Literature

Comic by Pavel Ortega like no one can successfullypush away the sea waters—it has been said in a lovepoem—nadie couldmake me obey whatmy living make-up doesn’tobey, it’s not a questionof ideas but of that frothyswell that in billions of cellssplashes inside me and ineverything that lives, the onlyvia is this sounding refusal,Thoreau must have explained

Photo by Piotr Wójcik, Agencja Gazeta / Courtesy of Culture.pl Zbigniew Mentzel’s Kołakowski: Czytanie świata (Wydawnictwo Znak, 2020) is the first full-length biography of Leszek Kołakowski, one of the leading Polish philosophers and cultural historians of the twentieth century. Its author, Zbigniew Mentzel, knows his subject very well, having edited several volumes of the philosopher’s

The past year and a half of being stuck inside and working from home has led many of us to turn to our pets as consistent conversational companions. For some, we have even adopted the peculiar social practices of our furry friends. If you are lucky enough to have one of the 370 million pet

Gurnah received the Nobel Prize medal and diploma from the Swedish ambassador on December 6 © Nobel Prize Outreach / Photo by Hugh Fox Earlier this week, Abdulrazak Gurnah received the 2021 Nobel Prize in Literature from Swedish ambassador Mikaela Kumlin Granitshe in London. His prize lecture, given on December 7, can be found here. In

Photo courtesy of the author I worked on the Broadway production of Jersey Boys for three years before I ventured up to the fly rail of the August Wilson Theater. It was pre-show and automation, lights, props, sound, and wardrobe were on the stage, thirty feet below. I watched them through the slatted floor as

The editors of World Literature Today are delighted to announce our annual shortlist of Pushcart nominations for 2021. Pushcart Prize XLVII will honor the best poetry, short fiction, creative nonfiction, and essays published by small-press magazines and book publishers. WLT’s six nominees include: Poetry Kamilah Aisha Moon, “Fireflies” Olivia Reginaldo, “Simi,” translated from Quechua by

No One Likes a Copycat Au Pair Ayşegül Savaş Ayşegül Savaş grew up in Turkey and Denmark. Her work has appeared in Guernica, Granta, The Paris Review Daily, The Dublin Review, among others. She teaches at the Sorbonne and lives in Paris. Walking on the Ceiling is her debut novel. Share article “Ways of Seeing”

No One Likes a Copycat Au Pair Ayşegül Savaş Ayşegül Savaş grew up in Turkey and Denmark. Her work has appeared in Guernica, Granta, The Paris Review Daily, The Dublin Review, among others. She teaches at the Sorbonne and lives in Paris. Walking on the Ceiling is her debut novel. Share article “Ways of Seeing”

I remember traveling in the north of Sri Lanka, two years after the civil war, in areas where some of the worst fighting had taken place, and seeing yellow caution tape cordoning of large tracts of land. Signs warned in several languages of land mines. Later, I sat, safely ensconced in a Colombo café, as

As a queer New Yorker who enjoys making bad choices for good stories, with queer friends who also regularly make and support bad choices for good stories, there is a fundamental joy that comes with reading the 2021 wildly popular novels Detransition, Baby by Torrey Peters and One Last Stop by Casey McQuiston. There we

Back by popular demand, Electric Literature is hosting our second annual “Best Book Cover of the Year” tournament, where readers determine which cover designs impressed in 2021. Just as the Italian Renaissance was born of the bubonic plague, will covid’s enduring grasp on society inspire similarly enlightened art? Help us decide which of these books

That Famous Abyss (Wunderkammer, 2020) is a book of exclusive interviews with Enrique Vila-Matas by cultural journalist Anna María Iglesia, covering such themes as why write, the places of literature, the art of disappearing, and the poetics of failure. The result is a text that is equally reflective as it is biographical and intimate, filled

That Famous Abyss (Wunderkammer, 2020) is a book of exclusive interviews with Enrique Vila-Matas by cultural journalist Anna María Iglesia, covering such themes as why write, the places of literature, the art of disappearing, and the poetics of failure. The result is a text that is equally reflective as it is biographical and intimate, filled

2021 was a robust year for literary translations. This list kept growing, and we didn’t resist. As always, though, we recognize there are, thankfully, many more and hope you’ll add them in the comments, along with those you’re eagerly anticipating in 2022. 2021 was also a robust year for new initiatives. Here at World Literature

Take a break from the news We publish your favorite authors—even the ones you haven’t read yet. Get new fiction, essays, and poetry delivered to your inbox. YOUR INBOX IS LIT Enjoy strange, diverting work from The Commuter on Mondays, absorbing fiction from Recommended Reading on Wednesdays, and a roundup of our best work of

Whatever your particular situation, we’re willing to bet that this year has probably been a year of unique growth—and failure. Maybe you finally figured out how to unmute—only to realize your boss heard you say (unmuted) that he looks like Lucifer. Maybe you managed to keep your children alive and happy for an entire week—only

This holiday season as we reckon with what it means to live on a stolen land, let’s take the time to read Native authors in their own words. Here are highlights from our archives about contemporary Indigenous literature: “Being Indian Is Not a Superpower” by Stephen Graham Jones In his essay, acclaimed horror writer Stephen

The highest compliment I’ve ever received came to me on the University of Chicago campus. Late for a panel at a graduate conference, I was rushing around in a long floral dress and big wool coat, tote bag of books swinging at my side. My hair was frizzy and my makeup almost certainly smudged in