Menu

Recent Readings

A woman replays her abandonment by her mother, who is sometimes addressed as a male mother-god. She is also abandoned by her lover, to whom she is in thrall. She tries repeatedly to make or receive phone calls with the beloved figures, without success. She waits for their letters and imagines their contents. In a dream-like, torrid sequence, suffering, fear, fatigue and imperfection are apostrophised. Forgetting is examined and toyed with from every angle. Mythical hybrid creatures are invoked: a snake-headed lion, wolf-snakes, a wolf-peacock. the narrator speaks from multiple perspectives to express powerful anguish. According to Morag Shiach, "The narrator explores the paralysing violence and fear produced by her relation to dominant forms of subjectivity, with an intensity that forces her to challenge and reject the identities available to her" (1991, 91). For Verena Andermatt Conley, "Angst writes both a detachment and an arrival. moves away from a masculine writing scene toward a feminine one [...] There, another writing, conjoining body and thought, will be." (1991, 94). Translator bio Sophie Lewis is a London-born translator and editor. Working from French and Portuguese, she has translated books by Marcel Aymé, Josephine Baker, Hélène Cixous, Annie Ernaux, Violette Leduc, Noémi Lefebvre, Nastassja Martin, Françoise Sagan, Leïla Slimani, Stendhal and Jules Verne; also Victor Heringer, Patrícia Melo, Sheyla Smanioto and Micheliny Verunschk. With Gitanjali Patel, she co-founded Shadow Heroes translation workshops. Lewis’s translations have been shortlisted for the Scott Moncrieff and Republic of Consciousness prizes, and longlisted for the International Booker Prize. In 2022, she won the French-American Foundation’s prize for non-fiction translation. Author bio Hélène Cixous, born 1937, is a French writer, playwright and literary critic. During her academic career, she was primarily associated with the Centre universitaire de Vincennes, which she co-founded in 1969. Known for her experimental writing style and great versatility as a feminist writer and thinker, she has written more than seventy books. BUY THE BOOK: https://www.waterstones.com/book/angst/helene-cixous/sophie-lewis/9781739371777

This video is private.

YouTube Video VVVqYXE5T1Nwb0Vlb2hQbUs4WlQtQzd3Lm5WTFJEeXlzSW5j

Sophie Lewis reads from Hélène Cixous' ANGST (Silver Press, 2026)

16 Mar, 2026 12:32 pm

In 1966 Suriname, the Vanta family, an intricate blend of Creole, Maroon, French, Indian, Indigenous, British, and Jewish heritage, is led by Grandma Bee, a proud, cigar-smoking matriarch facing her final days. As she reflects on her scattered family and the loss of her favourite granddaughter, Heli, exiled to the Netherlands for an affair with her white teacher, Bee grapples with one question: What truly binds a family? Off-White offers a moving exploration of Bee’s legacy amid themes of male violence, colonialism, and the dismantling of racial identity, marking the return of a celebrated Surinamese author after two decades. OFF-WHITE is co-translated by David McKay and Lucy Scott. ‘Off-White…echoes [Roemer’s] earlier themes—the racial and sexual dynamics of Suriname’s multiethnic society—but with a larger scope, examining several generations of a Surinamese family in the years between World War II and the 1960s.’ —Anderson Tepper, The New York Times ‘Emotionally cool; the narrative ripples with the feeling of history and ill-advised decisions slowly insinuating themselves into lives rather than dramatically transforming them.’ —Kirkus Reviews BUY THE BOOK: https://www.tiltedaxispress.com/offwhite https://www.twolinespress.com/shop/books/off-white Translator bios Lucy Scott is a translator of Caribbean literature written in Dutch and French. Her short story and essay translations thus far have appeared in Shenandoah: The Washington and Lee Review and in Wilderness House Literary Review. She is the translator of Astrid Roemer’s On a Woman’s Madness, shortlisted for the National Book Award and longlisted for the International Booker Prize. Her recent work also includes Self Portrait by Ludwig Volbeda. David McKay, a literary translator based in The Hague area, is best known for translating Stefan Hertmans's novels, including The Ascent. He won the Vondel Prize for Hertmans’s War and Turpentine. Other recent publications include The Remembered Soldier by Anjet Daanje, which has been shortlisted the National Book Award, the PEN Translation Prize, and the Republic of Consciousness Prize and longlisted for the International Booker Prize. Author bio In 1966, at the age of nineteen, Astrid Roemer emigrated from Suriname to the Netherlands. She identified herself as a cosmopolitan writer. Exploring themes of race, gender, family and identity, her poetic, unconventional prose stands in the tradition of authors such as Toni Morrison and Alice Walker. She was awarded the P.C. Hooft Prize in 2016, and the three-yearly Dutch Literature Prize (Prijs der Nederlandse Letteren) in 2021. In 2026, Astrid Roemer passed away at the age of 78.

In 1966 Suriname, the Vanta family, an intricate blend of Creole, Maroon, French, Indian, Indigenous, British, and Jewish heritage, is led by Grandma Bee, a proud, cigar-smoking matriarch facing her final days. As she reflects on her scattered family and the loss of her favourite granddaughter, Heli, exiled to the Netherlands for an affair with her white teacher, Bee grapples with one question: What truly binds a family? Off-White offers a moving exploration of Bee’s legacy amid themes of male violence, colonialism, and the dismantling of racial identity, marking the return of a celebrated Surinamese author after two decades.

OFF-WHITE is co-translated by David McKay and Lucy Scott.

‘Off-White…echoes [Roemer’s] earlier themes—the racial and sexual dynamics of Suriname’s multiethnic society—but with a larger scope, examining several generations of a Surinamese family in the years between World War II and the 1960s.’ —Anderson Tepper, The New York Times

‘Emotionally cool; the narrative ripples with the feeling of history and ill-advised decisions slowly insinuating themselves into lives rather than dramatically transforming them.’ —Kirkus Reviews

BUY THE BOOK:
https://www.tiltedaxispress.com/offwhite
https://www.twolinespress.com/shop/books/off-white

Translator bios
Lucy Scott is a translator of Caribbean literature written in Dutch and French. Her short story and essay translations thus far have appeared in Shenandoah: The Washington and Lee Review and in Wilderness House Literary Review. She is the translator of Astrid Roemer’s On a Woman’s Madness, shortlisted for the National Book Award and longlisted for the International Booker Prize. Her recent work also includes Self Portrait by Ludwig Volbeda.

