Words Without Borders

Dear Friends:

We bring in the new year looking both backward and forward, saluting

the winners of the various 2006 translation prizes by presenting

exciting new work by the winning author/translator pairs. Humphrey

Davies tells Elias Khoury's "Secrets." Sarah Death brings us Ellen

Mattson's portrait of a relationship literally gone up in smoke in

"Splendorville." Susan Bernofsky ushers us into the mind of Jenny

Erpenbeck's dreamy military child and her "Book of Words." Ellen

Elias-Bursac shows David Albahari's students "Learning Cyrillic" and

their bemused teacher exploring other nonnative languages. And Anne

Bornssays amen to Per Petterson's "Today You Must Pray to God." We

hope you'll join us in toasting these feats and celebrating a new year

of literature in translation.

Elsewhere in this issue, Latin American poets Alberto Martins and

Edgar Brau look to the U.S., Milica Micic Dimovska sells red goods on

the black market, and Tristan Tzara elegizes domestic and country life.

Words without Borders' first anthology, Literature from the "Axis of

Evil," is in its third printing since September! See the site for

interviews with the advisory editors, where to buy the book, and more.

Thanks to all of you who celebrated the book with us at events

throughout the country. We hope you'll be able to join us at one of

these upcoming events:

--in Washington, D.C., at Busboys and Poets, on January 8 at 6:30 p.m.

--in Bennington, Vermont, on January 11 at 1:00 pm in the Tishman

Auditorium of Bennington College, a reading and discussion hosted by

the Bennington Writing Seminars.

in Austin, Texas, on January 21 at 3:00 p.m., at BookPeople, 603 N.

Lamar. Editor Samantha Schnee and contributors Zara Houshmand and

Mohammad Ghanoonparvar will read from and discuss the anthology.

at Adelphi University, Adelphi, New York on February 7. Watch the site

for more details.

BLOGS, BLOGS, BLOGS: Arnon Grunberg receives both security clearance

and a bible lesson, embraces Amartya Sen on identity and violence, and

admires Roland Topor's innate ability to offend. Interested in

blogging for WWB? Please send writing samples to

wwbinfo@wordswithoutborders.org

to find out more.

Calling all translators: Every year PEN gives out thousands of dollars

in grants to translators looking for financial support while taking on

a translation project. It's not too late to apply for the current

round. Applications must be postmarked by January 17. Complete

information (including an application form and eligibility

requirements) can be found at www.pen.org/translationfundgrants.

Please share your job opportunities for writers, editors, translators

and related interests at our job board and post announcements about

upcoming literary events at our events calendar (these are also

accessible by clicking on "Forums" on left of homepage).

You may now donate to WWB online by going to our website at

www.wordswithoutborders.org and following the PayPal links. Your

donation helps us commission more translations of exciting new

international works, build our community features, host live readings

and events, and continuously improve WWB. We couldn't do it without

you and are immensely grateful for your support. Your contribution is

tax deductible to the extent allowable by law.

Join us in February, when we'll feature graphic novels. In the

meantime, if you have questions or comments, please contact us at

wwbinfo@wordswithoutborders.org. We look forward to hearing from you.

Hope you enjoy the site.

The Editors

A*** Salierno Mason, Founding Editor

Dedi Felman

Susan Harris

Blake Radcliffe

Michelle Risley

Samantha Schnee

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Words Without Borders January 2007 Newsletter