Addie Leak
@addieleak.bsky.social
Translator (AR/FR>EN), lover of languages/lit/travel. 🐈 mom, future Jordanian citizen, avid hiker/backpacker. Website: https://addieleak.com/ #amtranslating Mariam, It's Arwa
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I've been meaning to make a website for... 4 years? With 2 books coming out in March, I finally bit the bullet: addieleak.com 😬😅🥳 @aucpress.bsky.social @europaeditions.bsky.social
Reposted by Addie Leak
Today, we’re remembering WWB contributor Vénus Khoury-Ghata, (1937–2026), a Lebanese poet and novelist who lived in France.
You can read her work on her work on our website: wordswithoutborders.org/contributors...
You can read her work on her work on our website: wordswithoutborders.org/contributors...
February 2, 2026 at 3:57 PM
Today, we’re remembering WWB contributor Vénus Khoury-Ghata, (1937–2026), a Lebanese poet and novelist who lived in France.
You can read her work on her work on our website: wordswithoutborders.org/contributors...
You can read her work on her work on our website: wordswithoutborders.org/contributors...
Reposted by Addie Leak
“At first he found the idea of living off prostitutes disgusting. But with time and money, he came round to the idea.”
Me on new translated fiction: an Indian community on connected roofs; an arctic people forgotten by the Soviets; and tramps struggling to make ends meet in Weimar Berlin.
Me on new translated fiction: an Indian community on connected roofs; an arctic people forgotten by the Soviets; and tramps struggling to make ends meet in Weimar Berlin.
The best recent translated fiction – review roundup
White Moss by Anna Nerkagi | The Old Fire by Elisa Shua Dusapin | The Roof Beneath Their Feet by Geetanjali Shree | Berlin Shuffle by Ulrich Alexander Boschwitz
www.theguardian.com
February 2, 2026 at 11:19 AM
“At first he found the idea of living off prostitutes disgusting. But with time and money, he came round to the idea.”
Me on new translated fiction: an Indian community on connected roofs; an arctic people forgotten by the Soviets; and tramps struggling to make ends meet in Weimar Berlin.
Me on new translated fiction: an Indian community on connected roofs; an arctic people forgotten by the Soviets; and tramps struggling to make ends meet in Weimar Berlin.
Reposted by Addie Leak
Author names that became adjectives include Kafkaesque, Shakespearean and Byronic (and isn’t it Byronic, don’t you think?).
Here are 10 suggestions for new ones…
1. Woolfish
2. Dickish
3. Orwell-endowed
4. Austentacious
5. Mannic
6. Audenary
7. Dahlicious
8. Remarqueable
9. Seusspicious
10. Poetic
Here are 10 suggestions for new ones…
1. Woolfish
2. Dickish
3. Orwell-endowed
4. Austentacious
5. Mannic
6. Audenary
7. Dahlicious
8. Remarqueable
9. Seusspicious
10. Poetic
February 2, 2026 at 6:39 PM
Author names that became adjectives include Kafkaesque, Shakespearean and Byronic (and isn’t it Byronic, don’t you think?).
Here are 10 suggestions for new ones…
1. Woolfish
2. Dickish
3. Orwell-endowed
4. Austentacious
5. Mannic
6. Audenary
7. Dahlicious
8. Remarqueable
9. Seusspicious
10. Poetic
Here are 10 suggestions for new ones…
1. Woolfish
2. Dickish
3. Orwell-endowed
4. Austentacious
5. Mannic
6. Audenary
7. Dahlicious
8. Remarqueable
9. Seusspicious
10. Poetic
Reposted by Addie Leak
Looking for new fiction to read? Check out this January Watchlist, featuring ALTA member Maren Baudet-Lackner’s translation of THE AQUATICS by Osvalde Lewat. At Words Without Borders / @wwborders.bsky.social: buff.ly/dsBoLng
The Watchlist: January 2026 - Words Without Borders
Tobias Carroll recommends novels from Cameroon, Colombia, Russia, and more, plus the newest from Nobel laureate Olga Tokarczuk.
wordswithoutborders.org
January 26, 2026 at 3:01 PM
Looking for new fiction to read? Check out this January Watchlist, featuring ALTA member Maren Baudet-Lackner’s translation of THE AQUATICS by Osvalde Lewat. At Words Without Borders / @wwborders.bsky.social: buff.ly/dsBoLng
Love it.
