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Celebrate Women in Translation Month with 9 Global Stories

Posted on August 05, 2026

Illustration of Ok-sun, from the graphic work "Grass" by Keum Suk Gendry-Kim.

Every August, Women in Translation Month (or #WITMonth) celebrates women's writing from around the world. Want to commemorate the occasion with your students? Read on for a list of literature both written and translated by women on WWB Campus. 
 

  1. "The Guest," by Miral Al-Tahawy, translated from Arabic by Samah Selim: about an Egyptian Bedouin girl and her beloved, lonely grandmother
  2. "Cinderella's Secret Dream," by Ena Lucia Portela, translated from Spanish by Pamela Carmell: a quirky twist on the Cinderella story starring a protagonist who dreams not of a prince, but of becoming a soap opera star
  3. "Grass," by Keum Suk Gendry-Kim, translated from Korean by Janet Hong: a graphic oral history in which a Korean girl leaves home shortly before World War II
  4. "Carnival Life," by Gisèle Pineau, translated from French by C. Dickson: a story from Guadeloupe in which a tired widow finds new purpose dancing in her local Carnival parade
  5. "The Beskempir," by Zira Naurzbayeva, translated from Russian by Shelley Fairweather-Vega: an essay about a culture clash between a city girl and her traditional grandmother in Kazakhstan
  6. "When My Wife Was A Shiitake," by Kyoko Nakajima, translated from Japanese by Ginny Tapley Takemori: the story of a Japanese widower getting to know his late wife through cooking
  7. "Open Hands," by Cheri Lewis, translated from Spanish by Pamela Carmell: a humorous and surrealistic Panamanian story featuring a home invasion by babies
  8. "Sleepless Homeland," by Carmen Boullosa, translated from Spanish by Samantha Schnee: a poem that personifies Mexico during the drug wars as a woman
  9. "The Vegetarian," by Han Kang, translated from Korean by Deborah Smith: a Korean story about a woman's choice to give up meat

Looking for more reading suggestions? To find many others on this site, just search for "women authors." Or, search for the #WITMonth hashtag on your preferred social media platform. 

Updated from a post originally published in 2023. —Eds.