Welcome to the Global Literature in Libraries Initiative (GLLI) Focus on Japan month! We are author Holly Thompson and Japanese-to-English translator Avery Fischer Udagawa. In tandem with #WorldKidLitMonth, for the month of September, we’ll be sharing posts highlighting favorite Japan books for young people in English translation. We’ll open with board books for the very … Continue reading #WorldKidLitMonth: Focus on Japan
Today’s post comes to you from Angie Erickson This month took us from corporate offices in Seoul and the Canary Islands to Sámi boarding schools in Sweden, dinner tables in Paris, forests in Scandinavia, seventeenth-century Delft, contemporary Tokyo, and dystopian worlds where memory, language, and autonomy are under threat. Alongside our #WITMonth posts, #WorldKidLit introduced us … Continue reading #WITMonth: What We Shared This August: Women in Translation Month 2026
Today’s post comes to you from Veronica Jansen Yoko Ogawa’s The Memory Police Memory is a funny thing. It has the power to haunt or evade us, to be selectively chosen or forgotten, or to be remembered from one point of view while the other remains overlooked. Like most things in life, the human obsession with … Continue reading #WITMonth: Exploring the Beauty of Life and its Relationships Under Authoritarian Rule
Today’s post comes to you from Helle Kirstein Lea Korsgaard’s "The Butterfly Season" The Butterfly Season is not only a guide to Danish butterflies, but first and foremost a guide to attention. By the end of the book, you are not just enlightened about entomology; you are infected by the author’s zeal to be more attentive. … Continue reading #WITMonth: Chasing Miracles: Finding Meaning in the Flutter of Wings
Today’s post comes to you from Kim Tyo-Dickerson Why You Should Watch "The Sheep Detectives" and Read "Three Bags Full"… in Any Order “Justice!” bleated Othello. “Justice!” bleated the other sheep. And so it was decided that George Glenn’s sheep themselves would solve the wicked murder of their shepherd” - Three Bags Full During the summer … Continue reading #WITMonth: Cozy Movie Night with a Classic German Murder Mystery
"The Colony" by Annika Norlin (2023), the debut novel of a Swedish pop star, translated into English by Alice E. Olsson (2025) In the spring of 2023, a lone, burned-out journalist escapes the city and heads up to a remote village to live in a tent, trying for a bit of a nature cure, a … Continue reading #WITMonth: “The Colony” by Annika Norlin
Today’s post comes to you from Hwee Concerning My Daughter is a South Korean novel written by Kim Hye-jin, translated by Jamie Chang, who has also translated popular novels like Kim Ji Young : Born 1982. The book has also won the prestigious Shin Dong-yup Literary Award in 2018. The book is about an ageing mother … Continue reading #WITMonth: “Concerning My Daughter” by Kim Hye-jin
Today’s post comes to you from Brenda Rupp Few heroines in historical fiction fight for survival as fiercely as Catrin in Midnight Blue. Catrin is thrust into survival mode after the death of her abusive husband, leaving her to manage the farm alone while rumors swirl through the village surrounding his death. Still grieving the loss … Continue reading #WITMonth: “Midnight Blue” by Simone van der Vlugt
"Deep in the forest sat a little house. The witch who lived in the house was very old. She was so old even her wrinkles were wrinkled. But one day she went for a walk and never returned.” So starts The Little House That Needed a Witch, a whimsically charming picture book for readers age … Continue reading #WorldKidLit Wednesday: The Little House That Needed a Witch
Today’s post comes to you from Angie Erickson The dinner party may be one of literature’s most easily translated pressure chambers. Four people sit down intending to perform friendship, coupledom, sophistication, and hospitality; by dessert, the performance has collapsed. This is the setup of Just a Little Dinner, Katherine Gregor’s English translation of Cécile Tlili’s 2023 … Continue reading #WITMonth: “Just a Little Dinner” by Cecile Tlili
Global Literature in Libraries Initiative 