Five phrases about the transitory nature of all things...
1. Nothing is eternal (Farsi)
2. No one’s candle is lit till dawn (Serbian)
3. No evil shall last a hundred years (Spanish)
4. All snowstorms eventually subside (Icelandic)
5. Everything has an end, except the sausage, which has two (German)
1. Nothing is eternal (Farsi)
2. No one’s candle is lit till dawn (Serbian)
3. No evil shall last a hundred years (Spanish)
4. All snowstorms eventually subside (Icelandic)
5. Everything has an end, except the sausage, which has two (German)
January 26, 2026 at 9:33 PM
Love it.
I've been meaning to make a website for... 4 years? With 2 books coming out in March, I finally bit the bullet: addieleak.com 😬😅🥳 @aucpress.bsky.social @europaeditions.bsky.social
Home
addieleak.com
January 26, 2026 at 6:33 PM
I've been meaning to make a website for... 4 years? With 2 books coming out in March, I finally bit the bullet: addieleak.com 😬😅🥳 @aucpress.bsky.social @europaeditions.bsky.social
#2026readinglist !!!!
Browse our list of most anticipated 2026 titles in translation, spanning across 13 countries and ten different languages. You’re sure to find a new book to add to the top of your TBR. Read here: wordswithoutborders.org/read/article...
January 24, 2026 at 6:21 AM
#2026readinglist !!!!
Reposted by Addie Leak
Books editor Maya Palit is looking forward to MARIAM, IT’S ARWA by Areej Gamal, tr. @addieleak.bsky.social (Hoopoe Press, @aucpress.bsky.social). bookshop.org/p/books/mari...
Mariam, It's Arwa
Check out Mariam, It's Arwa - <p><b>Finding love, comfort, and hope amid uncertainty, two young, Egyptian women reveal themselves to one another in this dreamlike and award-winning debut </b> <p/>It…
bookshop.org
January 5, 2026 at 5:41 PM
Books editor Maya Palit is looking forward to MARIAM, IT’S ARWA by Areej Gamal, tr. @addieleak.bsky.social (Hoopoe Press, @aucpress.bsky.social). bookshop.org/p/books/mari...
Reposted by Addie Leak
We’re excited to share one of our latest publications of Brazilian lit: “Just a Game” by José J. Veiga (tr. Thomas Mira y Lopez). The short story considers what happens when political and military authority runs rampant in a small town. Read it here: wordswithoutborders.org/read/article...
December 16, 2025 at 3:05 PM
We’re excited to share one of our latest publications of Brazilian lit: “Just a Game” by José J. Veiga (tr. Thomas Mira y Lopez). The short story considers what happens when political and military authority runs rampant in a small town. Read it here: wordswithoutborders.org/read/article...
Reposted by Addie Leak
"I realized I was living in a kind of waystation where the word 'temporary' was permanent"
Haifa Abualnadi's "Sidewalks of an Anxious City," translated by Addie Leak (@addieleak.bsky.social), portrays a personal struggle of adapting to life in Amman. Check it out below!
Haifa Abualnadi's "Sidewalks of an Anxious City," translated by Addie Leak (@addieleak.bsky.social), portrays a personal struggle of adapting to life in Amman. Check it out below!
Sidewalks of an Anxious City
HAIFA ABUALNADI <br> Amman is a city of deferred migration with no hope of arriving, depression with no hope of recovery, and the scam that is returnees’ dream of connection. Amman isn’t mine.…
buff.ly
July 27, 2025 at 2:01 PM
"I realized I was living in a kind of waystation where the word 'temporary' was permanent"
Haifa Abualnadi's "Sidewalks of an Anxious City," translated by Addie Leak (@addieleak.bsky.social), portrays a personal struggle of adapting to life in Amman. Check it out below!
Haifa Abualnadi's "Sidewalks of an Anxious City," translated by Addie Leak (@addieleak.bsky.social), portrays a personal struggle of adapting to life in Amman. Check it out below!
Reposted by Addie Leak
"All our lives combined wouldn’t give us the time we’d need to make my city as green as it once was"
Haifa Abualnadi traces the changes and tensions of life in Amman in "Sidewalks of an Anxious City," translated by Addie Leak (@addieleak.bsky.social). Check it out below!
Haifa Abualnadi traces the changes and tensions of life in Amman in "Sidewalks of an Anxious City," translated by Addie Leak (@addieleak.bsky.social). Check it out below!
