Remember that rush you got when the babysitter let you watch something rated R? Well, call me a geek, but I totally got that feeling when I read a brief description about the book, Literature from the Axis of Evil and Other Enemy Nations, published last fall by Words Without Borders and The New Press.

So why does this warrant a blog? Well, a couple of reasons…

First, Americans really haven’t had the chance to read many works from those states that make up President Bush’s Axis of Evil because, until recently, a publisher could have faced serious penalties, including fines and even jail time for “translating such works or ‘enhancing their value’ by editing them.”

Luckily, the government decided to take a chill pill (much to my delight) and the book, which contains 35 translated works from writers living countries like Iran, Syria, and Cuba is now available online.

Second, according to an article in The Christian Science Monitor, which refers to both Literature from the Axis of Evil and Other Enemy Nations and Words Without Borders, there’s a growing effort to bring “more global literature” to our shores—pretty sweet since the same article notes that “less than 3 percent of all books published in English worldwide are translations.”

Talk about a literary revolution. Looks like we’ll be getting more stories to share on SMITH sooner rather than later.