International literary magazine Words Without Borders is focusing on queer culture this month with a selection of translated stores from across the globe…

From their press release:

We’re delighted to again give voice to a literary tradition that examines the world through an unaccustomed lens and with uncommon clarity and vigor. Writers from Africa, Asia, the Middle East, South America, and Europe offer a broad and complex perspective on identity, gender, politics and sexuality.

Abdellah Taia, Marco Di Marco, Raji Bathish, Prema Revathi, Caio Fernando Abreu, Elke Steiner, Clemens Setz, and Liao Yiwu demonstrate the diversity and breadth of the international queer sensibility. more>>>

The Algerian and the Moroccan
By Abdellah Taia
Translated from French by Lydia Beyoud
I opened my body to this crazy story, to this great love, the greatest and strongest that I’ve ever known. more>>>

Moving like Geckos
By Marco Di Marco
Translated from Italian by Elizabeth Harris
That was me once, soaking wet in the rain, one fall long ago; that was me  taking a beating from some fat, greasy, gray-haired guy more>>>

Life without Me
By Raji Bathish
Translated from Arabic by Suneela Mubayi
What hurts me in all this is that my parents will be forced to bury me before themselves. more>>>

She
By Prema Revathi
Translated from Tamil by A. Mangai
Love sowed its blue stars
On our private night more>>>

The Story of a Homosexual: An Interview with Ni Dongxue
By Liao Yiwu
Translated from Chinese by Wen Huang
Just hold my hands tightly. I won’t force you to kiss me or do anything. more>>>

Sergeant Garcia
By Caio Fernando Abreu
Translated from Portuguese by Kim Hastings
The men stirred, restless. Romans, they wanted blood. The whip, the boot, the snap. more>>>

Catharina Margaretha Linck
By Elke R. Steiner
Translated from the German by Edna McCown
Catharina Margherita Linck, executed for sodomy in Halberstad, 1721 more>>>

The World of Men and the World of Women
By Clemens Setz
Translated by Ross Benjamin
What type did he prefer, Orlando Bloom or Benicio del Toro? more>>>

Performing Language: An Interview with Abdellah Taia
By Wah-Ming Chang
Where, they ask, does one place the sun? And where does Allah go—behind the sun, or beside it? more>>>

Our Man in Madrid

The Night Sucks
By Blanca Riestra
Translated from Spanish by Jonathan Blitzer
The girl with a ponytail says: “Look at the sky,” and the other says, “The sky sucks.”  more>>>

A Tiny Repeated Gesture: An Interview with Blanca Riestra
By Jonathan Blitzer
Translated from Spanish by Jonathan Blitzer
I would like to write as if I were in a passing car, with the radio on, which is one of the most delectable sensations I know. more>>>

Poetry from Asia

I am I
By Tanikawa Shuntaro
Translated from Japanese by Peter Constantine
Because even after being forgotten I cannot fade away more>>>

Passing Through Seongeup Village
By Lee Si-Young
Translated from Korean by Brother Anthony of Taize and Yoo Hui-Sok
I gaze into a horse’s virtuous eyes more>>>

Writing Poems without Meaning
By Ynhui Park
Translated from Korean by Brother Anthony of Taize
Sham-seeming life
gauze-mask-like thoughts more>>>

A Couple’s Old Sutra
By Yang Jian
Translated from Chinese by Fiona Sze-Lorrain
people on two banks
change batch after batch
like summer fireflies more>>>

Narratives of 1960
By Yang Jian
Translated from Chinese by Fiona Sze-Lorrain
Those who ordered her to kneel on snail shells
are mostly dead more>>>