#WorldKidLit Month 2025: Russian Recommendations

Today's post is by Kelsey Hedrick. On February 27, 2022, I was running in the Baikal Marathon when I learned that Russia had finally taken the step to invade Ukraine. I had been living in Russia for almost six years at that point, had worked to speak decent Russian, and felt more at home in Moscow … Continue reading #WorldKidLit Month 2025: Russian Recommendations

Armenia 🇦🇲: Three Apples Fell from the Sky by Narine Abgaryan, tr. Lisa.C. Hayden

I read this book during last year's #WomenInTranslation Month (August 2021), a tradition started 10 years ago by Meytal Radzinki.  It is thanks to Meytal and the #WIT twitter community that I have read as many books as I have. If you are on Twitter, look for the hashtag #WiTmonth and  follow people like TranslateWomen,  MillieMargretta and Read_WIT and @GlobalLitIn. It is especially … Continue reading Armenia 🇦🇲: Three Apples Fell from the Sky by Narine Abgaryan, tr. Lisa.C. Hayden

#WorldKidLit Wednesday: The 2021 Eisner Award Nominations

Known as the Oscars of the comics world, the Will Eisner Comic Industry Awards are traditionally given every summer at San Diego Comic Con. Due to COVID-19, the ceremony was virtual in 2021, when the awards featured 33 categories. Books for children in translation can be found in a number of them. The pickings were … Continue reading #WorldKidLit Wednesday: The 2021 Eisner Award Nominations

Speculative Fiction in Translation: The Inhabited Island

The Inhabited Island by Arkady and Boris Strugatsky [originally translated from the Russian in 1977 as Prisoners of Power; this new translation is of the uncensored version] translated by Andrew Bromfield Chicago Review Press February 4, 2020 416 pages This novel from the Strugatskys’ Noon Universe is not just about a space traveler from Earth … Continue reading Speculative Fiction in Translation: The Inhabited Island

Speculative Fiction in Translation: Vita Nostra

Vita Nostra by Marina and Sergey Dyachenko translated from the Russian by Julia Meitov Hersey HarperVoyager November 13, 2018 416 pages Vita Nostra is a remarkable example of dark philosophical fantasy and psychological horror. Its simultaneous manipulation of both the reader’s and the main character’s sense of reality is so subtle and even insidious that, … Continue reading Speculative Fiction in Translation: Vita Nostra

What We’re Missing: Gems of World Kid Lit

During the past 6 months, I have edited a series of articles on “What We’re Missing:  Gems of World Kid Lit.”  Taking a page from the UK’s Times Literary Supplement, which styles itself as “the only major English-language publication to review books published in other languages,” I thought we could introduce the concept on this … Continue reading What We’re Missing: Gems of World Kid Lit