The following is from Zülfü Livaneli’s forthcoming novel The Last Island, which centers around a former president who moves to a secluded island. In hopes of bringing order to island life, the president seeks to rid it of its “anarchic” components. As he begins to act more and more like a dictator, the once utopian island life begins to morph into dystopia. Originally published in 2008 as...
The following is a story from Anne Lardeux’s debut The Second Substance (Les mauvais plis). Lardeux was raised in France and lives and works in Montreal, where she painstakingly follows her ideas and convictions where they lead. Her multidisciplinary practice spans music, film, and writing, and is not easily separable from her social activism and caring work. Together they constitute an...
“Is This You?”
“Maheov”
The following is excerpted from David Constantine’s new collection of stories, Rivers of the Unspoilt World. Constantine has previously published several collections of poetry, two novels, and five collections of short stories. He edited Modern Poetry in Translation for many years. He is also translator of Hölderlin, Brecht, Goethe, Kleist, Michaux and Jaccottet. He is the winner of the...
“Curses”
“The Sanno”
The following short story is excerpted from Budi Darma’s newly-translated collection, People from Bloomington. Darma was a novelist, short-story-writer, and literary critic. He received several national and international literary awards. Tsao is a literary translator and writer. Her translations have been awarded the PEN Presents and PEN Translates prizes. She holds a PhD in English...
The following is a short story is excerpted from Ladee Hubbard’s new short story collection, The Last Suspicious Holdout. Hubbard is the author of The Talented Ribkins, which received the 2018 Ernest J. Gaines Award for Literary Excellence and the Hurston/Wright Legacy Award for Debut Fiction. She received a 2016 Rona Jaffe Foundation Writers’ Award. Born in Massachusetts and raised...
The following short story is featured in McSweeney’s 65: Plundered. Brenda Lozano is a fiction writer, essayist, and editor. In 2017 she was added to the Bogota 39 list, a selection of the best fiction writers under 40 from across Latin America. Heather Cleary’s work has been recognized by the National Book Foundation, the Best Translated Book Award, the National Translation Award...