For Women in Translation Month, observed annually during the month of August, we asked the many independent literary presses and magazines that make up our membership to share with us some of the literature they have published that is both written and translated by women. (Stay tuned for our National Translation Month reading list in September, which will feature additional works in translation!)
Fiction
Human Sacrifices by María Fernanda Ampuero
Translated from the Spanish by Frances Riddle
Feminist Press | 2023
The twelve stories in this collection “contemplate the nature of exploitation and abuse, illuminating the realities of those society consumes for its own pitiless ends.”
Translated from the Croatian by Jennifer Zoble
Feminist Press | 2023
In this short fiction collection, “eleven stories interweave feminist critique and science fiction into an irreverent portrait of our past, present, and future.”
Dreams and Other Ailments by Teresa Bevin
Translated from the Spanish by Teresa Bevin
Gival Press | 2001
This bilingual collection “provides a descriptive panorama that mixes the living with the dead and dream with reality so that boundaries of perception become blurred.”
A Strange Woman by Leylâ Erbil
Translated from the Turkish by Amy Spangler and Nermin Menemencioğlu
Deep Vellum | 2022
This debut novel “by one of Turkey’s most radical female authors tells the story of an aspiring intellectual in a complex, modernizing country.”
Translated from the Danish by Marina Allemano
Book*hug Press | 2022
Hunger Heart is “a sensual, profound work of autofiction about love, relationships, mental illness, and recovery by one of Denmark’s most celebrated literary writers.”
Call Me Esteban by Lejla Kalamujić
Translated from the Bosnian by Jennifer Zoble
Sandorf Passage | 2021
This novel “depicts pre- and post-war Sarajevo by charting a daughter coping with losing her mother, but discovering herself.”
On the Origin of Species and Other Stories by Bo-Young Kim
Translated from the Korean by Sora Kim-Russell and Joungmin Lee Comfort
Kaya Press | 2021
This short fiction collection “teems with human and non-human beings, all of whom are striving to survive through evolution, whether biologically, technologically or socially.”
Blood Feast by Malika Moustadraf
Translated from the Arabic by Alice Guthrie
Feminist Press | 2022
In this complete collection of her short fiction, Moustadraf “takes an unflinching look at the gendered body, social class, illness, double standards, and desire, as lived by a diverse cast of characters.”
The Girl Before Her by Line Papin
Translated from the French by Adriana Hunter and Ly Lan Dill
Kaya Press | 2023
This novel “offers a window onto the existential anguish of displacement as experienced by a child on the cusp of becoming a woman.”
The Bear Woman by Karolina Ramqvist
Translated from the Swedish by Saskia Vogel
Coach House Books | 2022
Blending autofiction and essay, Ramqvist “explores what it means to write history, how women’s stories have been told, and wonders, in this time of narrative fatigue and a new wave feminism that the author does not quite relate to, where we have gotten ourselves to.”
Translated from the German by Lucy Jones
Transit Books | 2023
Reimann’s first novel to appear in English is “a story of sibling love ruptured by the Iron Curtain.”
On a Woman’s Madness by Astrid Roemer
Translated from the Dutch by Lucy Scott
Two Lines Press | 2023
Originally published in 1982, this novel by the first Surinamese winner of the prestigious Dutch Literature Prize “tells the story of Noenka, a courageous Black woman trying to live a life of her choosing.”
The Red Book of Farewells by Pirkko Saisio
Translated from the Finnish by Mia Spangenberg
Two Lines Press | 2023
This autofictional novel is “a mesmerizing account of radical politics and sexual awakening in a series of farewells—to her mother, to the idealism of youth, to friends and lovers, and finally to her grown daughter.”
Translated from the Hebrew by Yardenne Greenspan
New Vessel Press | 2023
Where I Am is a novel “about life abroad in a cultural setting not one’s own: Reut is an Israeli translator living in Paris with a French husband and their child.”
Translated from the Chinese by Natascha Bruce
Graywolf Press | 2023
Owlish is “a fantastically eerie debut novel that is also a bold exploration of life under oppressive regimes.”
