Tomas Tranströmer was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature 2011. He was then the first Swedish writer to become a laureate for almost forty years.This anthology takes an intercontinental perspective on the poetry of Tranströmer. It raises the question of how his poetry is actually perceived in continents predominated by other literary preferences. It also gives insight to the literal appearance of his poetry in essentially different languages.

Tranströmer International features a seminar of world poets, placing his poetry in context by relating to their countries of origin: Columbia, Iran and Bangladesh. Ángela García, Azita Ghahreman, Anisur Rahman and Kristian Carlsson-i.e. the main seminar committee-also present one poem each inspired by Tranströmer.
And a select working group has translated sample poems of Tranströmer into several world languages, printed alongside the Swedish originals. Most translations are done exclusively for this anthology, and in addition to some new English versions, there are poems in Arabic, Bengali, Farsi, Japanese, Romani, Russian, North Sami, Somali and Spanish.