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Jay Boss Rubin @jaybossrubin.bsky.social · 14d

"Five translators had to be hospitalized for confusion" is a pretty good one

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Jay Boss Rubin @jaybossrubin.bsky.social · 16d

Registration link to attend via Zoom: www.eventbrite.com/e/celebratin...

Celebrating Euphrase Kezilahabi - with Jay Boss Rubin and Annmarie Drury

City Lights & The Center for the Art of Translation celebrate the life and work of Euphrase Kezilahabi

www.eventbrite.com

Jay Boss Rubin @jaybossrubin.bsky.social · 16d

One week from today at @citylightsbooks.bsky.social in San Francisco: "Celebrating Euphrase Kezilahabi," presented by @catranslation.org / @twolinespress.bsky.social. I'll be reading from ROSA MISTIKA and conversing w/ the endlessly thoughtful Annmarie Drury :) www.catranslation.org/event/jay-bo...

Jay Boss Rubin on Rosa Mistika with Annmarie Drury | Center for the Art of Translation | Two Lines Press

City Lights welcomes Jay Boss Rubin to read from his translation of Rosa Mistika by Euphrase Kezilahabi, a banned Swahili classic finally in English.

www.catranslation.org

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M.A.Orthofer @maorthofer.bsky.social · 25d

In the mail: pleased to see another translation from Swahili, by @jaybossrubin.bsky.social — Esther Karin Mngodo's 𝑇ℎ𝑒 𝑊𝑖𝑡𝑛𝑒𝑠𝑠 𝑜𝑓 𝑁𝑖𝑛𝑎 𝑀𝑣𝑢𝑛𝑔𝑖 𝑎𝑛𝑑 𝑂𝑡ℎ𝑒𝑟 𝑆𝑡𝑜𝑟𝑖𝑒𝑠, from @hangingloosepress.bsky.social www.hangingloosepress.com/book/witness...

Witness of Nina Mvungi and Other Stories - Hanging Loose Press

Winner of the 2025 Loose Translation Award, a collaboration between CUNY Queens and Hanging Loose Press.

www.hangingloosepress.com

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Esther Karin Mngodo @koimolove.bsky.social · 29d

Happy to finally hold my copy!
"Without Sun" translated from Swahili to English by Jay Boss Rubin @jaybossrubin.bsky.social is now out! Get your copy! @hopkinsreview.bsky.social 🥳

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Jay Boss Rubin @jaybossrubin.bsky.social · 29d

Tonight in Albany, NY! I'll be reading and in conversation with Albany translator Shaina Brassard.

Poster for a reading at Dove & Hudson Used Books in Albany, NY.

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Jay Boss Rubin @jaybossrubin.bsky.social · Aug 29

Excellent story by Taylor Griggs in @portlandmercury.com about Portland Tennis Courterly, which is neither a secret literary magazine nor on Bluesky as of yet . . . www.portlandmercury.com/books/2025/0...

Tennis Courterly Is a Newsletter Trying to Turn Portland into “Tennis City, USA”

Portland might not have professional tournaments or world-class tennis academies, and many of the city’s public courts have seen better days. But Portlander Tyler Pell sees potential in the city’s com...

www.portlandmercury.com

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Jay Boss Rubin @jaybossrubin.bsky.social · Aug 29

Big thanks to both @citylightsbooks.bsky.social and @catranslation.org for putting on this event.

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Jay Boss Rubin @jaybossrubin.bsky.social · Aug 29

One month from today @citylightsbooks.bsky.social in San Francisco (and via livestream): "Celebrating Euphrase Kezilahabi – with Jay Boss Rubin and Annmarie Drury." I'll be reading from Rosa Mistika, and in conversation with a fellow translator of Kezilahabi. Karibuni! citylights.com/events/celeb...

citylights.com

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Yale University Press @yalepress.bsky.social · Aug 29

@newyorker.com considers Rosa Mistika by Euphrase Kezilahabi translated from the Swahili by Jay Boss Rubin one of the best books of the year so far!

What We’re Reading

Reviews of notable new fiction, nonfiction, and poetry.

www.newyorker.com

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Jay Boss Rubin @jaybossrubin.bsky.social · Aug 26

Two weeks from today @ Dove & Hudson in Albany, NY: "Translator Reading: Literature from Tanzania & Bolivia." I'll be reading from ROSA MISTIKA, by Euphrase Kezilahabi, alongside Capital Region translator Shaina Brassard, who'll be reading from her translations of Rodrigo Urquiola Flores's stories.

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Jay Boss Rubin @jaybossrubin.bsky.social · Aug 21

Beautiful new creative nonfiction by my friend Rebecca Suzuki in The Los Angeles Review. "We ate quickly, knowing we didn’t have much time if we wanted to practice dying and make the 7 o’clock train back to Nagoya." losangelesreview.org/practicing-d...

Practicing Dying by Rebecca Suzuki - The Los Angeles Review

Both my grandparents died very young. My mother thinks it’s because my grandfather would chain smoke in the greenhouse, creating a literal greenhouse effect where my grandmother constantly took in th...

losangelesreview.org

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Jay Boss Rubin @jaybossrubin.bsky.social · Aug 20

Excited to share my latest translation, "Without Sun," by the inimitable Esther Karin Mngodo (@koimolove.bsky.social), out now in @hopkinsreview.bsky.social. Read it for free: muse.jhu.edu/pub/1/articl.... Purchase the print edition, w/ cover art by John Waters (!): hopkinsreview.com/shop/p/volum...

