September is National Translation Month! To help bookstores and libraries celebrate, we’ve put together this roundup of fiction and poetry in translation to spotlight all month and year-round. (We publish longer reading lists each month as well—check out our most recent reading list for National Translation Month for more ideas!)
Fiction
The Minister by Stefan Bošković
Translated from the Montenegrin by Will Firth
Sandorf Passage | May 5, 2026
Distributor: Independent Publishers Group
ISBN: 9789533515908
This novel “reveals the ugly truths about how the promises of democratic change empower corrupt politicians and organized crime syndicates, fan the flames of nationalism, and eradicate the middle class.”
Golden Shrapnel by Almir Imširević
Translated from the Bosnian by Ellen Elias-Bursać
Laertes Press/Egret | June 30, 2026
Distributor: Pathway Book Services
ISBN: 978-1-942281-34-4
According to Faruk Šehić, this novel follows a “survivor of the Sarajevo siege, the recipient of a writer’s residency in a small French town, trying to thread together the loose ends of his life after his father’s death.”
There’s No Point in Dying by Francisco Maciel
Translated from the Portuguese by Bruna Dantas Lobato
New Vessel Press | January 13, 2026
Distributor: Consortium Book Sales and Distribution
ISBN: 978-1-954404-39-7
In this novel set in a favela of Rio de Janeiro, “a gang member runs wildly through the streets not knowing he has only seven minutes left to live.”
Centroeuropa by Vicente Luis Mora
Translated from the Spanish by Rahul Bery
Bellevue Literary Press | March 10, 2026
Distributor: Consortium Book Sales and Distribution
ISBN: 9781954276529
“As bodies from past and future wars proliferate exponentially, Redo enlists the aid of eccentric villagers, but risks exposing a precious personal secret and the great love at the heart of it” in this historical novel.
The Beginnings by Antonio Moresco
Translated from the Italian by Max Lawton
Deep Vellum | June 23, 2026
Distributor: Consortium Book Sales and Distribution
ISBN: 978-1-64605-395-7
“From our narrator’s undergraduate years in seminary school, to his activities as a member of various Italian political factions, to his attempts to become a writer,” this novel is a “shapeshifting journey across the 20th century.”
Hidden Companions: Paranormals from the Old City of Jerusalem by Ahmad Nabil
Translated from the Arabic by Fatema Alhashemi
Radix Media | May 21, 2026
Distributor: Asterism Books
ISBN: 979–8–989490–22–6
Written and illustrated by Nabil, this collection of stories “weaves a literary account of paranormal stories: held, shared in whisper networks, relayed over conversations, and passed down as inheritance.”
Self-Control by Stig Saeterbakken
Translated from the Norwegian by Seán Kinsella
Dalkey Archive Press | July 14, 2026
Distributor: Consortium Book Sales and Distribution
ISBN: 978-1-62897-653-3
In this novel, “a middle-aged man, Andreas Feldt, feeling that he is unable to communicate with his adult daughter over the course of lunch, announces on an inexplicable whim that he is going to get a divorce.”
Poetry
Canícula/Dog Days by William Archila
Translated from the Spanish by Mario Zetino
Red Hen Press | April 28, 2026
Distributor: Publishers Group West
ISBN: 978-1-63628-453-8
This bilingual poetry collection “takes the reader on a poignant journey from the unrest in El Salvador in the 1980s to the urban landscape of the US immigrant, revealing the turmoil and memory of the disempowered, the impoverished, and the displaced.”
Spotlight on the Word by Astrid Cabral
Translated from the Portuguese by Alexis Levitin
World Poetry Books | May 6, 2026
Distributor: Asterism Books
ISBN: 978-1-954218-48-2
Cabral’s poetry collection is a “far-ranging contemplation of the poet’s endless endeavor to create meaning with the fragile and somehow inadequate material of her craft.”
Winter Night Rabbit Worries by Yoo Heekyung
Translated from the Korean by Stine An
Ugly Duckling Presse | May 1, 2026
Distributor: Asterism Books
ISBN: 978-1-946604-53-8
In this collection of prose poems, readers “will encounter a dizzying yet tender experience in which the boundaries between self and other unravel, and new stories begin to take shape.”
Eskatos & the Stretched Necks of Stillness by Mats Söderlund
Translated from the Swedish by Olivia Olsen
Restless Books | February 24, 2026
Distributor: Publishers Group West
ISBN: 978-1-63206-415-8
“In a sweeping but intimate blend of ecopoetry, mythology, and political verse,” this poetry collection “communes with Sweden’s primeval woodlands during an age of transformation.”
Nothing at All by Olivia Tapiero
Translated from the French by Kit Schluter
Nightboat Books | March 17, 2026
Distributor: Consortium Book Sales and Distribution
ISBN: 9781643622989
In Nothing at All, “poetic and essayistic fragments overflow with lyric beauty as they explore how colonialism, illness, and desire intertwine amidst personal and collective suffering.”
Nocturne: 111 Poems by Georg Trakl
Translated from the German by Daniele Pantano
Black Lawrence Press | January 13, 2026
Distributor: Independent Publishers Group
ISBN: 978-1-62557-198-4
This collection—which includes two newly discovered poems from “one of the leading figures of the Austro-German expressionist movement during the early twentieth century”—bears “haunting witness to a world devoid of faith, meaning, and hope.”
