Happy Pub Day to Iana Boukova's "Traveling in the Direction of the Shadow", masterfully translated by our contributor Ekaterina Petrova. An enthralling read. Wishing them a lot of readers! www.nyrb.com/products/tra...

Traveling in the Direction of the Shadow

A woman who reads the future in the faces of her lovers, a dice-player whose unfailing luck becomes a curse, a manuscript illuminator who leaves his monastery to become a most fearsome bandit. Set in ...

nyrb.com

We now welcome submissions for our second issue, The Forever Foreigner. Deadline: October 31. Guidelines here:

"Exophonic Translators and Volunteer Iowans" Aron Aji and Jan Steyn in Conversation with Ekaterina Petrova

"Moss grew on my face. North, always just north, that’s what I breathe onto the paper. I made a funny little map, then rolled it into a ball and threw it away: two black birds squabbled over it." From "Tales from the Inuit War" by Imre Wirth, translated from Hungarian by gabor g. gyukics.

"However, I believe that greater attention to the visibility of the translator should also mean a deeper understanding of the fact that all translation is interpretation and that this interpretation never happens in a vacuum." Read "A Silly Epiphany" by the Booker-longlisted Antonella Lettieri.

"It’s about questioning the processes of translation—the binaries, the structures we were placed into and continue to reproduce." Read "Why Keep the Literary Experience Within Your Comfort Zone? A Conversation with Lúcia Collischonn." with @lucycolli.bsky.social

"Self-translation occupies an uneasy position within literary and translation studies, as it can be treated either as a form of translation or as a form of authorial rewriting." Read Translation and Self-Translation: A Comparative Analysis of Elena Alexieva’s Short Story “Birds” by Danila Raycheva.

Dob Street was a loveable ruin. Only twenty-something-year-olds lived there. Gergő’s family owned it. For years, it was the temporary living situation for the youths who had moved to the capital from Gergő’s hometown. Read Blood of the Fish by Gábor Kálmán, translated from Hungarian by Tímea Sipos.

"Inside the joint mouths dance young beautiful actresses Wearing tongue-splitting ghagras The dupatta skids off their breasts Their laughter soon becomes the roar of a lion" Read Three Poems by Umma Habiba, translated from Bangla by Quamrul Hassan

"I was kneading a delicate little spanakopita" A folk lyric translated from Gorani by Denis Ferhatović together with Denis's "Musings of an Exophonic Immigrant Translator: A Long-ish Translator’s Note"

"Do you hear them now—those wild geese? Do you hear that tension in the long whistling of their flight and the hard beating churning the air into sheets of steel?" "Wild Geese" by Owain Owain, translated from Welsh by Susan Walton @sueproof.bsky.social.

Two poems by Olga Koltsova, masterfully translated from Russian by Dmitri Manin. Artwork by Susan Pollet

@mekongreview.bsky.social showcases incredible writers and stories from Asia and Asian diaspora communities around the world. ✏️ Its front covers are also guaranteed to stun visually. This artwork is designed by Erica Eng. 🎨 Read via Exact Editions.

"The narrator reflects on her position as a foreigner both at home (“here”) and abroad (“there”), articulating a sense of liminality––the emblematic “in-between-ness” of those who permanently navigate between cultures and languages, inhabiting at once both and none.”

"We decided to go with pieces that unsettle and surprise. We think that this is the only way we can be faithful to our mission. Also, in an incredibly crowded market, editorial boldness is possibly the only real differentiator." Read more about Major Books' vision in the interview. Link in comment.

Read “JanBuLena”, a dystopian fever dream on humanity's deathbed. Written by Ayesa Khatun, translated from Bangla by Sritama Halder.

"Sound of demons sucking bones is heard in the gloomy cell You have to secretly hide your longing in an inner pocket" In “Drugs Are an Unopened Comic Book” Pek-êng Koa traces out the ragged contour of a confession-like delirium. Translated from Taiwanese by @cjanderson-wu.bsky.social

Happy Pub Day (yesterday) to us! We finally launched Issue 1: The Exophonic Translator. Thrilled and deeply grateful to the contributors for their trust and patience. Do give it a read! thethirdwheel.org

"The Mythical English Reader is, therefore, not a form of benign snobbery (if snobbery can ever be benign) but serves as a superego of whiteness, policing all literature so that it continues to affirm the superiority and cultural capital of whiteness..."

Lit Hub@literaryhub.bsky.social · 4mo ago

Look into the future of literary translation. lithub.com/translator-b...

Issue 1 is just around the corner. What to expect? Translations of poetry and prose from French, Bangla, Russian, Welsh, Gorani, Taiwanese, and Hungarian, along with short‑ and long‑form essays and interviews on the wonders and challenges of exophony in writing, translation, and publishing.

Almost 10,000 authors have come together to publish an empty book protesting the theft of books by tech companies to train AI models. Titled Don’t Steal This Book, it is empty of text except the names of the authors involved.. 🧵

Only a few days left to submit! Translations that take risks, spark conversations, and bring new voices into focus. Paratexts that let us peek behind the curtain. Share your translator’s notes, drafts, commentaries, correspondence, reflections on collaboration, or thoughts on translator identity.

For the contemporary Japanese lit zealots — a great interview with Brian Bergstrom on liminality, what gets lost (or gained) in translation, and more.

Jane Eksie@janeismundane.bsky.social · 7mo ago

Thank you so much to @brianbergstrom.bsky.social for answering my questions on fiction, translation, and liminality. :) janeeksie.substack.com/p/interview-...

Hi everyone, If you are a literary translator, please fill our survey ! It only takes a few minutes and we need your feedback to get a clearer picture 😊 www.ceatl.eu/ceatls-ai-su...

CEATL's AI survey

CEATL is reaching out to invite you to participate in a survey regarding literary translation and artificial intelligence.

ceatl.eu

Just a reminder that we also accept art and photography submissions. We're looking for edgy, yet playful. Send your pieces to submit@thethirdwheel.org

So far we’ve received many excellent pieces, but we’re still short on short stories. If you have a short‑story translation you're eager to share with the world, do send it our way!

We’ve extended the submissions deadline to March 1. Still plenty of time for you to submit and for us to get our chicks in order (starting a lit mag definitely comes with a learning curve :))

Translating literature into one’s L2: audacity, whimsy, or business as usual?

The theme of our first issue is The Exophonic Translator and it will spotlight translators who work from unconventional linguistic backgrounds: multilingual or L2 speakers, heritage learners, and voices pushing against dominant language hierarchies. Want to contribute? submit@thethirdwheel.org

The Third Wheel is a new literary magazine, whose mission is to create a dedicated space for literary translators, and to illuminate the art of translation: the invisible struggles, creative battles, and quiet triumphs that shape every text.