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Jeffrey Zuckerman @jmz.bsky.social · 30/09/2026

It’s International Translation Day! And to celebrate, the Cercador Prize has announced its shortlist, which includes EDEN AT DAWN written by Karim Kattan and translated by yours truly!

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Moira Donegan @moiradonegan.bsky.social · 25/10/2025

A way to have a good weekend is to go to a local bookstore this afternoons and buy something random and counterintuitive from the staff picks shelf, and spend the next two days reading it.

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Jeffrey Zuckerman @jmz.bsky.social · 15/09/2026

Utterly delighted that my translation of Karim Kattan's EDEN AT DAWN, a novel about two men who fall in love amid a months-long sandstorm blanketing Jerusalem and narrated by the sky itself, is longlisted for the National Book Award in Translation! www.nationalbook.org/longlist-for...

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Michael Lobel @mlobelart.bsky.social · 14/09/2026

Happy birthday to David Wojnarowicz, groundbreaking artist, writer & activist, who raged raged raged against inequity and injustice at every turn. If he hadn’t died of AIDS, like so many leading lights of his generation, he would have been 72 years old today (thread)

A black-and-white photograph of artist & writer David Wojnarowicz, with added elements including red and yellow flames along the right side of his body, and maps over his face and neck

A photo of artist David Wojnarowicz wearing a jacket; on the back is a pink triangle and the legend, "If I die of AIDS-forget burial-just drop my body on the steps of the F.D.A."

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Alec MacKinnon @alecmackinnon.bsky.social · 25/08/2026

BRILLIANT words

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Jeffrey Zuckerman @jmz.bsky.social · 03/08/2026

For British readers, THE THREAD will be in bookshops from November, and American readers can also order it then from Blackwell's (which has a US warehouse) blackwells.co.uk/bookshop/pro... or they can wait until February 2027 to find it in American bookstores. I can't recommend it enough, truly.

blackwells.co.uk

The Thread

A hauntingly powerful and moving lost classic of AIDS literature, translated into English for the first time. "Terribly powerful... The style and structure are

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Jeffrey Zuckerman @jmz.bsky.social · 03/08/2026

I'm so deeply grateful to @clmntrbs.bsky.social for recommending it; Rory at @pushkinpress.com for bravely taking on such an unclassifiable thing; @reluctantlyjoe.bsky.social for writing a heartbreakingly beautiful introduction; and @rid9way.bsky.social for offering the sort of blurb one dreams of.

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Jeffrey Zuckerman @jmz.bsky.social · 03/08/2026

« Tu prévoyais des dangers partout. » Language was the one way Christophe Bourdin could hold together a life threatening to come apart with his HIV diagnosis, and finding an English to convey this dread and this need was a breathtaking challenge. How moving that THE THREAD will now exist in English.

A yellowed copy of Christophe Bourdin's LE FIL, published by Éditions de la Différence in 1994, alongside a shiny Advanced Reading Copy of THE THREAD, in my English translation, to be published by Pushkin Press in Nov. 2026 (UK) and Feb. 2027 (US).

Dear reader,
I am not a hypochondriac, but when Christophe Bourdin's sole novel, Le Fil, showed up in my mailbox one afternoon, a used copy yellowed by three decades out of print, its first sentence thrummed across the years with frightening immediacy: "You foresaw dangers everywhere."
The Thread is a novel of AIDS, but it offers no sweeping panorama of the epidemic; it is the deeply intimate story of one person in a circumscribed world of omnipresent risk, a life spent perpetually on guard, and as Bourdin's inordinately labyrinthine yet exacting sentences articulate that world closing in on him, they themselves all but close in on us. I couldn't shake how much The Thread felt like a dystopian novel-although so unlike any other that, in reading it, I felt compelled to translate it.
Rendering Bourdin's sinuous sentences has meant pushing the English language almost to the breaking point. Astonishingly, as I immersed myself in this world of disarray and disease, Bourdin's precision became my bulwark: no matter how heartbreaking or worrying the reality being described was, his words and his syntax offered a clarity that his world—our world-could not.
Bourdin died in 1997, just shy of 33 years old. The Thread, however, offers an ending remarkably different from any other AIDS novel I have read or translated—a glimmer of hope that has shined bright enough for the book to come back into print in France, and to find new readers in English.
Some books live only one life; others live many lives. The Thread, by some miracle, does both. Here it is, in your hands.
Open it and see where it leads you.
JEFFREY ZUCKERMAN

