Monica Cure

Might as well see the beauty. Days of rain in Bucharest.

See the cover for The Summer My Mother Had Green Eyes by Tatiana Țîbuleac Tatiana Țîbuleac is an award-winning Moldovan-Romanian author whose novels have been translated into 17 languages. A former journalist and UNICEF staffer, she now lives in Paris. Her latest book, T…

The making of the cover is itself quite a story. Thanks @debutiful.bsky.social for featuring it!
debutiful.net/2025/10/02/s...

And we have a cover! I can't wait for everyone to be able to get their hands on my translation of Tatiana Tibuleac's incredible novel The Summer My Mother Had Green Eyes. It comes out on January 13 from @deepvellum.bsky.social.

The prompt in English May I have bacon is translated by Google as pot să beau slănină

It's not too late to wish my fellow human translators Happy International Translation Day! (literal Romanian google translation reads, "can I drink fatback"). Also a good moment to remind everyone that translators are writers.

Doubly wonderful because @sevenstories.bsky.social/ @sevenstoriesuk.bsky.social writer Liliana Corobca was there as well.

A highlight this week was a fascinating talk on anthropology and biomedicine from Raluca Nagy - and a long awaited meeting! I translated a sample from her novel for the European Prize for Literature in 2022 and now learned how her fieldwork inspired it.

euprizeliterature.eu/en/prize-aut...

My translation projected on the wall of the neoclassical University of Bucharest library auditorium

A nice backdrop for my translation of Dan Coman's wonderful poem at the opening night of the Bucharest International Poetry Festival. Originally published in Plume Poetry plumepoetry.com/a-tall-bird/

Arthur Sze has been named the new U.S. poet laureate. He succeeds Ada Limón, who has held the position since 2022. During his term as poet laureate, Sze plans to have a special focus on translating poetry originally written in other languages. Read more: at.pw.org/ArthurSze

"Adèle Rosenfeld’s surreal exploration of deafness and intimacy arrives in English through Jeffrey Zuckerman’s luminous translation. As the protagonist slips further into hearing loss, the novel immerses us in a shifting sensory world, rendered with nuance and lyricism. Zuckerman masterfully preserves Rosenfeld’s balance of melancholy and absurdity, attuning English to the novel’s pulse of sonic absence. Jellyfish Have No Ears expands the vocabulary of loss—and listening—in a translation that feels both precise and otherworldly."

Aww, this makes my heart so full! JELLYFISH HAVE NO EARS has been longlisted for @littranslate.bsky.social's National Translation Award! literarytranslators.org/awards/2025-...

In From the Margins: On Letting the Roma Narrate Their Own Story From a very young age I was drawn to the world of fiction. Every day my grandfather would walk me home from nursery and tell me a story as we walked along the lifeless streets. I wish I could remem…

Discover Romanian Romani author Madeline Potter’s excerpt from her newest book, The Roma: A Travelling History (2025), a moving reflection on Romani memory and identity challenging erasure and reclaiming the power of storytelling.

Read via @literaryhub.bsky.social:

#Roma #Amreading #Booksky

10 books to better understand Ukraine on its Independence Day Thirty-four years on, Ukraine’s independence endures — even as Russia’s full-scale war puts its people to the ultimate test. That’s why Independence Day, marked on Aug. 24, is more than just a holiday...

On Ukraine's Independence Day, here are 10 books to help you understand the country better. My little listicle for @kyivindependent.com.

kyivindependent.com/10-books-to-...

A Primer on Pitching Translations - Words Without Borders Award-winning translator Lara Vergnaud offers a tongue-in-cheek guide for translators in search of a publisher.

"Do maintain a robust social media presence; aim to post between 1 and 1,000 times a year."

Lara Vergnaud tells it like it is

wordswithoutborders.org/read/article...

Thanks, Monica! It was such a pleasure to talk to you both about this wonderful book. It really was one of the most compelling original things I've read in a long time.

Wonderful talking to you as well! Thank you!

Trafika Europe Radio - Trafika Europe

Liliana Corobca and I gave an interview to @joewilliamshistory.bsky.social at Trafika Europe Radio on The Censor's Notebook (@sevenstories.bsky.social/@sevenstoriesuk.bsky.social), with a reading starting at 5:10. Always love introducing this ingenious book to new readers!

bit.ly/censors-note...

Confronting the silence: An Interview with Monica Cure — APOFENIE Interviewed by Irina Costache "For me, being able to read these stories fills in a lot of gaps. Many times, it's not because anyone in my family or the Romanians that I grew up with in Detroit are wi...

From the archives: Romanian translator @monicacure.bsky.social talks about how translation can aid recovery and restoration and her hopes for future translated Romanian literature.

www.apofenie.com/the-latest-c...

I'm so sorry Kate.

The day I first heard a Shahed drone buzzing overhead The past 24 hours have signaled yet another decisive moment in the war, even if it might not immediately seem that way.

Today Ukraine's southwestern city of Chernivtsi, located on the border with the EU, was targeted by Russia with Shahed drones. It's a dark milestone in the war. I wrote about this frightening day for @kyivindependent.com.

kyivindependent.com/the-day-i-fi...

It's a great honor. Congrats to my fellow finalists. Looking forward to congratulating the winners soon as well!

Thank you for my new favorite hashtag!

“You will hear thunder and remember me,
And think: she wanted storms.”

—Anna Akhmatova; tr. Donald Michael Thomas

EBRD Literature Prize 2025: Awards Ceremony YouTube video by European Bank for Reconstruction and Development

EBRD Literature Prize 2025: Awards Ceremony

youtube.com/live/Bn8i-BJ...

Beloit, WI revitalized its waterfront and chose this way to celebrate it: by bringing to life Georges Seurat's "A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte."

move over hot girl summer, it’s time for sweaty stressed girl who just wants to read her book in the shade summer

The 4 judges on the steps to nowhere at New College

A happy jury! Congratulations to everyone on the short list and to Jeffrey Zuckerman, the winner of the 2025 Oxford-Weidenfeld Translation Prize for Jellyfish Have No Ears by Adèle Rosenfeld (MacLehose) translated from the French

All the 8 shortlisted titles spread out on a table

Slowly getting ready to announce the Oxford-Weidenfeld translation prize @oxfordcct.bsky.social. Minna Jeffrey, Thom Murphy, @acantrill.bsky.social, and I had our work cut out for us!

2025 Oxford-Weidenfeld Translation Prize shortlist is announced We are thrilled to announce the shortlist for the 2025 Oxford-Weidenfeld Translation Prize. Congratulations to all shortlisted translators!

In case you missed the Short List: occt.web.ox.ac.uk/news-item-1

Each of these books brings something truly special to the world.

I can't wait to be in Oxford next week for Oxford Translation Day! It has been thrilling being part of the jury for this amazing prize along with my fellow judges.

Translation Multiples: From Global Culture to Postcommunist Democracy

In Translation Multiples, Kasia Szymanska examines what happens when translators, poets, and artists expose the act of translation by placing parallel translation variants next to one another in a standalone work of art.

Out now: press.princeton.edu/books/paperb...

It was amazing to see ‘The Roma’ in my local bookshop @goldenharebooks.bsky.social — head over for a signed copy 🤭