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From ALQ: Football Chants from Palestine

In the Fall 2021 issue of ArabLit Quarterly, we focused on FOOTBALL, and especially its many literary manifestations. Among these are the chants sung at matches; the issue brought together diverse chants from Algeria, Bahrain, Morocco, Egypt, and Palestine. In each country, the football chants reflect not just the fans’ relationship with their team, but with the wider society and world. In the…

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#Ameer Hamad #football

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An Excerpt from Sahar Khalifeh’s ‘A Novel for My Story’

Sahar Khalifeh’s روايتي لروايتي  appeared in 2018, long after she was established as one of the great novelists of her generation, one who painted complex portraits of Palestinian society in novels that often focused on the lives of women. In a 2021 interview with ArabLit, Khalifeh said — of why she wanted to write this memoir — “Because I wanted to reveal secrets. I wanted to reveal my secrets…

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#Nada Hodali #Sahar Khalifeh

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Golan Haji & Marilyn Hacker on the Inseparable Natures of Writing and Translating

The two introductory texts below — on life, writing, and translation — appear in the newly published trilingual collection Another Room to Live In: 15 Contemporary Arab Poets. By Golan Haji Translated from the French by Marilyn Hacker In the mid-1990s, I often went to the library of the American Cultural Center in Damascus, located at the foot of Mount Qassioun, in a calm little street beneath…

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#Golan Haji #Marilyn Hacker

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'Resistance and the Palestinian Folk Song'

This piece appeared in our Spring 2021 SONG issue.  By Shaimaa Abulebda It was last year when a short video posted to Palestinian singer-songwriter Terez Sliman’s Facebook page went viral. The video features Sliman and Portuguese musician Sofia Adriana Portugal on a boat, cruising the Nile River in Egypt. They sit atop a table, facing one another as they tap rhythmically while singing “Ya…

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#Palestine #Shaimaa Abulebda #song

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Reem Bassiouney Wins 2024 Sheikh Zayed Book Award for her 'Fatimid Trilogy'

APRIL 4, 2024 — Organizers of the Sheikh Zayed Book Award announced their 2024 winners today. The list was led by the high-profile literature category, which went to Reem Bassiouney’s fast-paced, fights-and-romance-filled historical novel, Al Halwani: The Fatimid Trilogy. The sweeping historical three-parter travels back in time to medieval Egypt. Organizers write, in a prepared statement, that…

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#Reem Bassiouney #Sheikh Zayed Book Award #The Fatimid Trilogy

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New Short Fiction from Sudan: 'The Drunken Donkey'

The Drunken Donkey Dr. Abuelgasim Gour Translated by Nassir al-Sayeid al-Nour Among all the donkeys, my aunt Um Makhayan’s donkey was the one that enjoyed gnawing on the Saheb tree, which flourished to the west of our neighborhood. The tree was green in all seasons: green in summer, and green at the peak of the rainy season, too. Hers was a gray donkey with a thick neck, the kind of donkey that’s…

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#Abuelgasim Gour

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An Excerpt from Najem Wali's 'My Romantic Aunt'

Najem Wali’s 2024 novel My Romantic Aunt, published by Rewayat, follows a man’s relationship with his boundary-breaking aunt. From ‘My Romantic Aunt: Her friends, Her Relationships, and Me’ By Najem Wali Translated by Nada Hodali About Her  My “Romantic Aunt.” Whoever gave her this nickname remains a mystery; it could have been one of the men that passed through her life, one of her best…

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#Najem Wali

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Forthcoming April 2024: Palestinian Prison Literature, Queer Refugees, Bedouin Poetry, & More

This list may not be complete; if you have something to add, please put it in the comments or email us at [email protected]. The Screams of War: Selected Poems, by Akram Alkatreb, tr. Jonas Elbousty (Seagull Books) From the publisher: ‘Those who believe in the currency of patience / Were burned out in the alleyway.’ The Screams of War is a visceral collection of poems that confront the realities…

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#Akram Alkatreb #Bedouin poets #Bothayna al-Essa #Khaled Alesmael #Nasser Abu Srour

[arablit]