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Maria Dahvana Headley @mariadahvana.bsky.social · 28/07/2026

All this is to say: any translator's translation of a text, however formal, is itself a strong, long opinion. To imagine that a translator should have no opinions on the text & on the work of other translators and adaptors is pretty silly given the many year labors we all spend on our translations.

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Mandy-Suzanne Wong @mandysuzannewong.bsky.social · 19/06/2026

Don’t miss the first English translation of celebrated Togolese novelist Sami Tchak, by @jmz.bsky.social! Such wonderful work. My thoughts in Asymptote Journal: www.asymptotejournal.com/blog/2026/06...

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j a k e @jakeismaking.bsky.social · 01/06/2026

I know June is meant to reorient ourselves and double down on the pride we feel to be part of the LGBTQ community but can I just say - I'm deeply grateful I'm not straight year round.

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BeeKirby @beekirby.bsky.social · 15/05/2026

Strong Bad after December 2010

Strong Bad: Hard pass on checking e-mail. I'm more into sleeping.

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Alyssa Harad @alyssaharad.bsky.social · 12/05/2026

A heartbreaking story about Kenneth Grahame (of Wind in the Willows fame)’s son. As a child I loved WithW but Toad’s recklessness and manic energy always made me very uncomfortable. I later assumed he was patterned after Grahame’s alcoholic, neglectful father—another layer to the this story.

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Jeffrey Zuckerman @jmz.bsky.social · 27/04/2026

Did anyone have "Dua Lipa gives a shout-out to Jeffrey Zuckerman for translating Ananda Devi" on their bingo card for this year? I did not, but I'm hardly complaining! www.service95.com/best-new-boo...

service95.com

The Best New Books For April

Discover your next new read with the Service95 Book Club’s edit of the best new book releases for April 2026.

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phillip crymble @phillipcrymble.bsky.social · 26/04/2026

Fifty years ago today, Elizabeth Bishop's "One Art" was published in the pages of @newyorker.com. What a poem!

ONE ART

The art of losing isn't hard to master;
so many things seem filled with the intent
to be lost that their loss is no disaster.

Lose something every day. Accept the fluster
of lost door keys, the hour badly spent.
The art of losing isn't hard to master.

Then practice losing farther, losing faster:
places, and names, and where it was you meant
to travel. None of these will bring disaster.

I lost my mother's watch. And look! my last, or
next-to-last, of three loved houses went.
The art of losing isn't hard to master.

I lost two cities, lovely ones. And, vaster,
some realms I owned, two rivers, a continent.
I miss them, but it wasn't a disaster.

--Even losing you (the joking voice, a gesture
I love) I shan't have lied. It's evident
the art of losing's not too hard to master
though it may look like (Write it!) like disaster.

--ELIZABETH BISHOP

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Jeffrey Zuckerman @jmz.bsky.social · 24/04/2026

Was just shown a video of a long-dead author I translated, being interviewed on live television in France. Hard to put into words all the feelings right now.

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Dr. Skylar Grayson @skylargrayson.bsky.social · 04/04/2026

NASA just dropped this image of Artemis II astronaut Christina Koch looking back at us. The first woman to ever see our planet in its entirety. I’m not crying you’re crying 🥹🔭🧪 📸: NASA

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Journal of Art in Society @artinsociety.bsky.social · 26/03/2026

A painted ship upon a painted ocean ~ the sea turns to mercury in this luminous image of a fishing fleet by Californian impressionist William Ritschel (‘Boats Returning Home’ c 1915, Irvine Museum, University of California)

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Alex Gil @elotroalex.bsky.social · 23/03/2026

Thesis #17: Translation is the closest form of reading.

