Guardian Books Network

To mark International Women’s Day, a poem by the award-winning Portuguese poet Amaral, containing a message for generations of women in a family

An interaction with a strangely familiar cat and an ode to chewing gum, by the acclaimed South Korean poet

A teacher deals with a boisterous bunch of students, in this extract from a Dutch bestselling novel

Family tensions bubble over as a father attempts to convince his wife and children to leave Iran for Denmark, in this short story by Iranian writer Tolouei

Existential despair and dreamlike descriptions of nature abound in these poems by fierce feminist and iconic Korean poet Choi Seung-ja

Indian poet Shubham Shree – who recently caused controversy with her bold use of slang and English words, considered a desecration of the tradition of Hindi poetry – presents two poems, about femininity and young love