Sidewalks of an Anxious City
HAIFA ABUALNADI <br> Amman is a city of deferred migration with no hope of arriving, depression with no hope of recovery, and the scam that is returnees’ dream of connection. Amman isn’t mine.…
buff.ly
August 3, 2025 at 6:01 PM
"All our lives combined wouldn’t give us the time we’d need to make my city as green as it once was"
Haifa Abualnadi traces the changes and tensions of life in Amman in "Sidewalks of an Anxious City," translated by Addie Leak (@addieleak.bsky.social). Check it out below!
Haifa Abualnadi traces the changes and tensions of life in Amman in "Sidewalks of an Anxious City," translated by Addie Leak (@addieleak.bsky.social). Check it out below!
Reposted by Addie Leak
"We stop in everywhere, then head home after we lose our cravings but before we lose our minds."
Read Issue 29's "Sufi Trance," a tender fiction piece by Maryam Dajani and translated by Addie Leak (@addieleak.bsky.social), below. And do check out the rest of our Amman portfolio!
Read Issue 29's "Sufi Trance," a tender fiction piece by Maryam Dajani and translated by Addie Leak (@addieleak.bsky.social), below. And do check out the rest of our Amman portfolio!
Sufi Trance
MARYAM DAJANI <br> I’m leaving Abdoun after having sushi at Noodasia, heading toward Airport Road. The traffic light in front of me turns red, and all I have to do is step on the brakes… but where…
buff.ly
May 31, 2025 at 2:02 PM
"We stop in everywhere, then head home after we lose our cravings but before we lose our minds."
Read Issue 29's "Sufi Trance," a tender fiction piece by Maryam Dajani and translated by Addie Leak (@addieleak.bsky.social), below. And do check out the rest of our Amman portfolio!
Read Issue 29's "Sufi Trance," a tender fiction piece by Maryam Dajani and translated by Addie Leak (@addieleak.bsky.social), below. And do check out the rest of our Amman portfolio!
Reposted by Addie Leak
"She’d drawn a girl on the beach, writing on the sand with a crooked branch. Beneath her, she wrote in English: Find me."
Ala Janbek strolls Amman's anatomy in his Issue 29 essay "Wandering," translated by @addieleak.bsky.social. Read this and the complete Amman portfolio below!
buff.ly/Tu8vRsp
Ala Janbek strolls Amman's anatomy in his Issue 29 essay "Wandering," translated by @addieleak.bsky.social. Read this and the complete Amman portfolio below!
buff.ly/Tu8vRsp
Wandering
ALA JANBEK <br> After a year and a half in the neighborhood, I no longer wonder if I should buy a snack from the red shop or the blue one; instead, I buy from Abu Hussein, who throws in a date and a…
buff.ly
June 15, 2025 at 2:03 PM
"She’d drawn a girl on the beach, writing on the sand with a crooked branch. Beneath her, she wrote in English: Find me."
Ala Janbek strolls Amman's anatomy in his Issue 29 essay "Wandering," translated by @addieleak.bsky.social. Read this and the complete Amman portfolio below!
buff.ly/Tu8vRsp
Ala Janbek strolls Amman's anatomy in his Issue 29 essay "Wandering," translated by @addieleak.bsky.social. Read this and the complete Amman portfolio below!
buff.ly/Tu8vRsp
Reposted by Addie Leak
"I whirl around with Amman, weary, in a Sufi trance that has never given me the grace to achieve oneness."
Maryam Dajani's "Sufi Trance" circles and spirals into Amman's soundscapes, deftly translated by Addie Leak (@addieleak.bsky.social). Read this jewel of Issue 29's Amman portfolio here!
Maryam Dajani's "Sufi Trance" circles and spirals into Amman's soundscapes, deftly translated by Addie Leak (@addieleak.bsky.social). Read this jewel of Issue 29's Amman portfolio here!
Sufi Trance
MARYAM DAJANI <br> I’m leaving Abdoun after having sushi at Noodasia, heading toward Airport Road. The traffic light in front of me turns red, and all I have to do is step on the brakes… but where…
buff.ly
June 7, 2025 at 6:02 PM
"I whirl around with Amman, weary, in a Sufi trance that has never given me the grace to achieve oneness."
