Word without Borders - Afghan Writers

Language translation allows us to have access, among others, to literature from different corners of the world.

As a way to promote literature in translation, “Words without Borders” will be publishing an issue of contemporary writing from Afghanistan in May 2011. This will include stories from two top Dari writers of the twenty-first century: Mohammad Hosain Mohammadi and Mohammad Asif Soltanzadah.

Afghan writers are not very well known worldwide and this publication attempts to disseminate literary work written in Dari. Afghan national literature is often identified abroad with such exiled writers that do not write in their mother tongue. On the top of the list is Khaled Hosseini, the author of "The Kite Runner", who lives in Northern California and is more famous abroad than in Afghanistan. Other famous name is Atiq Rahimi, who in 2008 won France's premier literary prize, the Prix Goncourt, for his first novel in French (recently translated into English as "The Patience Stone").

“Words without Borders” promotes contemporary international literature and to do that they are constantly publishing and translating works from writers around the world. They truly acknowledge the relevance of book translation for people to get to know and understand different cultures. That is why they believe that the issue dedicated to Afghanistan will help us to understand the peoples and culture of Afghanistan.