World Literature Today’s 75 Notable Translations of 2025

The field of translated literature was again robust in 2025. In addition to the many excellent English translations of work from around the world, books by translators provided insight into the art of translation and the lives of translators. Suzanne Jill Levine’s Unfaithful became the first publication in Bloomsbury’s “Translated By” series. In his review for our pages, translator George Henson wrote of the memoir: “Not only a paean to the art and craft of literary translation, with all its negotiations, risks, and revelations, Unfaithful is also a testament to the richness of the literary life Levine has led and the mark she has left on how English readers understand Latin America.” Prototype Publishing released Jen Calleja’s Fair, which they describe as “blurring the lines between memoir, autofiction, satire and polemic.”

In Ancient Algorithms, Katrine Øgaard Jensen and her collaborators remixed her award-winning translations of Ursula Andkjær Olsen’s poetry in what publisher Sarabande Books describes as a work that “recasts translation as an endlessly generative art form unto itself.” About this volume, Johannes Göransson said, “These experiments in volatility may change the way you see not just translation, but writing itself.” We hope translators will continue to provide these works of literature that allow us to glimpse behind the curtain and view translation in new and exciting ways.

As we close 2025, World Literature Today is heading into its centennial year, kicking off with Harry Morales’s translation of a story by Gabriel García Márquez that will appear in print in English for the first time in our January issue. In February, Restless Books will publish A Compass on the Navigable Sea: 100 Years of World Literature, edited by our own editor in chief, Daniel Simon, with a foreword by Pico Iyer. The anthology pulls from our stunning archives of book reviews, essays, poetry, and more, including many translations. We hope you’ll enjoy the new story by García Márquez and the anthology, and we look forward to connecting with many of you as we celebrate our centennial milestone throughout next year.

For our end-of-year list, we’ve again listed seventy-five notable translations. As always, we recognize there are many more deserving of mention, including translated lit for children. We hope you’ll add to our list in the comments on our social media channels using the hashtag #2025InTranslation, along with those you’re eagerly anticipating in 2026.

Thank you for being in conversation with us this past year. We wish you good health and good reading in 2026.

* * *

Hadi Abdullah, Critical Conditions: My Diary of the Syrian Revolution, trans. Alessandro Columbu (DoppelHouse Press)

Samer Abu Hawwash, Ruins and Other Poems, trans. Huda J. Fakhreddine (World Poetry)

José Eduardo Agualusa, The Living and the Rest, trans. Daniel Hahn (Archipelago)

Hanaa Ahmad Jabr & Jennifer Jean, Where do you live?, trans. Wadaq Qais & Tamara Al-Attiya (Arrowsmith Press)

Giaime Alonge, The Feeling of Iron, trans. Clarissa Botsford (Europa Editions)

Zahran Alqasmi, Honey Hunger, trans. Marilyn Booth (Hoopoe)

Carlos Manuel Álvarez, False War, trans. Natasha Wimmer (Graywolf Press)

arabic, between love and war, ed. Yasmine Haj & Norah Alkharashi, trans. various (Trace Press)

Maya Arad, Happy New Years, trans. Jessica Cohen (New Vessel Press)

Yass Assaidi, Premonition News Flash, trans. Mbarek Sryfi (Dar Arab)

Shokoofeh Azar, The Gowkaran Tree in the Middle of Our Kitchen, trans. Anonymous (Europa Editions)

Gaëlle Bélem, The Rarest Fruit, trans. Hildegarde Serle (Europa Editions)

Kristin Berget, and when the light comes it will be so fantastic, trans. Kathleen Maris Paltrineri (Northwestern University Press)

The Book of Damascus, ed. Zaher Omareen, trans. various (Comma Press)

The Book of Sana’a, ed. Laura Kasinof, trans. various (Comma Press)

Sacha Bronwasser, Listen, trans. David Colmer (Penguin Books)

Gabriela Cabezón Cámara, We Are Green and Trembling, trans. Robin Myers (New Directions)

Can Xue, Mother River, trans. Karen Gernant & Chen Zeping (Open Letter Books)

Geet Chaturvedi, The Master of Unfinished Things, trans. Anita Gopalan (Penguin India)

Lynda Chouiten, A Waltz, trans. Skyler Artes (University of Virginia Press)

Bora Chung, Red Sword, trans. Anton Hur (Honford Star)

Anjet Daanje, The Remembered Soldier, David McKay (New Vessel Press)

Jan Dost, Safe Corridor, trans. Marilyn Booth (Dar Arab)

Amira Ghenim, A Calamity of Noble Houses, trans. Miled Faiza & Karen McNeil (Europa Editions)

Brigitte Giraud, Live Fast, trans. Cory Stockwell (Ecco)

Chaim Grade, Sons and Daughters, trans. Rose Waldman (Knopf)

Mikołaj Grynberg, Confidential, trans. Sean Gasper Bye (New Press)

Han Kang, We Do Not Part, trans. e. yaewon & Paige Aniyah Morris (Hogarth)

