Michelle's translation of The Cracks We Bear by Catalina Infante was shortlisted for the 2026 Spain-USA Foundation Translation Award. The Award recognizes translations into English of literary prose works written originally by authors of Spanish (Spain) nationality. What the judges had to say:
\n\"An English-language debut for both author and translator, Catalina Infante’s semi-autobiographical The Cracks We Bear offers a complex portrait of pregnancy and motherhood. In crystalline vignettes, the narrator reflects on her tumultuous relationship with her late mother, musing on her communist mother’s exile in Cuba and France, and her own fraught early months of motherhood. Mirabella’s English rendering is outstanding for its effortless beauty and elegance, accompanied by a passionate and insightful afterword that illuminates how a translator’s lived experience can enrich her translation.\"
\nOn October 22, 2026, Michelle will be reading from her translation of Catalina Infante's \"A Body\" as part of the Best Literary Translations offsite reading during the American Literary Translators Association annual conference, alongside eleven fellow translators. \"A Body\" is one of eight stories from Infante's debut story collection Todas somos una misma sombra (Neón Ediciones). The reading will take place at Postcard Bookshop in Portland, Oregon
", "image": "https://www.michellemirabella.com/media/posts/30/bltreading_social_PDX.jpeg", "author": { "name": "Michelle Mirabella" }, "tags": [ "News & Events", "Events" ], "date_published": "2026-09-15T14:23:00-04:00", "date_modified": "2026-10-22T14:28:44-04:00" }, { "id": "https://www.michellemirabella.com/post/obituary/index.html", "url": "https://www.michellemirabella.com/post/obituary/index.html", "title": "Obituary", "summary": "By Dainerys Machado Vento (tr. Michelle Mirabella) Columbia Journal, 2026 Part of a sequence of dream writings, “Obituary” exists in memory where dreams and reality blur. Machado Vento drops readers in, recreating this sensation of dreams lacking context, and leaves us wondering about where the…", "content_html": "\n\n Part of a sequence of dream writings, “Obituary” exists in memory where dreams and reality blur. Machado Vento drops readers in, recreating this sensation of dreams lacking context, and leaves us wondering about where the dreams end and reality begins.\n
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\n", "image": "https://www.michellemirabella.com/media/posts/16/vibhu-tG3KQ0JLXbs-unsplash-scaled.webp", "author": { "name": "Michelle Mirabella" }, "tags": [ "Translations", "Short Stories", "Flash Fiction" ], "date_published": "2026-06-28T14:27:00-04:00", "date_modified": "2026-10-22T10:39:09-04:00" }, { "id": "https://www.michellemirabella.com/post/the-cracks-we-bear/index.html", "url": "https://www.michellemirabella.com/post/the-cracks-we-bear/index.html", "title": "The Cracks We Bear", "summary": "\n\n Shortlisted for the 2026 Spain-USA Foundation Translation Award, The Cracks We Bear opens as a story about new motherhood. Soon, however, it reveals itself to be an exploration of memory and trauma as Laura starts to recall her childhood in Chile. Born in exile to staunchly communist parents, she returns to Chile with her mother after the collapse of the Pinochet dictatorship. In the fledgling democracy she grows up in, topics of capitalism and communism are ever present. Laura’s reflections, born from personal experience, are interwoven with raw and honest memories of her family life. Borrowing elements from the Bildungsroman, and pulling from the Latin American short story tradition, Catalina Infante recounts Laura’s past in vignettes. Piece by piece, the short chapters come together like a reconstructed vase, bearing its cracks.\n
