Best Literary Translations 2025

by Noh Anothai (Editor)

Best Literary Translations (BLT) is a new, annual anthology that celebrates world literatures in English translation and honors the literary journals that publish that work.

Best Literary Translations 2025 features poetry and prose originally written in nineteen languages, brought into English by forty-five of the most talented translators working today. The four co-editors chose a long list of finalists from several hundred nominations.

Guest Editor Cristina Rivera Garza selected both contemporary and historical works for this edition. BLT’s poems, short stories, essays, and hybrid works were drawn from submissions that spanned dozens of countries and languages. Featuring work from the top literary journals with US-based editors, ranging from ANMLY to World Literature Today, BLT honors some of the excellent literature created by a diverse range of authors and translators. This anthology redefines the canon of global literatures in English translation, showcasing the brave and brilliant work of contemporary translators and editors.

Genres: Short Stories, Poetry

288 pages, Paperback

Published April 29, 2025

About the author

From the St Louis American: "Noh Anothai (the pen name of Anothai Kaewkaen) is the recent winner of the inaugural Gabo Prize for Translation and Multilingual Texts awarded by Lunch Ticket, Antioch University’s online review of writing, art and social justice. A St. Louis resident, he won the prize for translations of three Thai protest poems."

He was also a researcher with the Thailand-United States Education Foundation (Fulbright Thailand) between 2011-12. In that time, he translated programs and hosted cultural events for Thailand’s Ministry of Culture and College of Dramatic Arts. He has also written poems for the My First Book Project, which benefits underprivileged Thai students.

Reviews

[Curtis · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not bad, but honestly, I was hoping it would be weirder. Deep Vellum publishes a wide range of translated fiction, but I prefer their trippier releases like Solenoid and Ultramarine. Favorite features were Tumbleweed, Two Notes on The Scream, and Suzy.

[Olivia · Rating 5 out of 5]

Phenomenal works, but the real treat for me was getting to read the translator’s notes! The artistry, skill, and thoughtfulness behind each translated word makes the world of literary translations all the more special.

New translated languages unlocked for me: Uyghur, Hungarian, Romanian, Persian,Tu’uun Savi, Bulgarian, Faroese, Asturian, and Indonesian!!!!

[Lene Kretschz · Rating 4 out of 5]

This seems somewhat more uneven than the first volume in this series (mostly due to some really bad poetry) and less diverse than I'd hoped (heavily skewed towards Arabic, Spanish, and Ukrainian literature), but there are some truly outstanding pieces included and those alone more than make the book worth buying.

First among the finest is "Kaddish: For Miklós Radnóti" by Radu Vancu(translated from the Romanian by Sean Cotter). It has made me desperate to read the complete collection, 'Kaddish' by Vancu and also to explore the work of the poet he memorializes, Miklós Radnóti. Other outstanding works include: "Come wilderness into our homes" by Daniela Danz (translated from the German by Monika Cassel), "Lili in Her Forest" by Elsa Drucaroff (translated from the Spanish by Slava Faybysh), "Five Phenomenologies" by Lív Maria Róadóttir Jæger (translated from the Faroese by Bradley Harmon), "The Onion" by Wisława Szymborska (translated from the Polish by Joanna Trzeciak Huss), "Suzy" by Clemens J. Setz (translated from the German by Lizzy Kinch), "How to Draw a Lichen (with Help from the Spirits)" by Martha Riva Palacio Obón (translated from the Spanish by Will Morningstar), "Cain and Abel" by Yefim Zozulya (translated from the Russian by Alex Shvartsman), "Heart" by Shuang Xuetao (translated from the Chinese by Jeremy Tiang), "Welcome to the Department of Unanswered Prayers" by Norman Erikson Pasaribu (translated from the Indonesian by Tiffany Tsao), and "Lethe" by Kwang-chung YU (translated from the Chinese by Yifan Zhang).

I look forward to next year's volume in this worthy series.

[Olga Zilberbourg · Rating 5 out of 5]

Reading this book felt like taking a pulse on literary conversations in several different countries around the world at the same time. I appreciated the strong representation of work translated from Ukrainian and Russian in this volume, as well as a very good number of work from Arabic. Some personal favorites include "Before the Earthquake," where a character becomes obsessed by things people leave in a laundromat, by Salah Badis, translated from Arabic by Saliha Haddad, "The Onion," a poem by Wislawa Szymborsa, translated from Polish by Joanna Trzeciak Huss, "Suzy," a somewhat inscrutable yet fascinating story about a teen experimenting with the power of sexuality, by Clemens J. Setz, translated from German by Lizzy Kinch, "The Aspiration for Cha-Ka-Ta-Pa," a wacky story about the future's relationship with the past and the power of celebrity, by Bae Myung-hoon, translated from Korean by Sung Ryu, and "Lethe," a poem that uses a Greek myth to tell a Hong Kong story, by Kwang-Chung Yu, translated from Chinese by Yifan Zhang. And many more wonders!