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Layla Benitez-James

Layla Benitez-James is the author of the award-winning God Suspected My Heart Was a Geode, but He Had to Make Sure. Recent work can be found at Poetry Foundation and in the anthology Violent Phenomena: 21 Essays on Translation. An NEA literary fellow in translation and a past NBCC emerging critics fellow, Layla is currently the managing editor of publishing at Apartamento magazine.

Articles by Layla Benitez-James

Brown-skinned Spanish woman in a floral dress sits on a plastic chair
Waiting Room by Safia El Aaddam, trans. by Ian Farnes and Layla Benitez-James
In this short story by Safia El Aaddam – translated from Spanish by Ian Farnes and Layla Benitez-James – a chance encounter with an old friend in a waiting room sets off a chain of memories for the protagonist. To protect themselves from being ridiculed in school, the two girls once concocted new fictional identities for themselves in their childhood — hiding the truth of their migrant and economic hardships. This is an extract from Wasafiri 126: Impossible Returns — The Spain Issue.
Arvon no.2
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