Novels by Bruna Dantas Lobato and Katie Kitamura, a story collection by Jana Egle, and poetry by Daniel Halpern and Małgorzata Lebda

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Besides plain white bedsheets and a pillow, the only thing I bought for the room was a desk lamp: dark blue, with an adjustable neck, a bit of color standing out against all the shades of beige. When my mom called me on Skype from our apartment on the outskirts of Natal, that's what she saw.
—From Blue Light Hours, a novel by Bruna Dantas Lobato (Black Cat/Grove Atlantic, 2024). 

I saw a flicker of surprise cross [the host's] features as a I pointed [at the young man seated at the back of the restaurant]. He looked quickly from my face to my coat to my jewelry. It was my age, above all. That was the thing that confounded him. He gave a tight smile and asked me to please follow him.
—From Audition, a novel by Katie Kitamura (Riverhead Books, 2025). I listened to this as an audiobook narrated by Traci Kato-Kiriyama, and I would also recommend it in that format. 

Should we take a trip?  
—"Invitation," a poem by Daniel Halpern, The New Yorker (March 11, 2024, pp. 44-45).   

Dita is standing at the window in her home, an opened letter in her hands, waiting for Niks to drive up with their two smallest children. That morning they'd gone to Niks's mother's places to get some potatoes—they didn't have any of their own left.
—From Birthday, a short story collection by Jana Egle, translated from the Latvian by Uldis Balodis (Open Letter, 2025). The book was originally published as Dzimšanas diena (Latvijas Mediji, 2020). This segment is from the story "The Debt," which appears on pages 25-44 of the trade paperback. Please note: this book contains at least two stories that may not be suitable for everyone. 

Night here in the valley spreads out its vigil,
night of one place following after another.
—From "Faithful Animal," a poem by Małgorzata Lebda, translated from the Polish by Mira Rosenthal. Six of Małgorzata Lebda's poems from her book Mer de Glace were translated into English and included, along with a personal essay, in the eleventh installment of the "Literature and Democracy" series from New England Review.