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Jorie Graham @joriegraham.bsky.social · 19/03/2026

Palestinian Man Recounts Brutal Sexual Assault by Israeli Settlers www.nytimes.com/2026/03/18/w...

nytimes.com

Palestinian Man Recounts Brutal Sexual Assault by Israeli Settlers

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Jeffrey Zuckerman @jmz.bsky.social · 16/03/2026

Some further context on that, from Saramago’s Paris Review interview:

INTERVIEWER
How did the idea for Blindness develop?
SARAMAGO
As has been the case with all of my novels, Blindness emerged from an idea that suddenly presented itself to my thoughts. (I am not sure this is the most precise formula, but I cannot find a better one.) I was in a restaurant, waiting to be served lunch, when suddenly, without any warning, I thought, What if we were all blind? As if answering my own question, I thought, But we really are blind. This was the embryo of the novel. Afterward, I only had to conceive the initial circumstances and allow the consequences to be born. They are horrific consequences, but they have a logic of steel. There is not much imagination in Blindness, just the systematic application of the relation of cause and effect.
INTERVIEWER
I liked Blindness very much, but it is not an easy read. It is a hard book. The translation is very good.
SARAMAGO
Did you know that Giovanni Portiero, my longtime English translator, died?
INTERVIEWER
When?
SARAMAGO
In February. He died of AIDS. He was translating Blindness, which he finished, when he died. Toward the end, he himself started to go blind as a result of the medication his doctors gave him. He had to choose between taking the medication, which would sustain him for a bit longer, and not taking it, which would create other risks. He chose, shall we say, to preserve his vision, and he was translating a novel about blindness. It was a devastating situation.

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Alexander Chee @alexanderchee.bsky.social · 12/03/2026

Great thread from @rebeccasolnit.bsky.social in the replies here.

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Jeffrey Zuckerman @jmz.bsky.social · 27/02/2026

Super touched to receive the physical Oxford-Weidenfeld Translation Prize certificate in the mail… should I get it framed?? Allez les méduses !!! 🪼🪼🪼

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derek guy @dieworkwear.bsky.social · 18/02/2026

some of you are looksmaxxing when you need to be booksmaxxing

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Coral City Camera @coralcitycamera.bsky.social · 09/02/2026

We are proud to unveil the world’s longest underwater timelapse, starting May 1st 2023 and running 1,000 days through January 28, 2026. This 10fps period covers summer 2023’s coral bleaching mortality event, but then recovering and growing through ‘24 & ‘25 into ‘26 #coralcitycamera

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Jack Mirkinson @jackmirkinson.bsky.social · 03/02/2026

Media coverage of Gaza has plummeted. So today on @thenation.com, we're doing something pretty special: we're only running pieces by people in and from Gaza. We're calling it "A Day for Gaza." You can find links to all of the incredible pieces here. Please read! www.thenation.com/article/worl...

thenation.com

A Day for Gaza

Today, The Nation is turning over its website exclusively to stories from Gaza and its people. This is why.

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K.C. Mead-Brewer @kcmeadbrewer.com · 16/01/2026

oh no, are publishers getting squeamish about buying queer books right now for some impossible-to-guess reason?? sounds like our books need to get even more queer, relentlessly queer, battle-axe queer, cackling queer

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Jeffrey Zuckerman @jmz.bsky.social · 18/01/2026

Wind and water raged with storms, Wave and shingle were shackled on ice Until another year appeared in the yard – Beowulf, tr. Heaney

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Milli Beau @millibeau.bsky.social · 29/12/2025

Hi there. Isn't it interesting how the most popular TV shows and movies this year (Sinners, Kpop Demon Hunters, and Heated Rivalry) were all hyper specific stories, proving that "universal appeal" (i.e. appealing to white straight folks) is not actually that appealing?

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Helen Rosner @hels.bsky.social · 25/12/2025

Good thread

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Nathan Kalman-Lamb @nkalamb.bsky.social · 09/12/2025

"AI is the asbestos in the walls of our technological society, stuffed there with wild abandon by a finance sector and tech monopolists run amok. We will be excavating it for a generation or more." This piece on AI by Cory Doctorow is spectactular. pluralistic.net/2025/12/05/p...