David McKay, a literary translator based in The Hague area, is best known for translating Stefan Hertmans's novels, including The Ascent. He won the Vondel Prize for Hertmans’s War and Turpentine. Other recent publications include The Remembered Soldier by Anjet Daanje, which has been shortlisted the National Book Award, the PEN Translation Prize, and the Republic of Consciousness Prize and longlisted for the International Booker Prize.

Author bio
In 1966, at the age of nineteen, Astrid Roemer emigrated from Suriname to the Netherlands. She identified herself as a cosmopolitan writer. Exploring themes of race, gender, family and identity, her poetic, unconventional prose stands in the tradition of authors such as Toni Morrison and Alice Walker. She was awarded the P.C. Hooft Prize in 2016, and the three-yearly Dutch Literature Prize (Prijs der Nederlandse Letteren) in 2021. In 2026, Astrid Roemer passed away at the age of 78.

YouTube Video VVVqYXE5T1Nwb0Vlb2hQbUs4WlQtQzd3Lm1UYlE2MHNFNWFn

David McKay reads from Astrid Roemer's OFF-WHITE (Tilted Axis Press, 2026 / Two Lines Press, 2024)

5 Mar, 2026 2:55 pm

Three friends and a potato field, with the Valle d’Aosta and its mountains all around them. Macaco is a farmhand who is also a bit of a philosopher. As Macaco ponders nature, love, friendship, ecology, and poetry with his colleagues and friends, Banana and Tomb, in short but very vivid (and hilarious!) chapters, we learn about his life in the ‘margins’, which is also at the very heart of everything. An unforgettable voice for an astonishing novel that won the 2024 Calvino Prize for unpublished manuscripts. Translator bio Antonella Lettieri is a translator working between English and Italian. Her translations include Maria Grazia Calandrone’s Your Little Matter (published by Foundry Editions in 2024), Roberta Recchia’s All That is Left of Life (published by Dialogue Books in 2025), and Matteo Melchiorre’s The Duke (published by Foundry Editions in 2025). Antonella was a Mentee for the National Centre for Writing Emerging Translator for Italian in 2023 and won first prize in the John Dryden Translation Competition in the same year. Your Little Matter was granted the PEN Grant for the English Translation of Italian Literature in 2024 and is currently shortlisted for the TA First Translation Prize. Author bio Simone Torino was born in Aosta in 1979. After graduating as an electrical engineer, he earned a degree in Modern Literature from the University of Turin. Over the years, he has held many jobs, ranging from farmhand to postman, all while continuing to write. Some of his short stories are available online, while others have been published in anthologies. Macaco (Einaudi, 2025) is his first novel and won the Italo Calvino Prize in 2024, which is awarded to unpublished debuts.

Three friends and a potato field, with the Valle d’Aosta and its mountains all around them. Macaco is a farmhand who is also a bit of a philosopher. As Macaco ponders nature, love, friendship, ecology, and poetry with his colleagues and friends, Banana and Tomb, in short but very vivid (and hilarious!) chapters, we learn about his life in the ‘margins’, which is also at the very heart of everything. An unforgettable voice for an astonishing novel that won the 2024 Calvino Prize for unpublished manuscripts.

Translator bio
Antonella Lettieri is a translator working between English and Italian. Her translations include Maria Grazia Calandrone’s Your Little Matter (published by Foundry Editions in 2024), Roberta Recchia’s All That is Left of Life (published by Dialogue Books in 2025), and Matteo Melchiorre’s The Duke (published by Foundry Editions in 2025).
Antonella was a Mentee for the National Centre for Writing Emerging Translator for Italian in 2023 and won first prize in the John Dryden Translation Competition in the same year. Your Little Matter was granted the PEN Grant for the English Translation of Italian Literature in 2024 and is currently shortlisted for the TA First Translation Prize.

Author bio
Simone Torino was born in Aosta in 1979. After graduating as an electrical engineer, he earned a degree in Modern Literature from the University of Turin. Over the years, he has held many jobs, ranging from farmhand to postman, all while continuing to write. Some of his short stories are available online, while others have been published in anthologies. Macaco (Einaudi, 2025) is his first novel and won the Italo Calvino Prize in 2024, which is awarded to unpublished debuts.

YouTube Video VVVqYXE5T1Nwb0Vlb2hQbUs4WlQtQzd3Lk9Ed0NtaDZCOERV

Antonella Lettieri and author Simone Torino read from MACACO (seeking a publisher)

26 Feb, 2026 3:00 pm

A richly imagined, physically charged poetry collection in which history, myth, and protest are transformed into lyrical gestures. Sylvie Kandé’s Gestuary offers a collection of gestures—of death and life, of tenderness and brutality—that fractures the flow of time. Senegalese riflemen from World War I are juxtaposed with migrants at borders who sew their lips shut in protest over immigration policies. In dream-like sequences, the dead refuse to stay underground and ‘push against the fence / that swings between our realm and theirs.’ Inspired by unexpected sources, including jazz, sculpture, the legacy of the slave trade, proverbs, and elements of Diola culture, Kandé’s poems are rich in musicality and sophisticated syntax, rendered into a lyrical and luminous English by Nancy Naomi Carlson. Excerpts from Gestuary have been published in the AMERICAN POETRY REVIEW, THE GEORGIA REVIEW, THE NEW YORK REVIEW OF BOOKS, POETRY MAGAZINE, and THE SOUTHERN REVIEW, among others. Nancy Naomi Carlson is a poet and translator whose translation of Khal Torabully’s Cargo Hold of Stars: Coolitude (Seagull Books, 2021) won the Oxford-Weidenfeld Translation Prize. Decorated with the French Academic Palms, her books have been recommended by the New York Times. She’s the translations editor for On the Seawall and the co-translations editor for Pleiades. Born in Paris to a French mother and a Senegalese father, Sylvie Kandé is the author of three acclaimed poetry collections published by Gallimard. Her writing and research explore the complex dialogues between Africa and Europe, and between Africa and its diasporas, with a focus on métissage (hybridity) and post-racial utopias. The French original of Gestuary (2016) received the 2017 Prix Louise Labé. Kandé lives in New York City and teaches at SUNY Old Westbury, where she was received a Chancellor's Award.

