Action Books

09/06/2026

Only one title translated from Arabic was on the longlists for the 2026 National Translation Awards in Poetry and Prose, announced yesterday: I Have Brought You a Severed Hand by Ghayath Almadhoun,…

09/03/2026

We’re excited to announce that our title I HAVE BROUGHT YOU A SEVERED HAND by Ghayath Almadhoun translated by Catherine Cobham has been longlisted for the 2026 National Translation Award in Poetry, administered by the American Literary Translators Association! We’re delighted that our book is one of eleven exceptional titles honored on this year’s longlist.

The National Translation Award, established in 1998, is awarded annually in poetry and in prose to literary translators who have made an outstanding contribution to literature in English by masterfully recreating the artistic force of a book of consummate quality. The winning translator will receive a $4,000 cash prize. The judges for the 2026 NTA in Poetry are Karen Kovacik, Karen Leeder, and Robyn Creswell.

Find out more here!

https://literarytranslators.org/awards/2026-national-translation-awards/

09/03/2026

🎉 We are excited to announce the longlists for the 2026 National Translation Awards in Poetry and Prose! Congratulations to the translators, authors, and publishers on these lists.

2026 marks the 28th year for the NTA, and the 12th year to award separate prizes in poetry and prose. The shortlists for the NTA will be announced on October 6, and the winners will be announced on October 23 at an Awards Ceremony as part of ALTA’s annual conference, ALTA49: Give and Take in Portland, OR. The winning translators will receive a $4,000 cash prize each.

This year’s prose judges are Addie Leak, Eva Apelqvist, Hanna Leliv, N Kalyan Raman, and Priscilla Layne. This year’s judges for poetry are Karen Kovacik, Karen Leeder, and Robyn Creswell.

Learn more here: https://buff.ly/n4OK95d

08/28/2026

Applications for Notre Dame's MFA in Creative Writing open on September 1st!

06/15/2026

06/03/2026

This week's Stockroom Picks features selections from James Pate (author of Flowers Among the Carrion). Visit the link below to view his picks:

"[Bruno K. Öijer's] The Trilogy captivated me when I first read it, and it’s a title I keep returning to again and again because of its electric uncanniness, and its mercurial voice that is by turns contemplative and sardonic, nostalgic and acerbic, elegiac and vision-seeking. The title refers to a trilogy of Öijer’s books—While the Poison Acts, The Lost Word, and The Fog of Everything—that, as Johannes Göransson explains in his excellent introduction"

https://actionbooks.org/2026/06/stockroom-picks-presents-james-pate-curated-by-miharu-yano/

05/14/2026

A new installment of Stockroom Picks is now live! Today's featured guest is Leia Penina Wilson, author of CALL THE NECROMANCER (Action Books, 2026) and she has kindly recommended five of her favorite Action Books titles at the link below. Check 'em out!

Thanks to Action Books assistant editor Miharu Yano for curating!

I was very sick last fall! I’m less sick now and I’m thinking about pain, about being able or unable to work, how grotesque that thought is! I’m thinking about poems of wonder (awe-inspired fear/fear-inspired awe? + joyful astonishment of [...]

05/07/2026

"For 40 years, Zurita has been perhaps the most influential Latin American poet, relentlessly exploring the art and politics of the body and the body in landscape. The poems have made the particulars of his life -and his body – almost mythical, but the body and the landscape – scarred, wounded, physical – has disrupted any such easy reading. Instead Zurita has created his own visionary Chile like a stage for the wounded body to purge the modern world."

https://johannesgransson.substack.com/p/the-limitless-violence-of-beauty

05/01/2026

Happening at NYU Center for Humanities for Colloquy 21 on May 5th at 6pm est: Experimental Translation with Mónica de la Torre, Robert Fitterman, M.L. Martin. ⁠
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This event will feature iterative translation, English to English translation, and self-translation, among other genre-defying modes. We will ask what defines the act of translation, how can we expand this understanding, and where the lines exist between translation and "original" writing.

Learn more:
https://www.eventbrite.com/e/colloquy-21-experimental-translation-tickets-1987074256592

04/09/2026

You're invited to SH*THOLES OF THE WORLD, UNITE!

NEXT WEEK at NOPF! Featuring poets from Action Books, Cardboard House Press, Carrion Bloom Books, —co•im•press—, Lavender Ink / Diálogos, Eulalia Books, World Poetry Books, and more!!!