TERN is a journal of translation and conversation with an international focus, founded in 2024 and published by the students in the International Writers Track of the PhD program in Comparative Literature and Thought at Washington University in St. Louis. All involved are writers, translators or artists with different (international) backgrounds. Our mission is to engage with the work of authors, translators and translators in depth to present their pieces to a broader, international readership. How many works can fly under the radar, or can go unseen, just because they haven’t been translated? In connecting authors with translators we want to find and publish these works with the goal to create a more diverse (and maybe more interesting) literary scene.
Why translation and conversation?
While the act of writing has always had the potential to isolate the writer from the outside
world, the literary world has always been highly collaborative. Some of the most intriguing texts
have arisen from conversations between authors, from exchanges with editors and publishers, from a constant exchange with a translator, or just from a late-night talk with a friend. In opening up to languages across the globe, we hope to contribute to a vast literary landscape and a variety of forms and materials that aren’t represented in the current publishing world. In a world after Covid and in a political climate that tends to exclusions, divisions and closing borders, the need for community is bigger than ever and we hope to add with this platform to a global, artistic and amicable connection between writers and translators that could lead to not only work related relationships, but friendships.
Why TERN?
Tern refers to the Arctic tern, which is distributed all over the world. The Arctic tern is famous for its migration; flying from the Arctic to the Antarctic and back again each year. Also, coincident or not, “tern” is also a part of the word “in-tern-ational”.
EDITORIAL TEAM
Co-Editor-in-Chief: Rebecca Weingart
Rebecca Weingart is a translator from the Midwest. Her translations have appeared in the chapbook Loopholes (Toad Press, 2026), in journals including Massachusetts Review and Fence, and have received support from the Yiddish Book Center, the American Literary Translators Association, and the Regional Arts Commission of St. Louis. She holds an MFA in Creative Writing and is currently a PhD candidate in Comparative Literature at WashU.
Co-Editor-in-Chief: Stephanie Nebenführ
Stephanie Nebenführ is a fiction writer from Frankfurt, Germany. During her studies in Comparative Literature and Fine Arts she co-organized readings and edited the anthology Vom Warten auf das nächste Jahr. Her works appeared in literary magazines, such as Der Literaturbote, mosaik and ‘apostrophe. Currently she is a PhD candidate in Comparative Literature and Thought at Washington University in St. Louis.
Managing Editor: Lara-Mareen Förster
Lara-Mareen Förster is a fiction writer and poet from Essen, Germany. After studying German Studies and Musicology in Düsseldorf and Creative Writing in Cologne, she began her PhD in German and Comparative Literature at Washington University in St. Louis. Her work has appeared in German literary magazines, including schliff and the poetry anthology Flusslaut.
Poetry Editors:
Elise Bickford is a poet and translator from Maine. Her works can be found in The Columbia Review, Guesthouse, Peripheries, and Artifice. She holds MFAs in Poetry and Literary Translation from the University of Iowa and is currently a PhD student in German and Comparative Literature at Washington University in St. Louis.
Dabin Jeong is a poet and a literary translator from Seoul, South Korea. They are the author of a chapbook Swallow (Small Harbor Publishing, 2025). You can find them on Instagram @verymanybins.
Born in Detroit, Michigan, Anne Gerard Livingston is a writer and educator from the Midwest. Her work can be found in The Cincinnati Review, North American Review, and Bad Lineage, among other places. Before pursuing her MFA in Las Vegas she taught middle and high school in Western North Carolina. She is currently a PhD student in Comparative Literature at WashU.
Advisory Board:
Christopher Schaberg
Matthias Göritz