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2016 PEN/Heim Translation Series

PEN America is thrilled to showcase the work of recipients of the 2016 PEN/Heim Translation Fund. Each week through the fall, we’ll feature excerpts from winning projects along with essays by the translators on what drew them to a particular piece and why their work matters now. The Fund, which awards grants of $2,000-$4,000 to promote the publication and reception of translated world literature in English, received a total of 171 applications, spanning a wide array of languages of origin, including Bosnian-Croatian-Serbian, Chinese, Czech, Hindi, Yiddish, and more.

Since 2009, the Fund’s annual contribution for grant awards has been augmented by support from Amazon.

noon

do ghosts remember? which ones do? which / ones don’t? and if they do, which organ // might they use? More

Dark Love

The car is heated by the afternoon sun, and I, pervaded through and through by a pain known as love, I don’t know it because I’m twelve, and so… More

Juana I

What I need is a mouth. / I need a mouth the enamel of teeth your saliva. / Blood stops flowing to your lips. / I kiss the air,… More

Simsim

Basar Mal cannot remember when Mangan’s ma had acquired this penchant for washing everything. Cannot recollect when she had started feeling insecure about water. Cannot also recollect the last… More

Book of Minutes

I open the dresser drawer and find the definition of tenderness under the letter h: handkerchiefs with embroidered initials, lavender scent, well-pressed and folded in quarters, the way light… More

Captain Kidd

The art of the biographer consists specifically in choice. He is not meant to worry about speaking truth; he must create human characteristics amidst the chaos. More

The Payback

The chief secured their door with a padlock, put the key in his pocket, and signaled to the peasant driver to get moving. When they reached the bridge, silhouettes… More