Do we want to live in a society in which humans are increasingly pushed aside, de-skilled, and demoralized? The author looks at literary translation as a test case of to find out.
“If we reassign our role as language creators to AI, we will lose what makes us human.”
In her ongoing show at New York’s Museum of Modern Art, Sasha Stiles and her collaborative alter ego, Technelegy, continue to explore what it means to be alive in the age of artificial intelligence.
“When an ancient-rock splits open — / trees and skies starkly mirror / the tectonic drama on the stone’s gaping / weathered face,” from “Split Fossil,” by Sudeep Sen
“At forty we have two kids running, / shouting, crying / that the sand is too hot, / that we argued / that nothing here brings joy,” from “Future Plans,” by Rosa Berbel (trans. Jane Stringham)
“And Mama told me: / ‘I’ll have a broken daughter / and I’ll comb her hair with all my teeth,’” from [And Mama told me], by Mónica Ojeda (trans. Kymm Coveney)
Remembering Technology
This short fiction is from the collection The Woman Dies (Europa, 2025), Aoko Matsuda’s feminist tales from Japan that blend humor, surrealism, and sharp social critique.
Just Now
A South African writer born after the Group Areas Act returns to Simon’s Town with her mother, who used to visit the old fishing town before it was declared white.
Now a writer and university professor, Iheoma Nwachukwu played professional chess in Nigeria for ten years. Here he considers what chess’s more rigorous contact with AI can teach professors grappling with the spark between students and AI.
A frequent WLT contributor faces a quandary likely faced by book reviewers, and avid readers, everywhere: which books to take with them when moving house?
Bringing together her practices as a translator and interpreter, a linguist is challenged to hold space for voices not her own and to reckon with what it means to speak for someone without speaking over them.
“Our Minds Are Porous and Forgetfulness Seeps In”: A Conversation on Translation and AI with Ilan Stavans
Ilan Stavans has tackled some of the most complex literary problems imaginable, ranging from piecing together the fragmentary work of poetry composed first in Nahuatl to teasing out the cultural bias in Spanish translations of that same work. With his skill in pattern recognition, recognizing bias, and evaluating multiple potential interpretations, Stavans is a perfect writer and scholar to chat with about the game-changing advent of AI.
“To Be Free You Need a Lot of Rules”: 5 Questions for Chiara Valerio
5 Questions for Chiara Valerio, author of The Little I Knew, which was a best-seller in Italy and published in English in 2025.

