Eric M. B. Becker

Nov 11, 2024 | wordswithoutborders.org | Eric M. B. Becker

What particular translation challenges arose as you brought Layla Martínez’s Woodworm into English? Listen to Sophie Hughes discuss her cotranslation of Layla Martínez’s Woodworm Sophie Hughes: Woodworm is a story of two isolated women, a grandmother and granddaughter who live in rural Spain in a house that’s teeming with dark family secrets going back generations.

Oct 8, 2024 | wordswithoutborders.org | Eric M. B. Becker

Can you talk about how The Book Censor’s Library came into the world—first, the germ of the original language, and then the translation? Listen to Bothayna Al-Essa discuss her novel The Book Censor’s Library Bothayna Al-Essa: The idea of The Book Censor’s Library came to me because I am also a bookseller who has to deal with inspectors and censorship every day, and I always wondered what it felt like for people censoring books.

Oct 8, 2024 | wordswithoutborders.org | Eric M. B. Becker

Can you talk about how Ædnan came into the world—first, the germ of the original language, and then the translation? Listen to Linnea Axelsson discuss the origins of Ædnan Linnea Axelsson: The first sprout I think to Ædnan was an image I saw, an inner image, of a woman, an older woman and her kind of silence, the silence she had in her face and the seriousness she had. I struggled for a long time to approach her and get into her life and understand who she was and what she had lived.

Jan 25, 2024 | wordswithoutborders.org | Percy Bysshe Shelley |Omar Ziyadeh |Eric M. B. Becker

Refaat Alareer, former student Nadya Siyam notes, “generally loved Shakespeare and John Donne.” He frequently taught introductory courses on English literature, Shakespeare, Victorian literature, and poetry. Below, readers will find some of the works he returned to often.

Nov 2, 2023 | wordswithoutborders.org | Eric M. B. Becker

“At times like this, [Words Without Borders’ mission] feels like an essential and fundamental human act,” the Whiting Foundation’s Courtney Hodell told Robert Ito in this New York Times article on WWB’s twenty-year history of publishing pioneering work from around the world. Michael Seidlinger looks at the 2022 relaunch of Words Without Borders, including its brand new website and publishing model to herald the magazine’s next twenty years.