This week saw the launch of English PEN’s World Bookshelf at Foyles bookshop. Over 100 books are featured on the website – an online gateway to world literature in translation – from authors such as Manuel Rivas, Anna Politovskaya, Ismail Kadare and Javier Cercas, and translators including Anthea Bell, Daniel Hahn, and Rosalind Harvey. The Writers in Translation programme makes a significant contribution to a dedicated but small sector of publishing.

At the packed launch event at Foyles on Wednesday 30 April, authors Elif Shafak and Nikita Lalwani, with translator Frank Wynne, read from favourite translated works that have inspired them and their writing, and discussed the art of translation in a discussion chaired by Harriett Gilbert of Radio 4’s A Good Read.

Elif Shafak praised the World Bookshelf as ‘an exemplary project to endorse, extend and celebrate writing in translation.’

Read the full article and listen to the World Bookshelf podcast here: http://www.englishpen.org/world-bookshelf-podcast/

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