Nonfiction
Voyager: Constellations of Memory by Nona Fernández
Translated from the Spanish by Natasha Wimmer
Graywolf Press | 2023
In this lyric essay inspired by the mission of the Voyager spacecrafts, “Fernández finds a new container for her profound and surreal reckonings with the past.”
Return to Latvia by Marina Jarre
Translated from the Italian by Ann Goldstein
New Vessel Press | 2023
In this “part travelogue, part memoir, part ruminative essay,” Jarre “looks for traces of her murdered father whom she never bid farewell.”
Migratory Birds by Mariana Oliver
Translated from the Spanish by Julia Sanches
Transit Books | 2021
In these essays, Oliver “trains her gaze on migration in its many forms, moving between real cities and other more inaccessible territories.”
Translated from the German by Karen Caruana
Invisible Publishing | 2021
Edited by Blanka Stolz, this anthology of personal essays “addresses gardening’s most deep-rooted questions and highlights the magic that, year after year, makes us pick up a shovel and get back into the garden.”
Poetry
The White Islands / Las Islas Blancas by Marjorie Agosín
Translated from the Spanish from Jacqueline Nanfito
Swan Isle Press | 2016
This collection is “a poetic journey through the islands of the Mediterranean that served as homes and refuge for the Sephardic Jews after the Alhambra Decree.”
The Lady of Elche by Amanda Berenguer
Translated from the Spanish by Kristin Dykstra
Veliz Books | 2023
Presented bilingually for the first time, this 1987 poetry collection “drips with prophecy still relevant to our own time.”
Kindness Separates Night From Day by Marija Dejanović
Translated from the Croatian by Vesna Maric
Sandorf Passage | 2023
This poetry collection “is a marvel of refined verse that explores the concept of the eternal stranger: the self.”
Heating the Outdoors by Marie-Andrée Gill
Translated from the French by Kristen Renee Miller
Book*hug Press | 2023
This collection of micropoems “describes the yearnings for love, the domestic monotony of post-breakup malaise, and the awkward meeting of exes.”
Lovemaking in the Footnotes by Mahsa Mohebali
Translated from the Persian by Saba Riazi
Hanging Loose Press | 2020
Winner of the Loose Translations Award, this short story collection about life in contemporary Tehran is banned in Iran.
The Face of the Quartzes by Chus Pato
Translated from the Galician by Erín Moure
Veliz Books | 2021
In her twelfth book of poetry—and sixth to be translated from the Galician by Erín Moure—Pato “creates a manual for living that is one with birds, with animals, with peaks and trains and lighthouses, and with women who undertake journeys toward life (the improper) and spring (renewal).”
Sing, Nightingale by Marie Hélène Poitras
Translated from the French by Rhonda Mullins
Coach House Books | 2023
According to Sonia Sarfati, this novel is “a tale that is both beautiful and cruel, like only fairy tales can be. One that is deep and rich in what is found within and between the lines.”
The Dragonfly by Amelia Rosselli
Translated from the Italian by Roberta Antognini and Deborah Woodard
Entre Ríos Books | 2023
This long canto “hovers on the edge of the surreal, where meaning continually multiplies and then negates.”
claus and the scorpion by Lara Dopazo Ruibal
Translated from the Galician by Laura Cesarco Eglin
co•im•press | 2022
This poetry collection “interrogates the shattering responses to trauma and violence as they threaten and intrude upon the precarious ‘safe haven.’”
Pray to the Empty Wells by Iryna Shuvalova
Translated from the Ukrainian by Olena Jennings and Iryna Shuvalova
Lost Horse Press | 2019
Shuvalova’s first book-length poetry collection in English is “deeply rooted in Ukraine’s folk culture” and “re-mixes traditional spirituality with pulsating eroticism and an acute awareness of the natural environment.”
Pillar of Books by Moon Bo Young
Translated from the Korean by Hedgie Choi
Black Ocean | 2021
Full of surrealism and humor, this debut collection in English “insists that you, as a reader, put down your expectations of what should be important or serious.”