Maryam Dajani's "Sufi Trance" circles and spirals into Amman's soundscapes, deftly translated by Addie Leak (@addieleak.bsky.social). Read this jewel of Issue 29's Amman portfolio here!
Maryam Dajani's "Sufi Trance" circles and spirals into Amman's soundscapes, deftly translated by Addie Leak (@addieleak.bsky.social). Read this jewel of Issue 29's Amman portfolio here!
Reposted by Addie Leak
Last call to attend our livestreamed Ottaway Award ceremony on 6/3! Join us as we celebrate Christopher Merrill with a laudation from Alane Salierno Mason, along with remarks from Merrill himself. RSVP here: wordswithoutborders.org/events/2025-...
June 2, 2025 at 2:57 PM
Last call to attend our livestreamed Ottaway Award ceremony on 6/3! Join us as we celebrate Christopher Merrill with a laudation from Alane Salierno Mason, along with remarks from Merrill himself. RSVP here: wordswithoutborders.org/events/2025-...
Reposted by Addie Leak
Ever notice how we don’t have a bestselling or award-winning book written by ChatGPT? Believe me, if one existed, OpenAI would shout it from the rooftops. But the only thing they can generate is trash.
June 1, 2025 at 7:52 PM
Ever notice how we don’t have a bestselling or award-winning book written by ChatGPT? Believe me, if one existed, OpenAI would shout it from the rooftops. But the only thing they can generate is trash.
Paywall means I can't actually access the info, but I am tentatively overjoyed? YAY positive blurb in a series of heartrending news cycles...
More than a century after the Tulsa Race Massacre of 1921, one of the most horrific episodes of racial violence in U.S. history, the city’s mayor announced a $105 million reparations package on Sunday. It is the first large-scale plan committing funds to address the impact of the atrocity.
$105 Million Reparations Package for Tulsa Race Massacre Unveiled by Mayor
www.nytimes.com
June 3, 2025 at 9:23 AM
Paywall means I can't actually access the info, but I am tentatively overjoyed? YAY positive blurb in a series of heartrending news cycles...
Reposted by Addie Leak
"Fifteen years ago, Arabic literature in translation was mostly published with an anthropological lens by university presses. The influx of new translators has shifted the landscape." WWB Executive Director @lissiejaquette.bsky.social in Publisher's Weekly: www.publishersweekly.com/pw/by-topic/...
Away from the Underdog Narrative: PW Talks with Lissie Jaquette
The executive director of the translated literature nonprofit Words Without Borders, who also translates from Arabic, sees the landscape for literature in translation finally changing in the U.S.
www.publishersweekly.com
May 27, 2025 at 4:16 PM
"Fifteen years ago, Arabic literature in translation was mostly published with an anthropological lens by university presses. The influx of new translators has shifted the landscape." WWB Executive Director @lissiejaquette.bsky.social in Publisher's Weekly: www.publishersweekly.com/pw/by-topic/...
Yeeees, check it out! And the hard copy magazine is stunning!
"We stop in everywhere, then head home after we lose our cravings but before we lose our minds."
Read Issue 29's "Sufi Trance," a tender fiction piece by Maryam Dajani and translated by Addie Leak (@addieleak.bsky.social), below. And do check out the rest of our Amman portfolio!
Read Issue 29's "Sufi Trance," a tender fiction piece by Maryam Dajani and translated by Addie Leak (@addieleak.bsky.social), below. And do check out the rest of our Amman portfolio!
Sufi Trance
MARYAM DAJANI <br> I’m leaving Abdoun after having sushi at Noodasia, heading toward Airport Road. The traffic light in front of me turns red, and all I have to do is step on the brakes… but where…
buff.ly
June 2, 2025 at 3:23 PM
Yeeees, check it out! And the hard copy magazine is stunning!
Reposted by Addie Leak
Also in essays, an excerpt from Iman Mersal’s MOTHERHOOD AND ITS GHOSTS, translated from the Arabic by Robin Moger. www.nplusonemag.com/issue-50/ess...
Our Butterfly | Iman Mersal
Delivered Youssef to the place in Maine. I say “the place,” because I don’t know how to describe it. Is it a camp? A hospital? An asylum?
www.nplusonemag.com
May 21, 2025 at 2:33 PM
Also in essays, an excerpt from Iman Mersal’s MOTHERHOOD AND ITS GHOSTS, translated from the Arabic by Robin Moger. www.nplusonemag.com/issue-50/ess...