\n", "content_html": "\n\n\n Shortlisted for the 2026 Spain-USA Foundation Translation Award, The Cracks We Bear opens as a story about new motherhood. Soon, however, it reveals itself to be an exploration of memory and trauma as Laura starts to recall her childhood in Chile. Born in exile to staunchly communist parents, she returns to Chile with her mother after the collapse of the Pinochet dictatorship. In the fledgling democracy she grows up in, topics of capitalism and communism are ever present. Laura’s reflections, born from personal experience, are interwoven with raw and honest memories of her family life. Borrowing elements from the Bildungsroman, and pulling from the Latin American short story tradition, Catalina Infante recounts Laura’s past in vignettes. Piece by piece, the short chapters come together like a reconstructed vase, bearing its cracks.\n
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\n", "image": "https://www.michellemirabella.com/media/posts/13/The-Cracks-We-Bear_Cover_World-Editions-2025-scaled.webp", "author": { "name": "Michelle Mirabella" }, "tags": [ "Translations", "Books" ], "date_published": "2025-11-04T09:27:00-05:00", "date_modified": "2026-10-23T01:41:26-04:00" }, { "id": "https://www.michellemirabella.com/post/interview-on-the-three-percent-podcast/index.html", "url": "https://www.michellemirabella.com/post/interview-on-the-three-percent-podcast/index.html", "title": "Interview on The Three Percent Podcast", "summary": "On October 16, 2025, Michelle was interviewed alongside her publisher, Christine Swedowsky, by Chad Post on The Three Percent Podcast, \"a weekly(ish) conversation about new books, the publishing scene, international literature in translation, and many other random rants and raves.\" The episode featured Michelle speaking…", "content_html": "On October 16, 2025, Michelle was interviewed alongside her publisher, Christine Swedowsky, by Chad Post on The Three Percent Podcast, \"a weekly(ish) conversation about new books, the publishing scene, international literature in translation, and many other random rants and raves.\" The episode featured Michelle speaking out her debut book-length translation, The Cracks We Bear by Catalina Infante, and her publisher Christine talking about World Editions 3.0.
\nListen to the episode here.
", "image": "https://www.michellemirabella.com/media/posts/31/Three-Percent-Podcast.jpg", "author": { "name": "Michelle Mirabella" }, "tags": [ "News & Events", "Events" ], "date_published": "2025-10-15T14:37:00-04:00", "date_modified": "2026-10-22T21:07:33-04:00" }, { "id": "https://www.michellemirabella.com/post/a-nostalgia-for-desire/index.html", "url": "https://www.michellemirabella.com/post/a-nostalgia-for-desire/index.html", "title": "A Nostalgia For Desire", "summary": "By Catalina Infante Beovic (tr. Michelle Mirabella) World Literature Today, 2026 Employing extended apostrophe and dual timelines, Infante explores what happens to desire, sexuality, and women’s relationship with their bodies in the context of family life, in the wake of marriage and raising children. The…", "content_html": "\n\n Employing extended apostrophe and dual timelines, Infante explores what happens to desire, sexuality, and women’s relationship with their bodies in the context of family life, in the wake of marriage and raising children. The story is told through the eyes of a mother as she watches her daughters’ youth and passion and yearns for the vitality of her own.\n
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\n", "image": "https://www.michellemirabella.com/media/posts/17/Cover.webp", "author": { "name": "Michelle Mirabella" }, "tags": [ "Translations", "Story", "Short Stories" ], "date_published": "2025-03-14T14:32:00-04:00", "date_modified": "2026-10-22T10:40:14-04:00" }, { "id": "https://www.michellemirabella.com/post/an-island/index.html", "url": "https://www.michellemirabella.com/post/an-island/index.html", "title": "An Island", "summary": "By Catalina Infante Beovic (tr. Michelle Mirabella) Nimrod International Journal, 2024 An epistolary narrative employing extended apostrophe as a literary device. The protagonist writes from her southern refuge in Chiloé, an archipelago where, in Chile, the continent is said to end and break off into…", "content_html": "\n\n An epistolary narrative employing extended apostrophe as a literary device. The protagonist writes from her southern refuge in Chiloé, an archipelago where, in Chile, the continent is said to end and break off into pieces.\n