Swahili-English translator Jay Boss Rubin (left) and author Esther Karin Mngodo (right).

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Jay Boss Rubin @jaybossrubin.bsky.social · Aug 7

This is going to be great

The Tennis Letter @thetennisletter.bsky.social · Aug 7

Naomi Osaka and Victoria Mboko will face each other in the final of Montreal.

Two impeccable talents.

Two unseeded players.

Two different paths.

Only one winner.

Who wins the title?

🇯🇵🇨🇦

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Jay Boss Rubin @jaybossrubin.bsky.social · Jul 24

Today marks Rodrigo Urquiola Flores's debut in English and Shaina Brassard's debut publication as a literary translator. Hats off all around!!

Jay Boss Rubin @jaybossrubin.bsky.social · Jul 24

I had the pleasure of getting to know these two at @artomi.bsky.social's Translation Lab 2024. Rodrigo is an amazing + prodigious writer from La Paz, Bolivia, and Shaina—enormously talented in her own right—is the perfect translator for his work.

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Jay Boss Rubin @jaybossrubin.bsky.social · Jul 24

"La Venezolana" by Rodrigo Urquiola Flores, translated from the Spanish by Shaina Brassard, is out today in the latest issue of Asymptote (as part of the journal's ongoing Special Feature on the figure of the outsider). Read it in Spanish + English here! www.asymptotejournal.com/special-feat...

La Venezolana - Asymptote

I had just fifty bolivianos in my wallet. I walked around the Plaza Murillo looking for a story. Work had been scarce the last few weeks—I generally did editing and proofreading projects or reso...

www.asymptotejournal.com

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Yale University Press @yalepress.bsky.social · Jul 9

@wwborders.bsky.social calls Rosa Mistika by Euphrase Kezilahabi "a social novel that occasionally ventures into more stylized territory," and features it on it's watchlist.

The Watchlist: June 2025 - Words Without Borders

Tobias Carroll on the June titles in translation you won't want to miss, from Peru, Tanzania, Tibet, and more.

wordswithoutborders.org

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Jay Boss Rubin @jaybossrubin.bsky.social · Jun 30

Rosa Mistika is atop @wwborders.bsky.social's June Watchlist wordswithoutborders.org/read/article...

The Watchlist: June 2025 - Words Without Borders

Tobias Carroll on the June titles in translation you won't want to miss, from Peru, Tanzania, Tibet, and more.

wordswithoutborders.org

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Words Without Borders & WWB Campus @wwborders.bsky.social · Jun 30

First is “Rosa Mistika” by Euphrase Kezilahabi (tr. @jaybossrubin.bsky.social , @yalepress.bsky.social ), “a novel about a young woman facing the hypocrisies and hazards of her society” translated from Swahili. bookshop.org/a/169/978030...

bookshop.org

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Boo!-per Lund @cooperlund.online · Jun 19

Many years later, as he faced the editorial board, Assemblyman Zohran Mamdani was to remember that distant afternoon when his father told him to abolish ICE

The Wicker Dan (1973) @danlehner.bsky.social · Jun 19

so I have a lot of complicated thoughts about the specific issue at hand, but I have to point out that’s not what “magical realism” is

The Atlantic:

The Magic Realism of Zohran Mamdani
The socialist New York mayoral candidate's proposals don't hold up to serious scrutiny. Will that matter?
By Michael Powell

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Jay Boss Rubin @jaybossrubin.bsky.social · Jun 20

World Swahili Language Day is coming up on July 7th. I'll be reading from my English translation of Rosa Mistika at this wonderful event put together by @soasuni.bsky.social. Karibuni wote! www.soas.ac.uk/about/event/...

World Swahili Language Day

To mark World Kiswahili Language day 2025, we are bringing together an international panel of poets, writers and researchers to celebrate Swahili and all its varieties.

www.soas.ac.uk

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Jay Boss Rubin @jaybossrubin.bsky.social · Jun 19

This is a fantastic novel

Georgia Reads @georgiarybanks.bsky.social · Jan 1

29. SOMALIA (+Wales)

The Fortune Men by Nadifa Mohamed

This novel imagines the life of Mahmood Mattan, a Somali man who was wrongly convicted of the murder of a Jewish woman in Tiger Bay in 1952.

Welsh book of the year 2022
Shortlisted for @thebookerprizes.bsky.social 2021

#ReadTheWorld

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Jay Boss Rubin @jaybossrubin.bsky.social · Jun 18

Honored to see a mini-review of Rosa Mistika in this week's issue of The New Yorker. "Playing in the space between social realism and fabulist storytelling" is a wonderfully apt description! www.newyorker.com/magazine/202...

Briefly Noted Book Reviews

Short reviews of recent releases.

www.newyorker.com

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Center for the Art of Translation @catranslation.org · Jun 17

Happy pub day to "Rosa Mistika!" Stay tuned for a reading we'll host with Jay this September in SF 👀!

Jay Boss Rubin @jaybossrubin.bsky.social · Jun 17

It's pub day for Rosa Mistika—and here is a lengthy interview about the novel (and much else!) with @chicagorevbooks.bsky.social chireviewofbooks.com/2025/06/17/t...

The Translator’s Voice — Jay Boss Rubin on Translating Euphrase Kezilahabi’s “Rosa Mistika” - Chicago Review of Books

The Translator’s Voice is a column from editor Ian J. Battaglia, dedicated to global literature and the translators who work tirelessly and too often thanklessly to bring these books to the English-re...

chireviewofbooks.com

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