This video is private.

YouTube Video VVVqYXE5T1Nwb0Vlb2hQbUs4WlQtQzd3LkxUOG5hc3V2bWtj

Nancy Naomi Carlson reads from Sylvie Kandé's GESTUARY (Seagull Books, 2026)

19 Feb, 2026 3:00 pm

Outside Vallorgàna, a tiny, isolated village high in the foothills of the Dolomites, the ‘Duke’ lives in the villa of his aristocratic ancestors. The last in the centuries-old line of the Cimamontes, he spends his days on his land, absorbed in the family archive, and tolerated (if gently ridiculed) by the villagers who are his neighbours. When he finds out that the village’s self-proclaimed autocrat is taking timber from his land, he has a decision to make: will he stay in his glorious, cerebral isolation, or will he honour his ancestral blood and take action against this affront? Matteo Melchiorre’s portrait of the idiosyncratic character of the Duke and the world of Vallorgàna is a sweeping feat of literary imagination. With the pace, panorama, and plot twists of a great nineteenth-century classic, the breathless story of the Duke’s ensuing feud unfolds, asking some big twenty-first-century questions about our relationships with privilege, the past, the natural world, and each other. “This strange language takes hold of you - like a forest growing around you - and you don’t even notice.” PAOLO COGNETTI “It’s a story set in the present, yes—but a present heavy with the weight of centuries. It has been a long time since I’ve read such a powerful novel, a novel that seeks to re-enchant the world.” TIZIANO SCARPA “With The Duke, Matteo Melchiorre has crafted a taut, epic tale about the madness of power, the laws of nature and individual freedom.” IL LIBRAIO “This remarkable book makes us believe that some of the reasons why we still plough our way through novels might still be alive: the thirst for adventure, the chill of the mountains, a sense of greatness slightly beyond our reach.” La Lettura, CORRIERE DELLA SERA Translator bio Antonella Lettieri is a translator working between English and Italian. Her translations include Maria Grazia Calandrone’s Your Little Matter (published by Foundry Editions in 2024), Roberta Recchia’s All That is Left of Life (published by Dialogue Books in 2025), and Matteo Melchiorre’s The Duke (published by Foundry Editions in 2025). Antonella was a Mentee for the National Centre for Writing Emerging Translator for Italian in 2023 and won first prize in the John Dryden Translation Competition in the same year. Your Little Matter was granted the PEN Grant for the English Translation of Italian Literature in 2024 and is currently shortlisted for the TA First Translation Prize. Author bio Matteo Melchiorre was born in 1981. He began his professional career in academia as a researcher at the University of Udine and then the University Ca' Foscari, and the Iuav of Venice. He has been the director of the Museum Library and the Historical Archive of Castelfranco Veneto since 2018. He specialises in the economic and social history of the Middle Ages and the early modern period, as well as the history of mountains and forests. His first novel, Il Duca, was published by Einaudi in 2022. BUY THE BOOK: https://www.foundryeditions.co.uk/bookshop/p/theduke

Outside Vallorgàna, a tiny, isolated village high in the foothills of the Dolomites, the ‘Duke’ lives in the villa of his aristocratic ancestors. The last in the centuries-old line of the Cimamontes, he spends his days on his land, absorbed in the family archive, and tolerated (if gently ridiculed) by the villagers who are his neighbours. When he finds out that the village’s self-proclaimed autocrat is taking timber from his land, he has a decision to make: will he stay in his glorious, cerebral isolation, or will he honour his ancestral blood and take action against this affront?

Matteo Melchiorre’s portrait of the idiosyncratic character of the Duke and the world of Vallorgàna is a sweeping feat of literary imagination. With the pace, panorama, and plot twists of a great nineteenth-century classic, the breathless story of the Duke’s ensuing feud unfolds, asking some big twenty-first-century questions about our relationships with privilege, the past, the natural world, and each other.

“This strange language takes hold of you - like a forest growing around you - and you don’t even notice.” PAOLO COGNETTI

“It’s a story set in the present, yes—but a present heavy with the weight of centuries. It has been a long time since I’ve read such a powerful novel, a novel that seeks to re-enchant the world.” TIZIANO SCARPA

“With The Duke, Matteo Melchiorre has crafted a taut, epic tale about the madness of power, the laws of nature and individual freedom.” IL LIBRAIO

“This remarkable book makes us believe that some of the reasons why we still plough our way through novels might still be alive: the thirst for adventure, the chill of the mountains, a sense of greatness slightly beyond our reach.” La Lettura, CORRIERE DELLA SERA

Translator bio
Antonella Lettieri is a translator working between English and Italian. Her translations include Maria Grazia Calandrone’s Your Little Matter (published by Foundry Editions in 2024), Roberta Recchia’s All That is Left of Life (published by Dialogue Books in 2025), and Matteo Melchiorre’s The Duke (published by Foundry Editions in 2025).
Antonella was a Mentee for the National Centre for Writing Emerging Translator for Italian in 2023 and won first prize in the John Dryden Translation Competition in the same year. Your Little Matter was granted the PEN Grant for the English Translation of Italian Literature in 2024 and is currently shortlisted for the TA First Translation Prize.

Author bio
Matteo Melchiorre was born in 1981. He began his professional career in academia as a researcher at the University of Udine and then the University Ca' Foscari, and the Iuav of Venice. He has been the director of the Museum Library and the Historical Archive of Castelfranco Veneto since 2018. He specialises in the economic and social history of the Middle Ages and the early modern period, as well as the history of mountains and forests. His first novel, Il Duca, was published by Einaudi in 2022.