\n", "image": "https://www.michellemirabella.com/media/posts/18/Nimrod-Cover.webp", "author": { "name": "Michelle Mirabella" }, "tags": [ "Translations", "Story", "Short Stories" ], "date_published": "2024-06-14T14:35:00-04:00", "date_modified": "2026-10-22T10:41:57-04:00" }, { "id": "https://www.michellemirabella.com/post/the-cracks-we-bear-2/index.html", "url": "https://www.michellemirabella.com/post/the-cracks-we-bear-2/index.html", "title": "Best Literary Translations 2024", "summary": "\n\n Michelle's translation of “A Body” by Chilean author Catalina Infante Beovic, originally published in Columbia Journal, is featured in this anthology. Her translation of “Chess Piece” by Ecuadorian author Natalia García Freire, originally published in The Arkansas International, is recognized on the longlist.\n
\n", "content_html": "\n\n\n Featured Translation:\n
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“A Body” by Chilean author Catalina Infante Beovic, originally published in Columbia Journal.\n
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Long-listed Translation:\n
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“Chess Piece” by Ecuadorian author Natalia García Freire, originally published in The Arkansas International.\n
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\n", "image": "https://www.michellemirabella.com/media/posts/14/36924.webp", "author": { "name": "Michelle Mirabella" }, "tags": [ "Translations", "Books", "Anthology Features" ], "date_published": "2024-01-15T09:54:00-05:00", "date_modified": "2026-10-22T10:36:10-04:00" }, { "id": "https://www.michellemirabella.com/post/twilight-showing-four-horror-shorts/index.html", "url": "https://www.michellemirabella.com/post/twilight-showing-four-horror-shorts/index.html", "title": "Twilight Showing: Four Horror Shorts", "summary": "By John Better Armella (tr. George Henson and Michelle Mirabella) Southwest Review, 2024 These pieces originally appeared in Better's Fantasmata (Lugar Común) and Limbo (Seix Barral)—four flash fictions fit to be adapted as screenplay shorts. The novella Limbo, also cotranslated by Mirabella and Henson, is seeking…", "content_html": "\n\n These pieces originally appeared in Better's Fantasmata (Lugar Común) and Limbo (Seix Barral)—four flash fictions fit to be adapted as screenplay shorts. The novella Limbo, also cotranslated by Mirabella and Henson, is seeking a publisher.\n
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\n", "image": "https://www.michellemirabella.com/media/posts/19/SWR-Four-Horror-Shorts.webp", "author": { "name": "Michelle Mirabella" }, "tags": [ "Translations", "Short Stories", "Flash Fiction" ], "date_published": "2024-01-14T14:39:00-05:00", "date_modified": "2026-10-22T10:44:06-04:00" }, { "id": "https://www.michellemirabella.com/post/fire-trances/index.html", "url": "https://www.michellemirabella.com/post/fire-trances/index.html", "title": "Fire Trances", "summary": "by Iliana Vargas (tr. Lena Greenberg and Michelle Mirabella) Your Impossible Voice, 2023 “Fire Trances” examines themes of religion, (in)sanity, language, and the role of women through a surreal lens, referencing the oneiric musings of Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz and her Primero Sueño,…", "content_html": "\n\n “Fire Trances” examines themes of religion, (in)sanity, language, and the role of women through a surreal lens, referencing the oneiric musings of Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz and her Primero Sueño, with a nod in the epigraph to the theophany that is at the heart of Philip K. Dick’s Valis. This tale of possession (by the Devil? by a god?) becomes increasingly apocalyptic as it unfolds in a cinematic and cryptic fashion, leaving readers with the disconcerting sensation of a text with neither a beginning nor an end. \n
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", "image": "https://www.michellemirabella.com/media/posts/20/Issue-29-Cover.webp", "author": { "name": "Michelle Mirabella" }, "tags": [ "Translations", "Story", "Short Stories" ], "date_published": "2023-09-14T14:50:00-04:00", "date_modified": "2026-10-22T10:44:51-04:00" } ] }