Here The Whole Time and Where We Go From Here are two queer YA novels in translation from Brazilian Portuguese published by Scholastic this year. In a Brazilian LGBT sweep, both titles won the #2021GLLITranslatedYALitBookPrize this week. Translator and World Kid Lit co-founder Lawrence Schimel spoke to their translator Larissa Helena about the books last September. Indeed, Lawrence … Continue reading Translator Larissa Helena in conversation with Lawrence Schimel
Speculative Fiction in Translation: An Introduction
Speculative fiction (science fiction, fantasy, and horror) is written around the world and in many languages, and it is being translated into English with increasing frequency. Since 2016, when I started the website SFinTranslation.com, I've realized just how much speculative fiction in translation (SFT) allows Anglophone readers to experience stories and language traditions that they … Continue reading Speculative Fiction in Translation: An Introduction
#WorldKidLit Wednesday: Who Left the Light On?
A picture-book ode to the power of creative nonconformity, Who Left the Light On? achieves a rare trifecta: a loosely rhyming book in translation with brilliant illustrations. Mix in important themes—embracing diversity and expressing oneself—add a huge dollop of whimsy, and you have the ingredients to this charming tale. But the sum of the parts … Continue reading #WorldKidLit Wednesday: Who Left the Light On?
#WorldKidLit Wednesday: Trees for the Absentees
Being a teenager is hard enough as it is. Layer in the loss of a beloved grandparent, gossiping relatives, a father who is a political prisoner, and the trauma of military occupation, and perhaps the only way to make sense of everything is to resort to the fantastical. Trees for the Absentees is the coming-of-age … Continue reading #WorldKidLit Wednesday: Trees for the Absentees
New Year’s Resolution: #NameTheTranslator
According to the UN, “Every two weeks a language disappears taking with it an entire cultural and intellectual heritage.” Humanity is facing a linguistic diversity crisis even as it faces the biodiversity crisis. How can we help? For starters, we can #NameTheTranslator. Books authored in English circle the globe now, making it harder for authors … Continue reading New Year’s Resolution: #NameTheTranslator
#WorldKidLit Wednesday: Ida and the Whale
“Would you like to come with me on a journey beyond the stars?” So asks a friendly flying whale that young Ida meets when she’s half asleep. Who could resist such an enticing invitation? Not I. Nor Ida. And so we enter a dreamy fantasy world as we join Ida and the whale on their … Continue reading #WorldKidLit Wednesday: Ida and the Whale
#WorldKidLit Wednesday: The Lizard
The month of December is often a month of gift-giving, what with the various holidays that take place during that time. Later this month I will be giving my nieces and nephews books for Christmas, as is my custom. I have been considering prospective books all year long and recently made my purchases from a … Continue reading #WorldKidLit Wednesday: The Lizard
Interview with Rachel Yung-Hsin Wang
This post is published simultaneously on Chinese Books for Young Readers Kirkus reviewer Rachel Yung-Hsin Wang has lived and worked in many parts of the world, and is something of a polyglot. Earlier this year she completed an MFA in Writing for Children at Simmons University, having won a Lee & Low and Simmons Friends … Continue reading Interview with Rachel Yung-Hsin Wang
Literature of Exile: Palestine
Like the Kurds, to be a Palestinian is to grow up in exile, and with exile as a family heritage. During the Nakba, the catastrophe of 1948, "more than half of Palestine's native population, close to 800,000 people had been uprooted, 531 villages had been destroyed, and eleven urban neighborhoods emptied of their inhabitants (from … Continue reading Literature of Exile: Palestine
Literature of Exile: LGBTQ authors
The life of an exile is always complicated, but being an LGBTQ+ refugee can sometimes mean exile from your family and community as well as from your homeland. Today we look at writers from Iran, Somalia, and Pakistan who have confronted the challenge of being a gay refugee. Négar Djavadi flatly states, "I’m not an … Continue reading Literature of Exile: LGBTQ authors
Global Literature in Libraries Initiative 