Certain cherished books are like old loves. We didn’t part on bad terms; but it’s complicated, and would require too much effor…
Poetry
- Dipika Mukherjee reports on the first-ever Migrant Workers Poetry Competition in Singapore, at which construction-site laborers read their poems in November. Rarely is poetry, with its messy…
- News, Reviews, and InterviewsIn an announcement before the holidays, the Anton Chekhov Foundation revealed that it is working to translate over 500 of Chekhov’s earliest works into En…
- Self-portrait w/ iPhone. Courtesy of the [email protected] waryou cannot say yeah I participate in the warbut I isolate myself I separate myselfI sing & I celebrate #I I Iit is not us but…
- Literary translation again filled the news in 2014. There were firsts to celebrate—the earliest-known Arabic stories were finally translated into English, and Deep Vellum Publishing, a new translation…
- in memoriam Kenny Kahn From the archive of Eugenia Huerta Bravo.A trio of important Mexican writers was born in 1914: Octavio Paz, José Revueltas, and Efraín Huerta. In the English-langu…
- News, Reviews, and InterviewsLibyan poet and translator Khaled Mattawa was recently announced as one of the MacArthur Foundation Genius Grant recipients, and in an interview with NPR,…
- The editors of WLT are delighted to announce that the following slate of six authors have been nominated for the Pushcart Prize XL anthology:Poetry Julia Fiedor…
- A Review of Ancestral Intelligence, by Vera Schwarcz (Atrium House, 2013)Photo by Eki Ramadhan1Where thought could not be free,Death was a more welc…
- News, Reviews, and InterviewsAn exciting new discovery was recently made in Northern China: a tomb, dated approximately 1,000 years old, contained no human remains, but was filled wit…
- A cover feature on 2014 Neustadt Prize winner Mia Couto (Mozambique) and A special section on flash nonfiction featuring Brian Doyle, Josey Foo, Vikram Kapur, Lia Purpura, and Dmitry Samarov…
- “Celan as Translator,” our huge and astonishing job here, could be taken over totally by a brilliant book sitting next to me. But Celan als Übersetzer (1997), has 623 pages of not easy German…
- Maaza Mengiste. Photo by Shevaun WilliamsNews, Reviews, and InterviewsMaaza Mengiste spoke with Mantle contributor Emmanuel Iduma this week about her photogr…
- 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 and…
- News, Reviews, and InterviewsJoin us in congratulating Patrick Modiano for winning this year’s Nobel Prize for Literature!Last week, publishing giant HarperCollins announced a new ven…
- News, Reviews, and InterviewsFrench 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…
- News, Reviews, and InterviewsWriting for the Kenyon Review, Libyan poet Khaled Mattawa guides readers through the process of inspiration, translation, and writing poetry.The…
- News, Reviews, and InterviewsIn 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 InterviewsDuring the Edinburgh International Book Festival, author Michael Rosen asked a controversial question: what is the point of books?To honor the country she…
- Kim Myung WonAn impressive poet and experimental author in her own right, EJ Koh reflects on the many sources needed in order to translate Kim Myung Won’s poetry into English: fa…
- Oklahoma writer Dorothy Alexander remembers fellow poet Jim Spurr, a true “everyman poet.”Jim Spurr left this earthy existence on Sunday, August 31, 2014, after having one of the best days of…
- Hartwig HKD, “Black Icarus,” 2010. Old photographs and their conventions are both familiar and foreign to us, with their alienated and uncanny appeal. They also often seem very formal a…
- News, Reviews, and InterviewsAfter 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 Fund…
- News, Reviews, and InterviewsAll of us wish a huge congratulations to the recently named NEA Literary Translation Fellowships, including past WLT contributors Wendy Call, Ale…
- News, Reviews, and InterviewsSince 2011, fierce Taliban rule in Pakistan has silenced traditional Pashtun poets. Now, migrating from the region, a group of about 50 poets are defying…