BUY THE BOOK: https://www.foundryeditions.co.uk/bookshop/p/theduke

YouTube Video VVVqYXE5T1Nwb0Vlb2hQbUs4WlQtQzd3LndPcUlsWXRUR0Jv

Antonella Lettieri reads from Matteo Melchiorre's THE DUKE (Foundry Editions, 2025)

5 Feb, 2026 3:01 pm

Red Moon is a novel teeming with enigmas, mysteries, and curiosities, including the symbolic meanings of gemstones found beside the murderer’s victims. The crimson moon and full moons that feature throughout the story carry profound significance. As Margarita Landi once told Nieves Herrero, “If a full moon has a red halo, a crime will be committed that night.” This chilling statement sets the tone for the novel and questions the link between full moons and criminal minds. “The story has all the ingredients to keep you glued to the book’s pages. There won’t be just one crime, but multiple. There won’t be just one sole suspect, and throughout the plot, we will logically deduce who it is and arm ourselves for the investigation. There won’t be just one red moon. I invite you to read this novel published by Ediciones B in 2024. We will keep discovering that books shouldn’t be boxed in by a trend, or have an expiry date.” (https://pasionpais.net/cultura/luna-roja-en-el-cielo-de-nieves-herrero/) The full sample for Red Moon is available here - https://alannahpurslow.websitesfortranslators.dev/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/RED-MOON-SAMPLE.pdf For rights information, please contact: Sofia Di Capita (sofia@antoniakerrigan.com) Translator bio Alannah Purslow is a Spanish and French literary translator based in Wales. She graduated from her M.Phil in Literary Translation (Trinity College, Dublin) in Spring 2025. Her debut translation, Fast Cars, was released last September (Welbeck Children's Books, Hachette Children’s Group, 2025). She is a storyteller at heart, intrigued by how our relationships and life experiences are interconnected to how we perceive and create art. Author bio Nieves Herrero (1957 -) was born in Madrid. She has a degree in Journalism from Madrid’s Universidad Complutense and a Law degree from Universidad Europea, with an addition year of study in the Criminology Department of the Universidad Camilo José Cela. She has spent decades working a journalist in the press, radio and television and her media trajectory has been recognised as one of the most award-winning in the profession. She is the author of the best sellers Lo que escondían sus ojos [What Her Eyes Concealed] (2013, La Esfera de los Libros), the TV adaption of which beat audience records and won an Ondas award; Como si no hubiera un mañana [As If There Was No Tomorrow] won a Premio de la Crítica de Madrid [Madrid Critic’s Award] in 2015, Carmen (2017, La Esfera de los Libros), which stayed on the best-seller list for sixty weeks and was one of Spain’s highest selling historical fiction books as well as being the only authorised biography of Carmen Franco; Esos Días Azules [Those Blue Days] (2019), El joyero de la reina [The Queen’s Jeweller] (2022) unanimously loved by critics and public alike. La Baronesa [The Baroness] (2023) was also a resounding editorial success. Passionate about good stories and crime novels, Nieves Herrero continues her literary canon, praised by tens of thousands of readers, with Luna roja [Red Moon] (2024).

This video is private.

YouTube Video VVVqYXE5T1Nwb0Vlb2hQbUs4WlQtQzd3LkVIUmVxbXRrbU9j

Alannah Purslow reads from Nieves Herrero's RED MOON (seeking a publisher)

29 Jan, 2026 10:15 am

THERE WAS A TIME FOR SUCH A WORD, Gianni Solla's debut novel in English, has been translated into thirteen languages. Set in a remote part of southern Italy during World War II, it tells the story of Davide, an illiterate pig keeper. His three-sided friendship with Nicolas, a Jewish boy whose family has been banished from Naples, and Teresa, the daughter of a village ropemaker, inspires him to seek liberation through language and learning. Their relationship takes them through the perilous terrain of adolescence in which harsh choices lead to betrayal and remorse. David is forced to escape from a cruel family life to the rubble-strewn streets of Naples where he finds salvation in back-alley theaters through the transformative power of storytelling. As the years pass, he resolves to search for his two lost friends, bringing this heartrending story to its conclusion. “With There Was a Time for Such a Word, Gianni Solla has written a very subtle, quiet story about friendships forged in times of inhumanity.” — Nürnberger Nachrichten “Gianni Solla has written a love story of overwhelming power that unfolds in three parts and reads as thrillingly as a crime novel.” — Badische Neueste Nachrichten Translator bio RICHARD DIXON translated the last works of Umberto Eco, including his novels The Prague Cemetery and Numero Zero. Other translations include works by Giacomo Leopardi, Carlo Emilio Gadda, Paolo Volponi, Roberto Calasso, Antonio Moresco and Stefano Massini. He translated Pope Francis’s Hope: The Autobiography in January 2025. His reading from Paolo Volponi’s THE WORLD MACHINE for Translators Aloud can be found at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D7LBdrLMDoI Author bio GIANNI SOLLA was born and lives in Naples. He has published short stories in international anthologies and literary magazines, and collaborated with Il Napoli from 2006 to 2010. His novel Airbag (2008) was followed by Il fiuto dello squalo (2012) and Tempesta madre (2021).

THERE WAS A TIME FOR SUCH A WORD, Gianni Solla's debut novel in English, has been translated into thirteen languages. Set in a remote part of southern Italy during World War II, it tells the story of Davide, an illiterate pig keeper. His three-sided friendship with Nicolas, a Jewish boy whose family has been banished from Naples, and Teresa, the daughter of a village ropemaker, inspires him to seek liberation through language and learning. Their relationship takes them through the perilous terrain of adolescence in which harsh choices lead to betrayal and remorse. David is forced to escape from a cruel family life to the rubble-strewn streets of Naples where he finds salvation in back-alley theaters through the transformative power of storytelling. As the years pass, he resolves to search for his two lost friends, bringing this heartrending story to its conclusion.

“With There Was a Time for Such a Word, Gianni Solla has written a very subtle, quiet story about friendships forged in times of inhumanity.” — Nürnberger Nachrichten “Gianni Solla has written a love story of overwhelming power that unfolds in three parts and reads as thrillingly as a crime novel.” — Badische Neueste Nachrichten

Translator bio
RICHARD DIXON translated the last works of Umberto Eco, including his novels The Prague Cemetery and Numero Zero. Other translations include works by Giacomo Leopardi, Carlo Emilio Gadda, Paolo Volponi, Roberto Calasso, Antonio Moresco and Stefano Massini. He translated Pope Francis’s Hope: The Autobiography in January 2025.
His reading from Paolo Volponi’s THE WORLD MACHINE for Translators Aloud can be found at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D7LBdrLMDoI

Author bio
GIANNI SOLLA was born and lives in Naples. He has published short stories in international anthologies and literary magazines, and collaborated with Il Napoli from 2006 to 2010. His novel Airbag (2008) was followed by Il fiuto dello squalo (2012) and Tempesta madre (2021).

