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in focus
17/09/2025

When the Translator Becomes the Story: Translators in Contemporary Fiction

Minimalist black-and-white line drawing of a translator’s desk with a typewriter, books, papers, pencils, lamp and a cup of coffee.

For most of literary history, translators have been invisible. They appear in acknowledgements, if at all, and their labour is…

in focus
11/09/2025

the 2025 National Book Award Longlist for Translated Literature

Minimal black-and-white line illustration of a cat, cup, and plant on stacks of books, representing the 2025 National Book Award longlist, in the In Other Worlds signature style.

The National Book Foundation’s 2025 longlist for Translated Literature spans nine languages and ten countries, offering readers an extraordinary glimpse…

in focus
04/09/2025

A New Translation of Grave of the Fireflies by Ginny Tapley Takemori

Minimalist black-and-white line drawing of a teenage boy and a young girl in wartime clothes, standing together under fireflies with ruined buildings in the background.

The first English translation of Akiyuki Nosaka’s Grave of the Fireflies appeared in 1978, when James R. Abrams tried to…