phot...
Mia Couto receiving the Neustadt feather. Photo by Vanesssa Rudloff.
Thank you to all of our readers who supported the 2014 Neustadt Festival last week! It was a wonderful celebration of Mia Couto an...
News, Reviews, and Interviews
Join us in congratulating Patrick Modiano for winning this year’s Nobel Prize for Literature!
Last week, publishing giant HarperCollins announced a new v...
News, Reviews, and Interviews
French novelist Patrick Modiano has won this year’s Nobel Prize in Literature.
Last week, Laila Lalami spoke to NPR about her new novel, The Moor’s...
News, Reviews, and Interviews
Writing for the Kenyon Review, Libyan poet Khaled Mattawa guides readers through the process of inspiration, translation, and writing poetry.
Th...
This week, readers everywhere (us included) celebrated Banned Books Week, which celebrates the freedom to read and authors whose books have been challenged, banned, and censored because of their conte...
News, Reviews, and Interviews
In one of the most controversial articles to circle the web recently, NPR writer and critic Juan Vidal wonders what has happened to political poets. (For...
News, Reviews, and Interviews
During the Edinburgh International Book Festival, author Michael Rosen asked a controversial question: what is the point of books?
To honor the country s...
News, Reviews, and Interviews
This week, the world mourned the passing of Palestinian poet Samih al-Qasim.
In her first New York City appearance in over 10 years, Herta Müller discuss...
News, Reviews, and Interviews
After years of civil war and conflict, Afghan refugees are beginning to return home and bring with them waves of migrant literature.
The 2014 PEN/Heim Fu...
News, Reviews, and Interviews
All of us wish a huge congratulations to the recently named NEA Literary Translation Fellowships, including past WLT contributors Wendy Call, Al...
News, Reviews, and Interviews
Since 2011, fierce Taliban rule in Pakistan has silenced traditional Pashtun poets. Now, migrating from the region, a group of about 50 poets are defying...
News, Reviews, and Interviews
Is literary translation something that can be taught? Translator Katy Derbyshire shares her thoughts on the subject and the BCLT summit.
International au...
News, Reviews, and Interviews
Hala Salah, the woman behind the only literature review to translate English works into Arabic, is embarking on a brand new venture: audiobooks for the b...