Photo: Words Without Borders
Susan Harris is an editor at Words Without Borders, an advocacy organization devoted to promoting international communication by translating into English, and then publishing important but normally unavailable works by international writers. She is the former director and editor-in-chief of Northwestern University Press and the founding editor of its Hydra imprint in literature in translation.
Words Without Borders (WWB) offers readers in the United States and elsewhere access to what the rest of the world is thinking, feeling, and writing. According to WWB, only 2% of literature published in the U.S. every year is translated from other languages—a situation comparable to that in the “closed” societies of the Middle East and a stark contrast to European countries where often more than 50% of books published are translated from English.
Each month the Words Without Borders website features new translations of the world’s best writing, selected and translated by a distinguished group of writers, translators, and publishing professionals. Since its launch in 2003, WWB has published 572 pieces from 86 countries and 66 languages—all available free on the Internet to travelers, teachers, students, journalists, publishers, and the general public in the U.S. and elsewhere.
Words Without Borders also publishes anthologies, including the recent Literature from the Axis of Evil: Writing from Iran, Iraq, North Korea, and Other Enemy Nations, and organizes events that raise awareness of writers in foreign languages, serving as a general advocacy organization for literature in translation. Words Without Borders enables writers, readers, and editors to communicate across borders and time zones. It allows writing to be presented simultaneously in more than one language without significant added cost; and creates new connections between urgent contemporary issues and international writing in a way that in turn attracts a larger audience for literature in translation.
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Literature From the Axis of Evil |
Alain Mabanckou: African Psycho |
Jorge Garcia and Fidel Martinez: Behind Iron Bars |
Rachida Madani: Tales of a Severed Head |
Isabelle Eberhardt: from Wanderings |
Symposium C6 runs concurrent with 