Hanan Jasim-Khammas: On Writing the Body in Iraqi Literature After 2003

By Olivia Snaije Iraqi academic Hanan Jasim-Khammas was just 19 n 2004, when the Abu Ghraib prisoner abuse came to light. Later, as a student of comparative literature, she became fascinated by body and gender studies, which led her back to 2004, to examining the terrible and powerful representation of bodies in the Abu Ghraib scandal. “I couldn’t articulate how I felt about Abu Ghraib, how those…

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#embodiment #Hanan Jasim-Khammas #Iraqi literature #Olivia Snaije

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Looking for Ghosts: On Said Khatibi's 'End of the Sahara'

You can also read an excerpt of the novel in Alex Elinson’s translation and listen to an episode of the BULAQ podcast that features novelist Said Khatibi, talking about this book. By M Lynx Qualey Said Khatibi was three years old in the autumn of 1988, when the events in his latest novel take place. His literary murder mystery, The End of the Sahara, is mostly set in the central Algerian city of…

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#End of the Sahara #Said Khatibi

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Joyce Mansour's 'Emerald Wounds' Makes Griffin Poetry Prize's 2024 Longlist

March 21, 2024 – The Griffin Poetry Prize — one of the world’s largest and most celebrated poetry prizes — yesterday announced their 2024 longlist. Among the longlistees was Egyptian poet Joyce Mansour’s Emerald Wounds: Selected Poems, translated from French by Emilie Moorhouse. (Read selections from Emerald Wounds here.) Joyce Mansour (1928-1986) was born in Bowden, England, to Jewish-Egyptian…

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#Emerald Wounds #Emilie Moorhouse #Joyce Mansour

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New Poetry: 'From Gaza, Answering Darwish'

From Gaza, Answering Darwish By Basman Eldirawi with Mahmoud Darwish, translations by Ibrahim Muhawi   In March, spring rains return, first cold, then warm. We think it’s the time to relax, to unfold, to bloom.   ليس الزمن‏‏ في غـزة استرخاء‏‏ ولكنه  اقتحام الظهيرة المشتعلة Time in Gaza is not relaxation, but storming the burning noon.   We both know time in Gaza is different, But you were born in…

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#Basman Aldirawi

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'The Silent Poets': Three Poems by Da'ad Haddad

The iconic Syrian poet Da’ad Haddad (1937-1991) was known by fellow Syrian artists in her lifetime, but — as Ibtihal Rida Mahmood wrote in a profile of the poet — her work spread further after her death. “Although Da’ad Haddad published two poetry collections—Correcting Death’s Mistake and A Crumb of Bread is Enough For Me—in the 1980s, the Latakia native’s literary influence and renown were to…

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#Da&039;ad Haddad #Ibtihal Rida Mahmood

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Khadija Marouazi's 'History of Ash,' Alawiya Sobh's 'This Thing Called Love' Shortlisted for EBRD Prize

MARCH 19, 2024 — Organizers today announced the shortlist of the 2024 EBRD Literature Prize. The annual prize has somewhat unusual criteria, in that they award translated literary fiction from the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD)’s countries of operation. This year’s ten-book shortlist includes two novels translated from Arabic, from Morocco and Lebanon, as well as novels…

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#EBRD Prize #History of Ash by Khadija Marouazi #This Thing Called Love by Alawiya Sobh

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An Excerpt from Walid Saif's 'Where the Two Seas Meet'

Walid Saif’s Where the Two Seas Meet was published in 2018 by Al Dar Al Ahlia. The narrative follows the clash of two thirteenth-century titans, the two titular “seas.” The book is currently seeking a publisher; interested publishers can reach out to [email protected] for a longer sample and to be put in touch with the translator. From ‘Where the Two Seas Meet’ By Walid Saif Translated by…

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#Abdellah El Boubekri #Walid Saif

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Why Should We Translate the Novels of Ahmed Khaled Tawfik?

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#Ahmed Khaled Tawfik #Paranormal

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Early 20th Century Short Fiction in Translation: Mahmoud Taymour's 'A Boy Who Became a Man'

This short story originally appeared in Mahmoud Taymour’s collection What the Eyes Can See (1922), and this story was written in 1917, when he was just 23. It recounts events in the life a fictional young scallywag, Ahmad Mahjoub, who was raised and pampered by his nanny. Taymour himself was a well-to-do literary dabbler who ended up publishing twenty collections of short stories, as well as…

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#Amr El-Zawawy #Mahmoud Taymour