First-Ever U.S. Anthology Celebrates Literary Translators’ Work from 19 Languages
Hello translation fans, the inaugural edition of Best Literary Translations is here! See below for the full press release, and visit our store to order your own copy.
Best Literary Translations 2024
By spotlighting work from top literary journals, Best Literary Translations honors the excellent literature created every year by a diverse range of authors and translators and will continue to expand the canon of global literatures in English translation, showcasing the bold and brilliant work of contemporary translators and editors annually, for years to come.
$22.95 | paperback | April 9, 2024
The first U.S. anthology devoted to celebrating the breadth of literary translators’ work will be published on Tuesday, April 9, 2024. Best Literary Translations is a new annual featuring the year’s best poetry, short fiction, and essay, drawn from U.S.-affiliated literary journals and magazines.
Best Literary Translations 2024, the anthology’s inaugural volume, features both contemporary and historical poetry and prose originally written in nineteen languages—including some not commonly seen in U.S. translations, such as Burmese, Kurdish, Tigrinya, and Wayuu—brought into English by thirty-eight of the most talented translators working today. These poems, short stories, essays, and hybrid works were drawn from more than 500 nominated works published in U.S. literary journals during 2022, spanning more than eighty countries and nearly sixty languages.
The four series coeditors, Noh Anothai, Wendy Call, Öykü Tekten, and Kọ́lá Túbọ̀sún, selected the finalists; the thirty-three works appearing in the anthology were chosen by the 2024 guest editor: noted poet, essayist, and translator Jane Hirshfield. She writes in her introduction to the anthology: “Each work in this book is a small act of both preservation and cross-pollination—each writer’s vision, sensibility, and concerns are, as the word ‘translation’ holds at its root, carried across. In those moments of carrying, a conjoining occurs. Both receiver and text live afterward changed; some new hybrid of experience, language, and understanding comes into being.”
Each literary work is accompanied by a short note from the translator/s, sharing their translation process or other details of how the translation came into being. As contributing translator Izidora Angel writes in the note accompanying her short story translation, “Before…being included in anthologies such as this one, it was the journals and their editors…who gave the stories a chance. Thank you. It takes a village, truly.” The 2025 edition will be guest edited by poet, novelist, essayist and translator Cristina Rivera Garza.
Release events for Best Literary Translations 2024, published by Deep Vellum, are planned for through April, May, and June 2024. Please see below for locations, dates, and times.
During April, May, and June 2024, both in-person and virtual events will be happening across the country to celebrate the release of Best Literary Translations. Check back or visit our event calendar for more events and more details!
Events celebrating Best Literary Translations 2024
Saturday, April 20, 2024, 4:00 pm PDT ~ in-person event ~ Medicine for Nightmares, San Francisco
Sunday, April 21, 2024, 3:00 pm CDT ~ in-person & live streamed event ~ with the Sant Jordi Festival, at Seminary Co-Op Bookstore, Chicago
late April 2024 ~ virtual, streaming event ~ Sant Jordi Festival, Chicago ~ details TBA
Thursday, April 25, 2024, 7:00 pm EDT ~ in-person event ~ PRINT: A Bookstore, Portland, ME
Thursday, May 2, 2024, 7:00 pm PDT ~ virtual event open to the public ~ University of Southern California, Los Angeles ~ with guest editor Jane Hirshfield! ~ details TBA
Monday, May 20, 2024, 7:00 pm PDT ~ in-person event ~ North Figueroa Bookshop, Los Angeles
mid-June 2024 ~ virtual event ~ hosted online by Third Place Books of Seattle ~ details TBA