Found in Translation

When it comes to reading, there’s a lopsided exchange between the English-speaking world and everyone else. A full 50 percent of all books in translation are translated from English, with only 3 percent translated into English. Words Without Borders, a monthly online magazine of translated international literature, aims to rectify that. Founded by Alane Salierno Mason, WWB has published more than 1,000 translated works— including short stories, excerpts, graphic novels, and poems—from 106 countries, in 79 language. By exposing readers to the art and the perspectives of the unknown, Mason hopes to allow for more international communication. WWB’s first issue, titled “Literature of the Axis of Evil,” was a fitting start: The Axis of Evil was the kind of “broad-brush labeling that is symptomatic of what [brought this whole project] about,” says Mason.

Congolese writer Alain Mabanckou’s African Psycho

Translated by Christine Schwartz Hartley for WWB in 2005

Published by Soft Skull Press in 2007

Moroccan writer Abdelilah Hamdouchi’s Final Bet

Translated by Jonathan Smolin for WWB in 2006

Published by American University in Cairo Press 2008