The River in the Belly by Fiston Mwanza Mujila and translated by Bret Maney

This is poetry from Democratic Republic of the Congo.

The River in the Belly by Fiston Mwanza Mujila translated by Bret Maney is published by Deep Vellum Publishing. This is a Book originally written in French. This was published in 2021.0 and has the ISBN of 9.781646050673E12.

The River in the Belly, translated from the French by Bret Maney, brings Fiston Mwanza Mujila’s French-language work into English through Deep Vellum Publishing. Published in 2021, it is best approached as a book of encounter rather than as a book to solve. Mujila’s title turns geography inward, making river, hunger, song, and body feel inseparable. I would not read this as a puzzle with a hidden answer. Read it for pressure, for texture, for the place where a line suddenly becomes stranger than its apparent subject. The book matters because it keeps the translated poem alive as encounter, not summary, and because Democratic Republic of the Congo enters the shelf through music rather than report.

If you’d like to see international poetry continue and gain traction, consider requesting this work from your local library, or purchasing it from places like Open Books (a poetry only bookstore), Asterism Books (an independent press distributor), or bookshop.org to connect you with your local bookstores.

Check out more of the always in-progress translated poetry index here.