A World That’s Slowly Slipping Through Our Fingers: An Interview with Joanna Elmy
Joanna Elmy on hate, home, and brands.
Translation
Translation – PEN Transmissions
Nothing Is Real, Everything Is Real: An Interview with Michelle Steinbeck and Jen Calleja
Michelle Steinbeck and Jen Calleja on fascism, femicide, and ghosts.
Dissolving Sugar in Water: A Long Conversation with Solvej Balle
Solvej Balle on time, morality, and searching.
There Is Never One English
Deepa Rajagopalan on creating space at the centre.
Kurdishness: A Matter of Existence and Non-Existence
Nurcan Baysal on Kurdish language, culture and identity. Translated by Nazım Dikbas.
Ancient Magic vs. Modern Magic: Raphael Cormack in Conversation with Rana Haddad
Rana Haddad and Raphael Cormack on holy men, charlatans, and how 'East' and 'West' saw each other.
Mostar’s Sniper Tower
Tayiba Sulaiman on memorialisation.
Letting Us Adults In on a Secret: An Interview with Liliana Corobca and Monica Cure
Liliana Corobca and Monica Cure on children, Moldova, and secrets.
Our Tongues Were Forked Along Lines of Migration
Janika Oza on language and migration.
I’m Not Trying to Write Japanese Literature Per Se: Aoko Matsuda in Conversation with Polly Barton
Aoko Matsuda and Polly Barton on prizes, patriarchy and politics.
To Translate with an Accent
Deepa Bhasthi's call for translations with accents.
The Freedom and Right to Share Our Stories: Nguyễn Phan Quế Mai on Decolonising Literature
Nguyễn Phan Quế Mai on decolonising literature about Việt Nam by writing in the language of the coloniser.
On Translation
Astrid Alben on language, childhood, photographs and translation.
The Words We Choose III: The 2022 International Booker Prize Shortlisted Translators in Conversation
The shortlisted translators of the 2022 International Booker Prize in conversation with Ellah P. Wakatama.
No Memories, Except Memories of a Memory
Sascha A. Akhtar on the literature of South Asia, and young people translating Urdu poetry.
Translating Simone de Beauvoir
Lauren Elkin on translating de Beauvoir's newly discovered novel The Inseparables.
Journalation
Anna Aslanyan on the perils of translating news.
Translating Place and Places of Translation
Ayça Türkoğlu, Filiz Emre, Gitanjali Patel, Harriet Phillips, Jessie Spivey, Katharine Halls, Kavita Bhanot, Khairani Barokka, Naima Rashid, Nariman Youssef, Mohini Gupta and Reem Abou-El-Fadl
The Words We Choose II: A Roundtable with the International Booker Prize Shortlisted Translators
The shortlisted translators of the 2021 International Booker Prize in conversation with Maureen Freely.
Translating Emergencies
Sophie Lewis on translating Noémi Lefebvre.
On the Pacific Coast: The English PEN Membership Interview Pilar Quintana and Lisa Dillman
Pilar Quintana and Lisa Dillman, author and translator of PEN Translates award-winning The Bitch, are interviewed by the English PEN Membership from their homes in Colombia and the USA.
Translating Every Day: The Importance and Impossibility of Decolonising Translation
Kavita Bhanot writes on mother-tongue shame, translating across generations, and decolonising translation.
Translating Fascisms
Alex Valente on translating fascism between Italy, the UK and the US.
The Words We Choose: A Roundtable with the International Booker Prize Shortlisted Translators
The shortlisted translators of the 2020 International Booker Prize in conversation with Georgina Godwin.
Silence, Our Noisy Silence: A Conversation with Sema Kaygusuz and Nicholas Glastonbury
Sema Kaygusuz and Nicholas Glastonbury discuss shame, representation and the Turkish language.
Translating Ulysses for Iran
Iranian-Canadian novelist and translator Akram Pedramnia writes on translating James Joyce into Persian, evading the censors, and imperial co-option of resistance.
With this Novel, I Return: An Interview with Rafik Schami
Syrian-German novelist Rafik Schami discusses liberty, storytelling, language and exile.
Always Against the Idols: A Conversation with Chus Pato and Erín Moure
Galician poet Chus Pato and Canadian poet and translator Erín Moure discuss collaboration, Francoism, language rights and iconoclasm.
With Care
Indonesian writer and artist Khairani Barokka writes on ableism in literature and translation.
Editorial: PEN Transmissions x Granta
Out of the Ashes
The last in our series with Granta magazine on writers and their translators, Geovani Martins writes new short fiction, and Julia Sanches writes on translating it.
Connecting Worlds, Inventing Worlds
The second in our series with Granta on writers and their translators, José Eduardo Agualusa and Daniel Hahn share an embrace.
A Clean, Well-Lighted Place
The first in our series with Granta on writers and their translators, Peter Stamm pens new short fiction and Michael Hofmann writes on translating Stamm.
Channeling the rage: an interview with Meena Kandasamy
Meena Kandasamy is a writer, translator, activist and feminist who challenges comfortable notions of Western feminism, capitalism, and imperialism in her work. We talked to her per email about translating Tamil writers, nationalism and feminism, and the false dichotomy of a political and a private sphere.
Against labels
Lampedusa: Gateway to Europe
Elena Varvello on the power of place
Elena Varvello explores the idea of place as a multitude of characters in her writing.
The power of place
This is how my imagination works, I suppose: mysteriously, the process of writing always begins with a place.
Instructions Within — Andrew McMillan reads Ashraf Fayadh’s poetry
If This is a Lament
Exclusive preview of the title poem, 'If this is a lament', from a new chapbook of work by Turkish poet Bejan Matur, translated by Jen Hadfield and Canan Marasligil.