Leif Høghaug, The Calf, trans. David M. Smith (Deep Vellum)

Hon Lai-chu, Mending Bodies, trans. Jacqueline Leung (Two Lines Pres)

Hŏ Nansŏrhŏn, Spring Mountain: The Complete Poems of Hŏ Nansŏrhŏn, trans. Ian Haight & T’ae-young Hŏ (White Pine Press)

Valentijn Hoogenkamp, Antiboy, trans. Michele Hutchison (Seagull Books)

Saou Ichikawa, Hunchback, trans. Polly Barton (Hogarth)

Hamid Ismailov, We Computers: A Ghazal Novel, trans. Shelley Fairweather-Vega (Yale University Press)

Alexander Kluge, The Long March of Basic Trust, trans. Alexander Booth (Seagull Books)

Souad Labbize, Unfasten the Silk of Your Silence, trans. Susanna Lang (Éditions des Lisières)

Aurélia Lassaque, In Search of a Face, trans. Madeleine Campbell (White Pine Press)

Vincenzo Latronico, Perfection, trans. Sophie Hughes (NYRB)

Giovana Madalosso, The Tokyo Suite, trans. Bruna Dantas Lobato (Europa Editions)

Mozid Mahmud, Memorial Club, trans. by the author (Gaudy Boy Translates)

Gabi Martínez, The Last House Before the Sea, trans. Ezra Fitz (Restless Books)

Eva Menasse, Darkenbloom, trans. Charlotte Collins (Scribe)

Klaus Merz, In the House, Still Light, trans. Marc Vincenz (White Pine Press)

Augusto Monterroso, The Rest Is Silence, trans. Aaron Kerner (NYRB)

Antonio Muñoz Molina, Your Steps on the Stairs, trans. Curtis Bauer (Other Press) 

Sayaka Murata, Vanishing World, trans. Ginny Tapley Takemori (Grove Press)

Wiesław Myśliwski, Needle’s Eye, trans. Bill Johnston (Archipelago)

Elvira Navarro, The Voices of Adriana, trans. Christina MacSweeney (Two Lines Press)

Guadalupe Nettel, The Accidentals, trans. Rosalind Harvey (Bloomsbury)

Hanne Ørstavik, Stay with Me, trans. Martin Aitken (Archipelago)

Karina Pacheco Medrano, The Year of the Wind, trans. Mara Faye Lethem (Graywolf Press)

Emmelie Prophète, Cécé, trans. Aidan Rooney (Archipelago)

Fatma Qandil, Empty Cages, trans. Adam Talib (Hoopoe)

Nasser Rabah, Gaza: The Poem Said Its Piece, trans. Ammiel Alcalay, Emna Zghal & Khaled Al-Hilli (City Lights)

Yannis Ritsos, Exercises, 1950–1960, trans. Spring Ulmer (Ugly Duckling Presse)

Cristina Rivera Garza, Death Takes Me, trans. Robin Myers & Sarah Booker (Hogarth)

Rumi, Water, trans. Haleh Liza Gafori (NYRB)

Alberto Ruy-Sánchez, The Jacarandas Whisper, trans. Rhonda Dahl Buchanan (White Pine Press)

Thomas Schlesser, Mona’s Eyes, trans. Hildegarde Serle (Europa Editions)

Aharon Shabtai, Requiem and Other Poems, trans. Peter Cole (New Directions)

Tomoka Shibasaki, A Hundred Years and a Day: 34 Stories, trans. Polly Barton (Stone Bridge Press)

Geetanjali Shree, Our City That Year, trans. Daisy Rockwell (HarperCollins)

Neige Sinno, Sad Tiger, trans. Natasha Lehrer (Seven Stories Press)

Song Kyeong-dong, I Am Not Korean, trans. Brother Anthony of Taizé (Parlor Press)

Yoko Tawada, Exophony, trans. Lisa Hofmann-Kuroda (New Directions)

Olga Tokarczuk, Mr. Distinctive, trans. Antonia Lloyd-Jones, illus. Joanna Concejo (Seven Stories Press)

Natalia Toledo, Carapace Dancer (El dorso del cangrejo / Deche bitoope), trans. Clare Sullivan (Phoneme Media)

Chiara Valerio, The Little I Knew, trans. Ailsa Wood (Foundry Editions)

Laura Vazquez, The Endless Week, Alex Niemi (Dorothy)

Loranne Vella, Before the Rocket, trans. Kate Storace (Praspar Press)

Ida Vitale, Lexicon of Affinities, trans. Sean Manning (Charco Press)

Vũ Trọng Phụng, Making a Whore, trans. Đinh Ngõc (Major Books)

Wang Jiaxin, At the Same Time, trans. John Balcom (Arrowsmith Press)

Anne Weber, Sanderling, trans. Neil Blackadder (Indigo Press)

Yau Ching, for now I am sitting here growing transparent, trans. Chenxin Jiang (Zephyr)