Website of the Week: Three Percent

Part of the University of Rochester and affiliated with its translation press Open Letter, Three Percent is a site devoted to what is new and valuable in translation. The name of the site comes from the fact that only three percent of all works published in America are works in translation, a staggeringly low amount in the University's opinion. The website's job is to advocate for translation of world literature and be guide to some of the best examples out there.

It's a good time to be looking at translation. Most American lit-heads were at least somewhat chastened when we were singled out last year - by no less than someone who helps choose the Nobel Prize - that Americans do not read enough of the rest of the world's literature. It does give you pause. Reading only Americans makes no more sense than only reading Texans or Pennsylvanians. Where would the short story be without Chekhov? Where would poetry be without Wislawa Szymborska ? Where would we be without Magic Realism? Scolding from the Nobel aside, there is a lot we may be missing. Give Three Percent a look, and make sure you're not coming out on the short end of the stick.