YouTube Video VVVqYXE5T1Nwb0Vlb2hQbUs4WlQtQzd3LnJLQnVfaDFDd1Nj

Gianni Solla & translator Richard Dixon read from THERE WAS A TIME FOR SUCH A WORD (HarperVia, 2025)

22 Jan, 2026 3:01 pm

The text captures a single moment under a microscope: trees, a river, streets, and a hospital blur into one field of perception. A man dissolves into an inner drift of memory and vision; reality slips as he imagines falling into the river, where forms lose their clarity—a confrontation with both mortality and origin. A child repeatedly interrupts this inward descent, pulling the speaker back into the physical, sensory world. The man oscillates between wandering and reality, surrender and return. In the end, the river resumes its ordinary flow. Children play, birds fly, and life continues unchanged. Translator bio Oumayma Oueghlani, a Tunisian, writes and translates from a small grey desk as she watches the lemon tree sway. She has been observing life for twenty years. https://dlib.nyu.edu/aco/book/columbia_aco003072/1 ( this is a link to the free PDF version as this short story is a part of a literary magazine published in the 70s)

The text captures a single moment under a microscope: trees, a river, streets, and a hospital blur into one field of perception. A man dissolves into an inner drift of memory and vision; reality slips as he imagines falling into the river, where forms lose their clarity—a confrontation with both mortality and origin.

A child repeatedly interrupts this inward descent, pulling the speaker back into the physical, sensory world. The man oscillates between wandering and reality, surrender and return.

In the end, the river resumes its ordinary flow. Children play, birds fly, and life continues unchanged.


Translator bio
Oumayma Oueghlani, a Tunisian, writes and translates from a small grey desk as she watches the lemon tree sway. She has been observing life for twenty years.

https://dlib.nyu.edu/aco/book/columbia_aco003072/1 ( this is a link to the free PDF version as this short story is a part of a literary magazine published in the 70s)

YouTube Video VVVqYXE5T1Nwb0Vlb2hQbUs4WlQtQzd3LkNOOG9pbWVqWkFz

Oumayma Oueghlani reads from Fares Al Anwar's "A story of the trees"

15 Jan, 2026 3:00 pm

In The Cabbage Woman, the residents of a small village live a simple life, planting crops and selling their produce and bread at the annual summer market. The villagers take good care of each other but exclude the Cabbage Woman, as they have come to call the cabbage seller who is always covered from head to toe and keeps to herself. There is a lot of gossiping about her, and although some feel sorry for her, most avoid her. The story takes a turn when a young stranger arrives on horseback, looking to buy provisions for the rest of his journey. He is intrigued by the woman who tucks herself away in a corner of her cabbage stall and starts to talk to her. Their brief encounter sets in motion a radical change in the life of the Cabbage Woman, and that change eventually ripples through the entire village. "Although there is no princess or prince charming in The Cabbage Woman, Claudia Nina’s fairy tale belongs in the tradition of the Brothers Grimm stories: the possibility of the supernatural permeates the narrative, where the fantastical invites realistic interpretations. And although there is no intention, overt or covert, to impart a moral lesson, the last pages offer an edifying conclusion. In fact, Nina’s main accomplishment here is her use of the fantastical to shed light on such current issues as prejudice, discrimination against those who are different, lack of trust in human relations, and the resulting avoidance of social contact. Equally praiseworthy is the work of Spanish illustrator Raquel Díaz Reguera, whose fine graphic skills and use of muted colors have fully captured the atmosphere of the story. " —Sergio Tavares, author and journalist, in O Globo Translator bio Ilze Duarte grew up in São Paulo, Brazil and has lived in the US for decades. She is a recipient of the Sundial 2024 Literary Translation Award, which included the publication of her translation of Marilia Arnaud’s short story collection The Book of Affects by Sundial House. Ilze has translations in Asymptote Journal, Columbia Journal, Latin American Literature Today, Massachusetts Review, Michigan Quarterly Review, Words Without Borders, and elsewhere. For more information on her translation work, visit her website: https://www.ilzeduarteliterarytranslator.com Author bio A Rio de Janeiro native, Claudia Nina is a journalist, fiction writer, editor, podcaster, and literary critic. She holds a Ph.D. in Literary Studies from the University of Utrecht and is the author of twenty books, including nonfiction, children’s and young adult books, and novels, among them Paisagem de Porcelana (Porcelain Landscape), a 2015 Rio Literary Award finalist, reissued in 2025. Her short stories appear in several Brazilian literary magazines, and her first story in English translation appears in La Piccioletta Barca. Claudia Nina is a columnist with the literary journal Rascunho. Nina's first translated story will be published in La Piccioletta Barca on December 19.

This video is private.

YouTube Video VVVqYXE5T1Nwb0Vlb2hQbUs4WlQtQzd3LmRjNW44c2w2cF9n

Ilze Duarte reads from Claudia Nina's THE CABBAGE WOMAN (seeking a publisher)

8 Jan, 2026 3:01 pm

SUBSCRIBE...

Popular Playlists

Women in Translation

#WIT #Read_WIT

This video is private.

This video is private.

YouTube Video UExiNzl4bjFRVHczeEJ6cW1TYmtvZDlYelI1SkR4eE1NWC5BN0Q0NTk3QTY3NEFDOTE1

Private video

20 Apr, 2026 11:01 am

This video is private.

This video is private.

YouTube Video UExiNzl4bjFRVHczeEJ6cW1TYmtvZDlYelI1SkR4eE1NWC5GQjMwOTIyMjFDNDRBODY5

Private video

21 Mar, 2026 6:03 pm

This video is private.

This video is private.

YouTube Video UExiNzl4bjFRVHczeEJ6cW1TYmtvZDlYelI1SkR4eE1NWC5FRDBBQjE3MzdGNDBGMEJE

Private video

21 Mar, 2026 5:52 pm

SUBSCRIBE...