Translators of the world, unite!
An emerging translator reports from the frontline of International Translation Day 2016 at the British Library.
PEN Atlas presents: Svetlana Alexievich in conversation with James Meek
World literatures and literary worlds
As translators and publishers from around the world gather for the 2016 London Book Fair, Writers in Translation programme manager Erica Jarnes reflects on the theme of ‘reputation’ with respect to non-Anglophone writers.
Women writers in translation to read right now
To mark International Women’s Day 2016, the founder of #readwomen gives her top recommendations of women writers in translation.
PEN Atlas Q&A: Ihor Pavlyuk and Steve Komarnyckyj
The author and translator of A Flight Over the Black Sea (Waterloo Press) talk to PEN Atlas about working together, their inspirations and the power of poetry in times of war.
PEN Atlas Q&A: Peter Stamm
In this PEN Atlas Q&A, PEN Atlas editor Tasja Dorkofikis interviews Peter Stamm, one of Switzerland’s best-known writers and author of the novel All Days Are Night and short story collection We Are Flying, published by Portobello Books this month.
A rather grim story
Writer and translator Daniel Hahn writes from Bologna Children's Book Fair about the challenge of bringing more children's literature from 'the world' into English
From Afrikaans to English: on writing and translating 'The Alphabet of Birds'
S J Naudé writes about the experience of translating your own short story collection
Publishers’ translation highlights 2015
Halt your book purchases: PEN Atlas has everything you need
Art and Culture from the Frontline: In the hope that Syria Speaks even more!
Syrian journalist and short story writer Rasha Abbas interrogates the role of art and literature in conflict
Capturing the mood
In the run-up to the London Book Fair 2014, where South Korea is the market focus, we have the first in a series of pieces from the region: today Chi Young-Kim writes about the varied places translators go to, from baseball blogs to animal fables, when transporting the reader into the world of the novel
In their leaves
To celebrate World Book Day, we're publishing a short story by Carole Martinez, translated by Howard Curtis.
Yule love these books in translation – 2013
Want some expert advice on what to read in translation? Then look no further. Top writers, literary scouts, critics and festival directors recommend books to give - and devour - during the festive season. Enjoy!
Three Years Old: the reality of publishing translated fiction
What does the future hold for the publishing of literature in translation? Stefan Tobler from And Other Stories takes us through the independents, small presses, social enterprises and community interest companies using innovative ways to publish work from around the world
Translations and Mutations
Adam Thirlwell takes us through the utopian goals and surprising results of Multiples, an experiment in translation. Charting dozens of countries, languages and authors, this anthology is playful yet subversive, questioning the purpose of translation, the idea of style and the future of the novel
The Earthquake Method
From constant earthquakes to a Borges story, Giorgio Vasta's dispatch for PEN Atlas offers an original, honest and illuminating take on the current state of Italy and its politics
On the sublimation of authority
Hakan Günday unpacks the notion of authority and censorship, and considers its effects on civilians
A Little Honey
This week's PEN Atlas features a moving piece of writing by Jáchym Topol about a man and his ailing mother.
Stolen Eyes
In advance of his UK tour this week, acclaimed writer and painter Mahi Binebine treats PEN Atlas readers to a short story about young people in Morocco and the 'art' of sleeping.
Translation, Revolution, and Pedagogy
Following her appearance at the Literary Translation Centre for London Book Fair 2013, Samia Mehrez writes about working collaboratively on the book Translating Egypt’s Revolution: The Language of Tahrir, which uses multiple perspectives to translate the linguistic and cultural meanings of the momentous events in her country
No offence meant
Award-winning translator Antonia Lloyd-Jones experiences extreme reactions to the latest crime novel she has translated on a recent trip to Poland...Here she tells the PEN Atlas of her time in Sandomierz, where she visits the setting of the novel by Zygmunt Miłoszewski.
PEN Atlas Q&A – Juan Gabriel Vásquez, author of The Sound of Things Falling
PEN Atlas editor Tasja Dorkofikis talks to critically acclaimed writer Juan Gabriel Vásquez
Grammar and Glamour: On Translating Diego Marani’s New Finnish Grammar
Following our previous PEN Atlas piece by Diego Marani, his English translator Judith Landry talks us through the strange music of Finnish and translation as walking a tight-rope
Translation as a Creative Process
In this week's PEN Atlas piece, award-winning Italian writer and European Commission official Diego Marani considers the role of the author in the translation process
How international is poetry?
In this week's PEN Atlas piece, Michele Hutchison reports from the 43rd Poetry International festival in Rotterdam, investigating why it is certain poems are more likely to be translated
Selma Dabbagh reports from the Palestine Festival of Literature: Part 1
This week the PEN Atlas hears from British Palestinian writer Selma Dabbagh. In the first despatch, Selma describes her journey into Palestine; the sights, sounds and people she encounters en route.
Endangered Species
This week's PEN Atlas despatch is from Dubravka Ugresic, who considers a specific human species and its survival: the writer.
Great Flemish Voices: Louis Paul Boon and Beyond
In this week's PEN Atlas despatch editor and translator Michele Hutchison introduces some of the greatest Flemish writers...
Performing in Chains
The PEN Atlas continues this week with a two-part blog sequence. The first despatch comes from one of China's most established writers, Yan Lianke, who reflects on mechanisms of censorship.
What We Don’t Know About North Korea
This week's PEN Atlas despatch comes from Krys Lee, who takes a look at the literature from (and about) North Korea that is available in English translation.