This is so exciting! More of this in the US, please!
On Bulbul, a First-of-its-kind Arabic Children’s Magazine in North America
Pediatrician and children’s-book author Arwa Nasir is the force behind Bulbul Books, an Arabic children’s-book publishing house based in the US. This year, she has launched a new monthly magazine of the same name.
Pediatrician and children’s-book author Arwa Nasir is the force behind Bulbul Books, an Arabic children’s-book publishing house based in the US. This year, she has launched a new monthly magazine of the same name.
On Bulbul, a First-of-its-kind Arabic Children’s Magazine in North America
Pediatrician and children’s-book author Arwa Nasir is the force behind Bulbul Books, an Arabic children’s-book publishing house based in the US. This year, she has launched a new monthly magazine of the same name.
arablit.org
May 23, 2025 at 12:27 PM
This is so exciting! More of this in the US, please!
Reposted by Addie Leak
"The story of Amman is therefore an old one: Revitalized by immigrants after a period of dormancy, the city then developed a centripetal force that drew migrants from many and various surrounding areas."
Hisham Bustani writes about Amman in his essay in Issue 29.
buff.ly/KTjVUI4
Hisham Bustani writes about Amman in his essay in Issue 29.
buff.ly/KTjVUI4
Amman: The Heaviness and Lightness of Place
HISHAM BUSTANI <br> Today, I follow the old path of the sayl around Jabal Amman (the “mountain” of Amman) and grieve. Nature spent centuries shaping a miracle, only for it to be destroyed in a few…
buff.ly
May 12, 2025 at 1:03 PM
"The story of Amman is therefore an old one: Revitalized by immigrants after a period of dormancy, the city then developed a centripetal force that drew migrants from many and various surrounding areas."
Hisham Bustani writes about Amman in his essay in Issue 29.
buff.ly/KTjVUI4
Hisham Bustani writes about Amman in his essay in Issue 29.
buff.ly/KTjVUI4
Reposted by Addie Leak
🌱 FRIDAY
May 16- 8 pm
Molasses Books
(brooklyn)
Please join @mayadamayadamay.bsky.social & Miled Faiza reading poems / translations from #ArabicBetweenLoveAndWar with Laura al-Tibi & Amr Amer
May 16- 8 pm
Molasses Books
(brooklyn)
Please join @mayadamayadamay.bsky.social & Miled Faiza reading poems / translations from #ArabicBetweenLoveAndWar with Laura al-Tibi & Amr Amer
May 13, 2025 at 4:31 PM
🌱 FRIDAY
May 16- 8 pm
Molasses Books
(brooklyn)
Please join @mayadamayadamay.bsky.social & Miled Faiza reading poems / translations from #ArabicBetweenLoveAndWar with Laura al-Tibi & Amr Amer
May 16- 8 pm
Molasses Books
(brooklyn)
Please join @mayadamayadamay.bsky.social & Miled Faiza reading poems / translations from #ArabicBetweenLoveAndWar with Laura al-Tibi & Amr Amer
Reposted by Addie Leak
Today on ArabLit: a new "Between Two Arabic Translators."
Special shout-outs to @tracepress.bsky.social, Seagull Books, Ammiel Alcalay.
arablit.org/2025/05/14/o...
Special shout-outs to @tracepress.bsky.social, Seagull Books, Ammiel Alcalay.
arablit.org/2025/05/14/o...
May 14, 2025 at 7:42 AM
Today on ArabLit: a new "Between Two Arabic Translators."
Special shout-outs to @tracepress.bsky.social, Seagull Books, Ammiel Alcalay.
arablit.org/2025/05/14/o...
Special shout-outs to @tracepress.bsky.social, Seagull Books, Ammiel Alcalay.
arablit.org/2025/05/14/o...
Very much looking forward to this webinar--always so much more to learn!
@authorsguild.bsky.social is presenting a Zoom webinar on 14 May, 10 am PT/1 pm ET about the basics of literary translation contracts:
authorsguild.org/event/transl...
authorsguild.org/event/transl...
Translation Contracts 101 - The Authors Guild
Literary translators deserve recognition and compensation for their labor and creative work. While the royalties are typically low due to revenues being split between multiple parties, a publishing co...
authorsguild.org
May 10, 2025 at 9:30 AM
Very much looking forward to this webinar--always so much more to learn!