Children’s Lit and YA

In The Cabbage Woman, the residents of a small village live a simple life, planting crops and selling their produce and bread at the annual summer market. The villagers take good care of each other but exclude the Cabbage Woman, as they have come to call the cabbage seller who is always covered from head to toe and keeps to herself. There is a lot of gossiping about her, and although some feel sorry for her, most avoid her. The story takes a turn when a young stranger arrives on horseback, looking to buy provisions for the rest of his journey. He is intrigued by the woman who tucks herself away in a corner of her cabbage stall and starts to talk to her. Their brief encounter sets in motion a radical change in the life of the Cabbage Woman, and that change eventually ripples through the entire village. "Although there is no princess or prince charming in The Cabbage Woman, Claudia Nina’s fairy tale belongs in the tradition of the Brothers Grimm stories: the possibility of the supernatural permeates the narrative, where the fantastical invites realistic interpretations. And although there is no intention, overt or covert, to impart a moral lesson, the last pages offer an edifying conclusion. In fact, Nina’s main accomplishment here is her use of the fantastical to shed light on such current issues as prejudice, discrimination against those who are different, lack of trust in human relations, and the resulting avoidance of social contact. Equally praiseworthy is the work of Spanish illustrator Raquel Díaz Reguera, whose fine graphic skills and use of muted colors have fully captured the atmosphere of the story. " —Sergio Tavares, author and journalist, in O Globo Translator bio Ilze Duarte grew up in São Paulo, Brazil and has lived in the US for decades. She is a recipient of the Sundial 2024 Literary Translation Award, which included the publication of her translation of Marilia Arnaud’s short story collection The Book of Affects by Sundial House. Ilze has translations in Asymptote Journal, Columbia Journal, Latin American Literature Today, Massachusetts Review, Michigan Quarterly Review, Words Without Borders, and elsewhere. For more information on her translation work, visit her website: https://www.ilzeduarteliterarytranslator.com Author bio A Rio de Janeiro native, Claudia Nina is a journalist, fiction writer, editor, podcaster, and literary critic. She holds a Ph.D. in Literary Studies from the University of Utrecht and is the author of twenty books, including nonfiction, children’s and young adult books, and novels, among them Paisagem de Porcelana (Porcelain Landscape), a 2015 Rio Literary Award finalist, reissued in 2025. Her short stories appear in several Brazilian literary magazines, and her first story in English translation appears in La Piccioletta Barca. Claudia Nina is a columnist with the literary journal Rascunho. Nina's first translated story will be published in La Piccioletta Barca on December 19.

This video is private.

1 0

YouTube Video UExiNzl4bjFRVHczejdGNHA0VGdCZ2x3ZHlaN3JjRmNweS4xM0YyM0RDNDE4REQ1NDA0

Ilze Duarte reads from Claudia Nina's THE CABBAGE WOMAN (seeking a publisher)

Translators Aloud 8 Jan, 2026 3:01 pm

A mountain town that’s not on any map, a messy bookstore with infinite doors, and a spoiled prince under a forgetful wizard’s curse . . . this summer might hold more than Lina bargained for! When a gust of wind carries off her umbrella, it leads Lina down a secret path between the trees to a strange and incredible world. In the hidden village of Misty Valley, centaurs roam the cobblestone streets and gnomes visit shops stuffed with spellbooks and enchanted desserts. All magic has a dark side, though, and sometimes even sorcerers need a human’s helping hand. Now, fifty years after its debut in Japan, Sachiko Kashiwaba’s acclaimed novel is available in English and certain to delight readers of all ages. To buy: https://restlessbooks.org/bookstore/the-village-beyond-the-mist ★ “Captivating and magical, with a dash of goodness baked in.” —Kirkus Reviews “Pick up this book and be spirited away.” —Gregory Maguire, author of Wicked, writing in the New York Times “Ten minutes after closing the book, I was already wishing to return to the delightful Absurd Avenue in Misty Valley. This is a small, bright gem of a tale about bravery, kindness, care, and community, and wonder after wonder, in the very kind of magical town I adore. May we all, like Lina, be ready to follow when magic beckons, and take a chance on adventure. (Even—especially?—when we have to earn it!)” —Kate Milford, author of Greenglass House Avery Fischer Udagawa’s translations include the 2022 Batchelder Award-winning novel Temple Alley Summer, the 2024 Batchelder Honor book The House of the Lost on the Cape, and new release The Village Beyond the Mist, all authored in Japanese by Sachiko Kashiwaba. Avery has also translated J-Boys: Kazuo's World, Tokyo, 1965 by Shogo Oketani and Two Little Red Mittens by Kirin Hayashi, illustrated by Chiaki Okada. Avery works in international education north of Bangkok and volunteers as SCBWI Global Translator Coordinator. In 2024, she was named the SCBWI Stephen Mooser Member of the Year. Follow her at https://bsky.app/profile/averyudagawa.bsky.social. SAcHiKO KASHiWAbA is a prolific writer of children’s and young adult fantasy whose career spans five decades. In Japan, her works have garnered the prestigious Sankei, Shogakukan, and Noma children’s literature awards. Her books have also been animated as the films The Wonderland and The House of the Lost on the Cape, among others, and her 1975 novel The Village Beyond the Mist—published in English in 2025—inspired Hayao Miyazaki’s film Spirited Away. Her novel Temple Alley Summer, illustrated by Miho Satake and translated by Avery Fischer Udagawa, won the American Library Association’s 2022 Mildred L. Batchelder Award, and her novel The House of the Lost on the Cape, translated by Fischer Udagawa and illustrated by Yukiko Saito, was named a 2024 Batchelder Honor Book. She lives in Morioka, Iwate.

This video is private.

4 0

YouTube Video UExiNzl4bjFRVHczejdGNHA0VGdCZ2x3ZHlaN3JjRmNweS5ERkUyQTM0MzEwQjZCMTY5

Avery Fischer Udagawa reads from Sachiko Kashiwaba's THE VILLAGE BEYOND THE MIST (Restless Books)

Translators Aloud 13 Nov, 2025 3:01 pm

This video is private.