Drama
mPalermu, Dancers, and Other Plays by Emma Dante
Translated from the Sicilian, Neapolitan, and Italian by Francesca Spedalieri
Swan Isle Press | 2020
The seven plays in this anthology “challenge stereotypes of the country and stage acts of resistance against the social, political, and economic conditions of Sicily.”
Lit Mags
From Our Lady of Kazan by Maya Arad
Translated from the Hebrew by Jessica Cohen
Paper Brigade | 2020
This novel excerpt begins, “Idit had known from the start that she wasn’t going to enroll Lev in daycare or camp over the summer.”
“The Decision” by Afghan Author D
Translated from the Pashto by Zarghuna Kargar
Words Without Borders | 2020
This short story begins, “She opened the wardrobe, took out her skirt and suit jacket, and shut the doors. After getting dressed, she looked at herself in the three-piece mirror, brushed her hair, and looked again.”
Two Poems by Dostena Anguelova
Translated from the Bulgarian by Holly Karapetkova
Another Chicago Magazine | 2020
The poem “A Key” begins, “The key rests on the table, / the tablecloth flames at the fringe….”
“Al-Nar Street” by Zeinab Belail
Translated from the Arabic by Nesrin Amin
Words Without Borders | 2020
This story begins, “Al-Nar Street is one of the longest streets that any of the city’s residents has ever set foot in.”
From Guerilla Blooms by Daniela Catrileo
Translated from the Spanish by Edith Adams
New England Review | 2022
This poem begins, “It’s hard to say: / is this a tapir / or / is this fear….”
“Circuiting: or the attempt to open a jam jar” by Anna Hengstberger
Translated from the German by Lisa Schantl
The Hopper | 2022
This poem begins, “There is no beginning and no end, only a circle, / a circle of which I determine the radius and the center is now—”
Translated from the Ukrainian by Hanna Leliv
128 Lit | 2023
This prose piece begins, “A woman, who left her home on a gray February morning with her sleepy son, her cat, and two pairs of underwear in her backpack, was eating herself for breakfast, lunch, and dinner.”
Two Poems by Hwang Jini and Kim Wooncho
Translated from the Korean by Suphil Lee Park
Another Chicago Magazine | 2023
The poem “Words of Farewell” begins, “Tree bared by the moon / Golden blooms in frost….”
Translated from the Arabic by Sara Elkamel
128 Lit | 2023
The poem “A Break for the Horizon” begins, “We discussed war at length— / What will we talk about tomorrow?”
Translated from the Spanish by Elena Barcia
Dark Matter: Women Witnessing | 2023
The first poem begins, “There’s a remote country at the bottom of days. / It’s always the same…”
Translated from the Italian by Julia Pelosi-Thorpe
The Hopkins Review | 2022
The first poem begins, “This wasn’t what I meant / —a change to meet again— / I preferred metaphor.”
“The Red Marquise Speaks” by Margarita Mateo Palmer
Translated from the Spanish by Rebecca Hanssens-Reed
New England Review | 2021
This excerpt from the novel Gelsomina in the White Madhouses begins, “Those were really hard times. There was no electricity, no water, no gas, no food—well, you know as well as I do, I don’t have to tell you.”
Translated from the Hiligaynon by Karla Quimsing
ANMLY | 2023
The poem “Maternity Leave” begins, “After nine months / of nourishing and carrying / a life in my belly (while I was working)….”
From Herostories by Kristín Svava Tómasdóttir
Translated from the Icelandic by K. B. Thors
ANMLY | 2023
This poem begins, “a physician by nature // the other hand of the district doctor // at once midwife and healer….”
Translated from the Italian by Laura Venita Green
Apple Valley Review | 2023
This short story begins, “My mother once told me that you could tell whether a girl would grow up to be thin by looking at her ankles. If the ankles are slender, she said, everything else will be in proportion.”
Two Poems by Roshelle Weprinsky
Translated from the Yiddish by Rebecca Weingart
The Hopkins Review | 2023
“A Day” begins, “Houses—heavy, muted heads / lean against the low belly of the sky….”
