The two most important Portuguese newspapers have listed their Best Books of 2025 and the novel “The End of the United States of America. An Epic” by Gonçalo M. Tavares was ranked 1st place by Público and 2nd place by Expresso.

Both newspapers’ literary sections, Público Ípsilon and A Revista do Expresso, have published cover stories about Gonçalo M. Tavares in their latest issues, including interviews with the author.

Submissions for the European Union's 2026 support programme for translations of European literature are still possible until January 29, 2026.

The CREA-CULT-2026-LIT (Circulation of European literary works) programme supports projects that will translate, publish, distribute and promote European works of fiction, in particular by encouraging translations from lesser used languages into English, German, French, Spanish (Castilian) and Italian.

Proposals must be submitted electronically via the Funding & Tenders Portal Electronic Submission System.

The New York Times has published an extensive feature on Angolan author José Eduardo Agualusa, on occasion of Archipelago Books’ launching of The Living and the Rest in the USA on 27th May, in the English translation of the author’s longtime translator Daniel Hahn.

Agualusa states that his novel is “inspired by the real-life charms of Mozambique Island”, a small island on the northern coast of Mozambique which he has made his home almost ten years ago by marrying a local filmmaker.

Kenyan author Yvonne Adhiambo Owuor is convinced that “Agualusa is one of the prophets of our African ‘marvelous’ complexity”, a complexitiy which Agualusa himself likes to describe as “African realism”. According to Anderson Tepper, reading The Living and the Rest “you have entered Agualusa’s world, where the boundaries between the real and imaginary are porous, and dreams become their own reality.” And indeed, dreams are essential in Agualusa’s life and work. “We must start dreaming again, in a collective way. That’s the only way to transform the world: to dream together”, he says.

You can find the whole article here:

> New York Times Feature

We are delighted to share that Adriana Fernández‘s children’s book “Dear Giant” has been included in the list of ALIJA’s 2024 recommendations. ALIJA is the Argentinian Section of the International Board on Books for Young People (IBBY). IBBY is a non-profit organization which represents an international network of people from all over the world who are committed to bringing books and children together. It is based in Switzerland. Since its founding in 1953, IBBY has grown in the number of awards and projects it supports and in their geographical spread. All these awards and projects share the goal of encouraging quality children’s literature and upholding the right of every child to become a reader. Every year, ALIJA awards one of the most renowned prizes in Latin America: the ALIJA Highlights, for which a federal and multidisciplinary jury honours the best works for children and young people of the period.

> ALIJA 2024 Recommendations

We are excited to announce that our author Mia Couto will receive the PEN/Nabokov Award for Achievement in International Literature at the 2025 PEN America Literary Awards.

At the award ceremony on May 8—called the “Oscars for books”— PEN America will confer the PEN/Nabokov Award for Achievement in International Literature to Mozambican author Mia Couto for his body of work. The PEN/Nabokov jury cited him for probing his homeland’s fraught history “as well as essential riddles of identity and existence. Couto has held “a singular place in the landscape of both African and world literature,” the judges wrote.

The PEN America awards are juried by panels of esteemed, award-winning authors, editors, translators, and critics. These authors are committed to recognizing their contemporaries, from promising debut writers to those who have already had a continuous and lasting impact on the literary landscape.

> Press release for the 2025 PEN America Literary Awards

We are happy to share that Patrícia Melo‘s novel The Simple Art Of Killing A Woman, translated by Sophie Lewis and published with The Indigo Press, is longlisted for The Crime Writers’ Association (CWA) Dagger for Crime Fiction in Translation 2025.

The CWA Dagger award for Crime Fiction in Translation goes to “crime novels (defined by the broadest definition to include thrillers, suspense novels and spy fiction) as long as the book was not originally written in English and has been translated into English for UK publication during the judging period.”

The shortlist for the 2025 Daggers will be announced on 29 May.

> The CWA Daggers

We are proud to announce that Lídia Jorge was appointed Commandeure des Arts et des Lettres by the French Ministry of Culture. With this distinction, Lídia Jorge joins a variety of famous names, such as Victoria Ocampo, Jorge Luis Borges, Salman Rushdie, Václav Hável, Maryse Condé, Julian Barnes and Ray Bradbury, as part of the French Ordre des Arts et des Lettres, which honours outstanding contributions to the arts and literature. The distinction has been awarded yearly since 1957.

> Commandeur des Arts et des Lettres a Lidia Jorge

We are delighted to announce that the UK paperback edition of Patrícia Melo’s novel The Simple Art of Killing a Woman has been selected by Waterstones as part of their 25% off pre-order promotion campaign running from the 22nd to the 24th of February. The novel was translated into English by Sophie Lewis and published by The Indigo Press. Waterstones is the leading bookstore chain in the UK.

> https://www.waterstones.com/book/the-simple-art-of-killing-a-woman/patr-cia-melo/sophie-lewis/9781917378086

The Stanford Humanities Center invites Bachtyar Ali as a resident from early April to early May 2025.

The aim of these month-long residencies is to bring high-level international scholars into the intellectual life of Stanford.

The SHC promotes provocative discussions, the exchange of ideas across languages and cultures, and continual, rigorous reflection on how knowledge is made. It sponsors advanced research in the humanities and the interpretive social sciences by investing in experiences—fellowships, workshops, lectures, and other events—that enrich knowledge in and across the disciplines. Through a partnership with the renowned Center for Spatial and Textual Analysis (CESTA), the Humanities Center embraces emerging digital methods to complement traditional kinds of analysis and interpretation. Together, the Stanford Humanities Center and CESTA serve as the hub of an international network of fellows, visiting scholars, students, and alumni.

SHC states: Bachtyar Ali, a Kurdish Novelist, Literary Critic, and Poet, is “one of the most prominent contemporary intellectuals from Iraqi Kurdistan. His novels have been translated into Persian, Arabic, Turkish, German, Italian, French and English, a renown very few authors writing in the Kurdish language enjoy. He has written nearly 40 books, including 12 novels, as well as a number of essay books and collections of poetry. In 2017, he was awarded the Nelly Sachs Prize in Germany, joining past recipients such as Milan Kundera, Margaret Atwood and Javier Marías. He is the first author writing in a non-European language to do so. In March 2024 he was honored with the prestigious German award Hilde Domin Prize for literature in exile. He lives in Cologne, Germany.Bachtyar Ali was nominated by the Division of Literatures, Cultures and Languages and the Abbasi Program in Islamic Studies.”

> https://mertinwitt-litag.de/portfolio-items/bachtyar-ali/