The Reverse Centaur’s Guide to Criticizing AI (permalink)
Last night, I gave a speech for the University of Washington's "Neuroscience, AI and Society" lecture series, through the university's Computational Neuroscience Center. It was called "The Reverse Centaur’s Guide to Criticizing AI," and it's based on the manuscript for my next book, "The Reverse Centaur’s Guide to Life After AI," which will be out from Farrar, Straus and Giroux next June:

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Ben Collins @bencollins.bsky.social · 08/12/2025

www.forever-wars.com/torture-tech...

Imagine being made to spend 11 days inside a coffin. Imagine being made to spend more than a day inside a box barely two feet large in any direction. Imagine having to curl up, unable to extend any of your extremities, in the claustrophobic conditions of such a box, for more than a cumulative day. You can see pictures Abu Zubaydah drew of himself in the small box. Now imagine this being done to someone you love.

I say all this because the following description appears in an Amnesty International report released Friday into the conditions of confinement for migrants at Alligator Alcatraz:

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Jeffrey Zuckerman @jmz.bsky.social · 18/11/2025

Of course I got Volume Three at Three Lives on November 18th Happy ON THE CALCULATION OF VOLUME Day to those not doomed to repeat it forever…

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Jeffrey Zuckerman @jmz.bsky.social · 15/11/2025

If Not, Winter (Anne Carson’s translation of Sappho) & Enig Marcheur (Nicholas Richard’s translation of Riddley Walker)

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Stan Carey @stancarey.bsky.social · 30/10/2025

"Don't do it with publication in mind, don't do it for posterity, don't do it for the likes…Just write for the sake of it. Write to see what your own thoughts look like when you force them into sentences" Joan Westenberg on how regular writing debugs cognition www.joanwestenberg.com/p/why-you-sh...

joanwestenberg.com

Why You Should Write Every Day (Even if You’re Not a Writer)

Writing Is Thinking With the Training Wheels Off

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The Continent @thecontinent.org · 24/10/2025

Building up: The annual replastering of the Djinguereber Mosque, also known as Djingareyber, in Timbuktu. It was erected in the 14th century during the reign of Mansa Kankou Moussa and is 700 years old. Photo: Hameye Capii/AFP

Residents climb up the wall with ladders during the annual replaster of the Djinguereber Mosque, also known as Djingareyber or Djingarey Ber, in Timbuktu on October 12, 2025. The 2025 replaster marks the 700th anniversary of the construction of this mosque, erected in the 14th century during the reign of Emperor Kankou Moussa. (Photo by Hameye Capii/AFP)

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Drop Site @dropsitenews.com · 28/09/2025

🇦🇺Australian doctor Nada Abu Alrub volunteering in Gaza City writes: “Today’s shift cannot be written down; not even in a hundred years could words capture how horrific it was; not even in the worst imagination of any human being. So, I’ll only write this: This Was The Worst Day Of The Genocide...

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I Liv, I Die, Oliviagain Hill @machineiv.bsky.social · 23/09/2025

If being anti-fascist is "antiamerican" then supporting America is __________?

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Al Jazeera English @aljazeera.com · 11/09/2025

More than 50,000 Palestinians have been left homeless in less than a week due to “large-scale destruction” caused by Israeli attacks across Gaza City, according to Gaza’s Civil Defence. 🔴 LIVE updates: aje.io/eb39up

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Jeffrey Zuckerman @jmz.bsky.social · 04/09/2025

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-...

"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."

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The Authors Guild @authorsguild.org · 29/08/2025

Authors: If you found out that your publisher(s) failed to register with the U.S. Copyright Office, we can help. We provide ongoing legal assistance to our members and advocate for their work, particularly in the face of ongoing AI-related theft.

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Jeffrey Zuckerman @jmz.bsky.social · 28/08/2025

"All of the translators in this conversation, for reasons of temperament and structure, seem to have a masochistic relationship to their work. But as in masochism, the pain is a kind of pleasure, too." —On Translation: Como Conversazione III (Shame, Seams, Scars)

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