Untold Microcosms by Sophie Hughes

Untold Microcosms by Sophie Hughes

Collection, colonialism, translation, and the ephemera that shapes the stories we tell about ourselves.

Featuring new original works by: Yásnaya Elena Aguilar, Cristina Rivera Garza, Joseph Zárate, Juan Cárdenas, Velia Vidal, Lina Meruane, Gabriela Cabezón Cámara, Dolores Reyes, Carlos Fonseca, Djamila Ribeiro

The Central and South American collection at the British Museum collections contains approximately 62,000 objects, spanning 10,000 years of human history. The vast majority cannot be displayed, and those objects are the subject of Untold Microcosms , a collection of ten stories from ten Latin American writers, and inspired by the narratives about our past that we create through museums, in spite of their gaps and disarticulations.

Sophie Hughes has translated some of the finest Spanish and Latin American authors at work today, including Enrique Vila-Matas, Rodrigo Hasbún and Laia Jufresa. In 2019 she was shortlisted for the Man Booker International Prize for her translation of Alia Trabucco Zerán’s The Remainder and in 2018 she was named one of the Arts Foundation 25th anniversary fellows for her contribution to the field of literary translation.

Originally from Buenos Aires and now based in Edinburgh, Carolina Orloff is an experienced translator and researcher in Latin American literature. In 2016, Carolina co-founded Charco Press, where she acts as Publishing Director and Chief Editor. She is also the co-translator of Ariana Harwicz’s novels Die, My Love , Feebleminded and Tender , and of Jorge Consiglio’s Fate .