This video is private.

1 0

YouTube Video UExiNzl4bjFRVHczejdGNHA0VGdCZ2x3ZHlaN3JjRmNweS5CNTcxMDQ0NThBNzMxODYz

Private video

Translators Aloud 23 Oct, 2025 2:08 pm

SUBSCRIBE...

Bilingual Readings

Distant Signs: A Novel by Anne Richter, translated by Douglas Irving, published in 2019 by Neem Tree Press. Distant Signs is an intimate portrait of two families spanning three generations amidst turbulent political change, behind and beyond the Berlin Wall. In 1960s East Germany, Margret, a professor’s daughter from the city, meets and marries Hans, from a small village in the Thuringian forest. The couple struggle to contend with their different backgrounds, and the emotional scars they bear from childhood in the aftermath of war. As East German history gradually unravels, with collision of the personal and political, acutely observed vignettes quietly reveal their two families’ hidden truths. “I don't know that I've read a more moving piece of post-war German fiction - and this includes Günther Grass's best efforts.” Misha, US Online Blog Tour Reviewer

Distant Signs: A Novel
by Anne Richter, translated by Douglas Irving, published in 2019 by Neem Tree Press.

Distant Signs is an intimate portrait of two families spanning three generations amidst turbulent political change, behind and beyond the Berlin Wall.

In 1960s East Germany, Margret, a professor’s daughter from the city, meets and marries Hans, from a small village in the Thuringian forest. The couple struggle to contend with their different backgrounds, and the emotional scars they bear from childhood in the aftermath of war. As East German history gradually unravels, with collision of the personal and political, acutely observed vignettes quietly reveal their two families’ hidden truths.

“I don't know that I've read a more moving piece of post-war German fiction - and this includes Günther Grass's best efforts.”

Misha, US Online Blog Tour Reviewer

8 0

YouTube Video UExiNzl4bjFRVHczeWRhUVloaDloc0NXSGJoRUwzdk1EYy41NkI0NEY2RDEwNTU3Q0M2

Anne Richter and translator Douglas Irving read from DISTANT SIGNS (Neem Press, 2019)

Translators Aloud 6 Aug, 2020 8:00 am

From the publisher (World Literature Today): “In this story of lengthy quarantine due to an unnamed virus, a woman sneaks into the mountain to collect ferns—many ferns. Simultaneously evoking life under past Chilean political oppression and living under recent worldwide quarantines due to Covid-19, this Cortazarian story marks the author’s English-language debut.” Catalina Infante Beovic is a Chilean writer, publisher, journalist, and teacher. Follow Catalina on Instagram at @catalinainfantebeovic Michelle Mirabella is a Spanish to English translator studying at the Middlebury Institute of International Studies in Monterey. Follow Michelle on Instagram at @mirabella_michelle and Twitter at @MirabellaM_ Find the story at: English translation, published by World Literature Today in 2020: https://www.worldliteraturetoday.org/blog/fiction/ferns-catalina-infante-beovic Spanish, published by Neón Ediciones: https://www.librospatagonia.com/library/publication/helechos Follow World Literature Today on Twitter at @worldlittoday.

From the publisher (World Literature Today): “In this story of lengthy quarantine due to an unnamed virus, a woman sneaks into the mountain to collect ferns—many ferns. Simultaneously evoking life under past Chilean political oppression and living under recent worldwide quarantines due to Covid-19, this Cortazarian story marks the author’s English-language debut.”
Catalina Infante Beovic is a Chilean writer, publisher, journalist, and teacher. Follow Catalina on Instagram at @catalinainfantebeovic
Michelle Mirabella is a Spanish to English translator studying at the Middlebury Institute of International Studies in Monterey. Follow Michelle on Instagram at @mirabella_michelle and Twitter at @MirabellaM_

Find the story at:
English translation, published by World Literature Today in 2020: https://www.worldliteraturetoday.org/blog/fiction/ferns-catalina-infante-beovic
Spanish, published by Neón Ediciones: https://www.librospatagonia.com/library/publication/helechos

Follow World Literature Today on Twitter at @worldlittoday.

8 0

YouTube Video UExiNzl4bjFRVHczeWRhUVloaDloc0NXSGJoRUwzdk1EYy4yODlGNEE0NkRGMEEzMEQy

Catalina Infante and translator Michelle Mirabella read from “Ferns” (World Literature Today)

