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2025 was an astonishingly good year for literature in translation, and after poring over catalogs and galleys, I’m thrilled to say that it’s only going to continue in 2026. In a year of uncertainty and challenge, I’ll take that small silver lining. I’ve highlighted some of the best 2026 new releases in translation, and because there is so much to choose from, I’ve added notes for others you should seek out as well! This list is just a taste of all that’s coming up. I’ve focused on the first half of the year, because galleys, covers, and publication dates are more readily available, but I’m already hearing that we’ll have new books by Leila Slimani and Mircea Cărtărescu later in the year!
This season, readers will be particularly excited to see new titles from returning favorite authors like Mieko Kawakami, Maria Stepanova, and Mónica Ojeda, and translators like Megan McDowell, Sasha Dugdale, and Sarah Booker—but I’ve included some authors new to English-language audiences as well.
It seems like every year, the new titles in translation become more diverse and wide-ranging, especially when it comes to country of origin and language, and it’s a joy—and increasingly a wonderful challenge—to pick from them.
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2026 New Releases In Translation
Everyday Movement by Gigi L. Leung, translated by Jennifer Feeley
Set in Hong Kong during the protests of 2019, Everyday Movement follows two college roommates, Ah Lei and Panda, as they live their lives in the midst of a defining and dangerous political moment. In scenes that feel both painfully specific to this moment in recent history and yet uncannily timely and universal, the roommates participate in increasingly dangerous protests, wash their helmets and goggles in their shared student bathroom, and feel the growing anxiety and trauma of the violence around them—while still going to work and brunch and on dates. Hong Kong writer Gigi L. Leung began writing the book during the 2019 protests and masterfully captures this complicated reality that political violence upends daily life, and yet in many ways, daily life still continues, and the surreal quality of that. That is, until the violence escalates to life-shattering levels. Leung’s stunning prose has been perfectly paired with translator Jennifer Feeley, known for her work translating renowned Hong Kong writers such as Xi Xi and Lau Yee-Wa. The novel has been banned at the Hong Kong Book Fair but celebrated in Taiwan, where Leung now lives. It was a finalist for the Taipei Literary Award and won Taiwan’s highest literary honor, the Golden Tripod Award, in 2024. (Riverhead, February 10)
And don’t miss Now I Surrender by Álvaro Enrigue, translated by Natasha Wimmer. (Riverhead, March 3)
The Disappearing Act by Maria Stepanova, translated by Sasha Dugdale
From the author and translator of the acclaimed In Memory of Memory comes a timely and achingly beautiful novella about identity, exile, art, and language. The Disappearing Act is Maria Stepanova’s first work written since Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine and her subsequent exile from Russia. As the founder and editor-in-chief of the online independent journal Colta.ru, Stepanova was forced to flee when all dissenting media outlets were shuttered in the wake of the invasion and her own status as a prominent critic of Putin and the invasion put her life in danger. Her books are now also banned in Russia. The novella follows a writer living in exile ever since her unnamed nation, often referred to as “the beast,” declared war on a neighboring country. In exile, she travels to a literary festival in another unnamed country and is stranded in a small town where she reflects on her life and wonders if she can escape her nationality and identity and transform herself into something new. This is an intimate and profound study of liminality and identity from one of the most important writers of our time. (New Directions, February 17)
And don’t miss The Dog Meows, The Cat Barks by Eka Kurniawan, translated by Annie Tucker. (New Directions, March 24)
Modern Woman by Edith Södergran, translated by CD Eskilson
