This week, our editors report on the literature that testifies to the ongoing genocide in Gaza, new initiatives to promote writing from the Global Majority, and exciting technological initiatives to preserve heritage and indigenous languages across Africa.
Carol Khoury, Editor-at-Large, reporting from Palestine
PEN’s spotlight on Palestinian literature is more vibrant than ever. In a recent dispatch, we featured Children of the Dew by Palestinian writer Mohammed Al-As‘ad, soon arriving in English thanks to translators maia tabet and Anaheed Al-Hardan, and the upcoming anthology Palestine – 1 (Comma Press, October 2025), which reimagines the 1948 Nakba through speculative fiction. Now, English PEN and the Booker Prize Foundation have announced the six winners of the brand-new “PEN Presents x International Booker Prize,” designed to support translators from the Global Majority. Among the winners are two Arabic-language books: the Sudanese title Ireme by Stella Gaitano, translated by Mayada Ibrahim and Najlaa Eltom, and the Palestinian title Playing with Soldiers by Tariq Asrawi, translated by Anam Zafar. As both Sudan and Palestine are sites of enduring crimes against humanity (to say the least), this announcement reminds us that literature is a profound test of our shared humanity. Both works have world English rights available, promising more stories—not only devastating news—for global audiences.
While Gaza City may be facing unimaginable challenges as we read and write these lines, the people of Gaza are definitely not off the map; they’re not “there,” they’re very much “here.” They’re making their voices heard loud and clear through literature that bursts with resilience and hope. Further evidence of this exists in We Are Still Here: An Anthology of Resilience, Grief, and Unshattered Hope from Gaza’s University Students, which gathers raw, courageous stories, poems, essays, and testimonies from students now living through unimaginable trauma. Edited by Jacob Norris and Zahid Pranjol, these pieces are like snapshots of real-time courage, proving that words can be a powerful act of survival and hope.
If you have a plan to keep up with Palestinian literature, there’s a handy “List in Progress: Palestinian Literature Forthcoming Fall 2025 or 2026,” ready to keep you in the loop. So whether “here” or “there,” Palestinian stories are showing up wherever readers are ready to listen, proving that great storytelling always finds a way.
Bethlehem Attfield, Editor-at-Large, reporting for Nigeria
On 30 September, translation professionals worldwide—as well as the organisations supporting their cause—plan to celebrate International Translation Day. This year, the focus is on leading discussions about how technology, particularly AI, is affecting the translation sector. In a statement from UNESCO and Translation Commons, the event aims to explore ‘how digital technology and AI influence the roles of indigenous language professionals, emphasising intergenerational collaboration and community-led efforts’.
As for Africa sharing this vision, last week, Masakhane’s African Languages Hub launched new opportunities for researchers, tech specialists, and language communities to develop inclusive, African-led AI solutions that support mother-tongue speakers and amplify underrepresented voices. The hub aims to unlock AI’s transformative potential for over one billion Africans speaking more than fifty languages. Although Africa is the most linguistically diverse region worldwide, this richness is rarely reflected in digital technology, as large language models (NLP) systems mainly support major European languages, which already have extensive digital corpora.
Currently, six NiajaVoices grant recipients in Nigeria are developing projects to preserve their endangered heritage languages. NiajaVoices promotes linguistic diversity through ethical ‘data farming’; founder Chris Emezue explains that the community has collected over five thousan language datasets spanning eighteen hundred hours, including speech and text in Ibo, Hausa, and Yoruba. Each awardee is responsible for recording and transcribing between six hundred and one thousand minutes of conversations from digitally under-documented languages. One awardee is also dedicated to preserving folktales, in order to build a digital archive of cultural and indigenous knowledge.
Government policies and academic institutions are also backing similar community initiatives. For instance, Togo’s government launched a pilot at the University of Lomé this year, training fifteen hundred students in AI and coding. The goal is to educate fifty thousand students annually, equipping young Togolese with essential digital economy skills. Meanwhile, the South African Government has praised the country’s advancements in translation—particularly through technological innovations like Autshumato, a Machine Translation Web service (MTSC). This tool can translate from English into Afrikaans, isiZulu, Sepedi, Xitsonga, Sesotho, and Setswana. The Autshumato mobile app also provides offline word translation in all eleven official South African languages.