Translators Aloud 27 Aug, 2020 8:00 am

It’s 2007 and we are in Bilbao, worn out by the final blows of Basque terrorism. Gorane and Jokin are twenty-five year old twins and children of ETA militants. Raised without rules, they take opposing and complementary directions: compliant and passive to everything, Jokin, a heroin-addict drummer, seems to follow in his parents’ footsteps, while Gorane, ambiguous and introverted, pulls away seeking refuge in an abstract world. When Jokin runs away and their parents become involved in a tragic event, Gorane finds herself prey to strange hallucinations of her parents. Meanwhile in Paris, Jokin struggles with his attraction to the mysterious Germana, yet, despite the distance, the twins’ lives seem destined to never separate and it will be a French writer’s novel that reconnects them. The Melee is a polyphonic work; a world that connects reality to our most recondite dreams, a world where the only driving force seems to be blind violence. Can freedom reveal itself to be an instrument of torture, and can empathy that resists absolutism prevail in the face of trauma? Valentina Maini responds in the pages of this provocative debut and its web of stories connecting drug dealers, smugglers, psychiatrists, writers, cleaners and fortune tellers - and she does it with the conviction of Roberto Bolaño and Mathias Énard: looking chaos directly in the eye. THE MELEE BY VALENTINA MAINI (PUBLISHED IN ITALIAN BY BOLLATI BORINGHIERI, 2020) FIRST PLACE IN THE L'INDISCRETO QUALITY RANKINGS SHORTLISTED FOR THE SEVERINO CESARI DEBUT AWARD 2020 SHORTLISTED FOR THE FONDAZIONE MONDADORI DEBUT AWARD 2020 CHOSEN BY KOBO IN THEIR 50 BOOKS TO DEFY AND SURVIVE THE YEAR 2020 “What is great European literature today? The Melee by Valentina Maini has the range and complexity to fit the bill and the ambition to be part of it.” VERONICA RAIMO (The Girl at the Door) “There are writers who, more than make their debut, burst onto the scene. By writing novels that play havoc with all the rules. Valentina Maini is one of them.” ANDREA BAJANI (If You Kept a Record of Sins; Every Promise) “Redolent of Clarice Lispector and Roberto Bolano, a haunted, captivating, poetic novel that tells the story of two children of ETA and their quest for life and the future under the tight rein of a true artist and her unique, visionary freedom of language.” MARTA BARONE (Città sommersa) “In The Melee, Valentina Maini unfurls a notable variety of textual typologies – reports, statements, recordings, a novel within the novel – showing that it is still possible to tell stories in an impressive, original manner.” WU MING 2 (Q; Manituana; 54) Valentina Maini was born in Bologna in 1987. She completed her PhD in Comparative Literature between Bologna and Paris and has published short stories in retabloid, TerraNullius, Atti Impuri, Horizonte, and other magazines. Some of her articles have appeared in Poetiche, La Deleuziana, and Classiques Garnier. With her collection of poetry, Casa Rotta (2016), she won the Anna Osti literary prize. She translates from French and from English into Italian. Sean McDonagh is an emerging literary translator who translates from Italian. He is based in London where he works in publishing, and has been pursuing literary translation projects since participating in the Warwick Translates Summer School 2019. He has had a translation published on Asymptote, and as a poet has also had work published on Allegro, Rockland and Foxtrot Uniform. Sean has a BA in English, has lived and studied in Turin, and has completed an advanced course at the Italian Cultural Institute. @seanpjamcdonagh (Twitter) seanmcdonaghtranslator.com For rights info, contact: Flavia Abbinante - flavia.abbinante@bollatiboringhieri.it Rights Sold: Portuguese The translator has obtained permission from the original rights holder to translate this sample and share a recording of it on Translators Aloud. TO READ A LONGER EXTRACT, please visit: seanmcdonaghtranslator.com/projects-seeking-a-publisher

It’s 2007 and we are in Bilbao, worn out by the final blows of Basque terrorism. Gorane and Jokin are twenty-five year old twins and children of ETA militants. Raised without rules, they take opposing and complementary directions: compliant and passive to everything, Jokin, a heroin-addict drummer, seems to follow in his parents’ footsteps, while Gorane, ambiguous and introverted, pulls away seeking refuge in an abstract world. When Jokin runs away and their parents become involved in a tragic event, Gorane finds herself prey to strange hallucinations of her parents. Meanwhile in Paris, Jokin struggles with his attraction to the mysterious Germana, yet, despite the distance, the twins’ lives seem destined to never separate and it will be a French writer’s novel that reconnects them.

The Melee is a polyphonic work; a world that connects reality to our most recondite dreams, a world where the only driving force seems to be blind violence. Can freedom reveal itself to be an instrument of torture, and can empathy that resists absolutism prevail in the face of trauma? Valentina Maini responds in the pages of this provocative debut and its web of stories connecting drug dealers, smugglers, psychiatrists, writers, cleaners and fortune tellers - and she does it with the conviction of Roberto Bolaño and Mathias Énard: looking chaos directly in the eye.

THE MELEE BY VALENTINA MAINI (PUBLISHED IN ITALIAN BY BOLLATI BORINGHIERI, 2020)

FIRST PLACE IN THE L'INDISCRETO QUALITY RANKINGS

SHORTLISTED FOR THE SEVERINO CESARI DEBUT AWARD 2020

SHORTLISTED FOR THE FONDAZIONE MONDADORI DEBUT AWARD 2020

CHOSEN BY KOBO IN THEIR 50 BOOKS TO DEFY AND SURVIVE THE YEAR 2020

“What is great European literature today? The Melee by Valentina Maini has the range and complexity to fit the bill and the ambition to be part of it.”
VERONICA RAIMO (The Girl at the Door)

“There are writers who, more than make their debut, burst onto the scene. By writing novels that play havoc with all the rules. Valentina Maini is one of them.”
ANDREA BAJANI (If You Kept a Record of Sins; Every Promise)

“Redolent of Clarice Lispector and Roberto Bolano, a haunted, captivating, poetic novel that tells the story of two children of ETA and their quest for life and the future under the tight rein of a true artist and her unique, visionary freedom of language.”
MARTA BARONE (Città sommersa)

“In The Melee, Valentina Maini unfurls a notable variety of textual typologies – reports, statements, recordings, a novel within the novel – showing that it is still possible to tell stories in an impressive, original manner.”
WU MING 2 (Q; Manituana; 54)


Valentina Maini was born in Bologna in 1987. She completed her PhD in Comparative Literature between Bologna and Paris and has published short stories in retabloid, TerraNullius, Atti Impuri, Horizonte, and other magazines. Some of her articles have appeared in Poetiche, La Deleuziana, and Classiques Garnier. With her collection of poetry, Casa Rotta (2016), she won the Anna Osti literary prize. She translates from French and from English into Italian.

Sean McDonagh is an emerging literary translator who translates from Italian. He is based in London where he works in publishing, and has been pursuing literary translation projects since participating in the Warwick Translates Summer School 2019. He has had a translation published on Asymptote, and as a poet has also had work published on Allegro, Rockland and Foxtrot Uniform. Sean has a BA in English, has lived and studied in Turin, and has completed an advanced course at the Italian Cultural Institute.

@seanpjamcdonagh (Twitter)
seanmcdonaghtranslator.com

For rights info, contact: Flavia Abbinante - flavia.abbinante@bollatiboringhieri.it
Rights Sold: Portuguese

The translator has obtained permission from the original rights holder to translate this sample and share a recording of it on Translators Aloud.
TO READ A LONGER EXTRACT, please visit: seanmcdonaghtranslator.com/projects-seeking-a-publisher

18 0

YouTube Video UExiNzl4bjFRVHczeWRhUVloaDloc0NXSGJoRUwzdk1EYy4wMTcyMDhGQUE4NTIzM0Y5

Valentina Maini and translator Sean McDonagh read from THE MELEE (seeking a publisher)

Translators Aloud 10 Dec, 2020 9:00 am

SUBSCRIBE...