“I am not a woman. I am neutrois./I am a child, a tomboy, a bold decision,/I am a laughing streak of scarlet sun . . .” Edith Södergran was a Swedish-speaking Finnish poet widely credited with introducing modernism to Swedish poetry and inspiring generations of poets after her. And yet in her lifetime, her work was not well-received, with critics’ responses ranging from confusion to outright ridicule. But she continued to write and released four collections before dying of chronic tuberculosis at the age of 31. This debut collection introduces English-language readers to her fearless and subversive work that explores women’s sexuality, gender roles, mortality, and isolation through “enigmatic, often androgynous speakers.” I’m grateful for the bold and thoughtful work of translator CD Eskilson in bringing Södergran to new readers in all of her complexity. In their introduction in particular, Eskilson helps ground Södergran’s legacy as one of the most influential modern poets in Nordic literature. (World Poetry Books, March 11)
And don’t miss Renaissance by Haris Vlavianos, translated by Patricia Felisa Barbeito and with a foreword by Margaret Atwood. (World Poetry Books, February 25)
Eating Ashes by Brenda Navarro, translated by Megan McDowell
In its original Spanish, Eating Ashes by Brenda Navarro won the Premio Cálamo Best Book of the Year and the CEGAL Gremio de Libros of Spain, given by the Spanish Confederation of Booksellers’ Association, and was shortlisted for the prestigious Mario Vargas Llosa Prize. Now, in a brilliant pairing with acclaimed translator Megan McDowell, Navarro is bursting onto the English-language scene. In the novel, an unnamed narrator travels from Madrid back to Mexico with her teenage brother’s ashes. She and her brother, Diego, lived in Mexico with their grandparents while their mother worked in Spain. In arresting flashbacks, the narrator looks back on their lives as she grieves her brother. The novel is unapologetically political, and Navarro writes powerfully about xenophobia and the exploitation of immigrant and migrant workers, especially women. At its heart, though, this is an intimate story of love and loss. It was also just announced this month that actor and director Diego Luna is directing a film adaptation of the novel, set to release in the fall of 2026. (Liveright, January 20)
Sisters in Yellow by Mieko Kawakami, translated by Laurel Taylor and Hitomi Yoshio
Mieko Kawakami’s English debut, the internationally best-selling Breasts and Eggs, was a New York Times Notable Book of the Year and one of Time’s Best 10 Books of 2020. It also won the prestigious Akutagawa Prize in its original Japanese. It was hailed as a “feminist masterwork,” and Kawakami went on to publish many more titles, now translated into over forty languages. Sisters in Yellow is her latest, and it’s been described as a Japanese Breaking Bad. Most of the novel is set in a dark, gritty 1990s Tokyo, and it follows fifteen-year-old Hana as she desperately tries to put together a better life for herself. This is an intimate and striking novel of poverty and loneliness that follows Hana and her “sisters in yellow” as they determine their futures. (Knopf, March 17)
And don’t miss The Witch by Marie NDiaye, translated by Jordan Stump. (Knopf, April 16)
Electric Shamans at the Festival of the Sun by Mónica Ojeda, translated by Sarah Booker
I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: I’ll follow translator Sarah Booker to any (and all) of her projects. I’m grateful that led me to the work of Ecuadorian writer Mónica Ojeda years back when her English-language debut Jawbone came onto the scene and claimed a space for Ojeda as one of the most singular and fascinating writers to watch. Fernanda Melchor herself calls Ojeda, “a dazzling black sun in the astral chart of contemporary horror.” Jawbone was a chilling nightmare of girlhood and adolescence, full of body horror, pleasure, and pain, and it went on to receive wide critical acclaim, most notably as a finalist for the National Book Award. Her next novel, Nefando, was an intense psychological horror novel that revolved around a disturbing video game. Now, she’s back with another novel of girlhood. In Electric Shamans, best friends Noa and Nicole attend the Solar Noise Festival, a drug-laden, hedonistic, “technoshamanic” gathering held at the base of an active volcano. But the festival is not all it seems, and neither are the girls. (Coffee House, May 12)
As always, you can find a full list of new releases in the magical New Release Index, carefully curated by your favorite Book Riot editors, organized by genre and release date.
And for some incredible new releases in translation you may have missed, check out this list of the Best New Books In Translation Out Fall 2025.