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 author.@ 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 and stiff com…
- 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…