Recommendations: On the New Wave of Memoirs from Iraq
Editor's note: Publishers who are interested in Iraqi literatures will find more in our May Publishers Newsletter, out on May 15. By Hend Saeed In recent decades, memoir has burgeoned in prominence and popularity among Iraqi writers and readers. As acclaimed author-translator Falah Raheem tells us: “Autobiography is one of the most prolific genres in present day Iraq. Needless to say, Iraq has been for decades the scene of one of the most dramatic human ...
An Excerpt from Falah Raheem’s ‘Hedgehogs on a Hot Day’
In a recent interview, we asked Iraqi writer Duna Ghali which Iraqi writers she recommends; she pointed us to Falah Raheem, whose Hedgehogs on a Hot Day was published to great acclaim in Arabic in 2012. The novel is available now in a translation to English by the author himself. Although independent, it is part of a hexalogy of novels, five of which are already complete. They aim at a fictional depiction of the Iraqi contemporary scene ...
Sarah Enany on Living — And Making a Living — As a Translator in Egypt
Sarah Enany is a Banipal Prize-winning literary translator (for her translation of Rasha Adly's The Girl with Braided Hair) and a professor in the English Department of Cairo University. She has translated several operas including the acclaimed sung versions of Les Miserables and Mozart's The Magic Flute into Egyptian Arabic, as well as Sayed Higab's libretto for the opera Miramar into English. She is also the Arabic-->English translator of Witness to War and Peace: Egypt, ...
Fiction
An Excerpt from Falah Raheem’s ‘Hedgehogs on a Hot Day’
In a recent interview, we asked Iraqi writer Duna Ghali which Iraqi writers she recommends; she pointed us to Falah Raheem, whose Hedgehogs on a Hot Day was published to great acclaim in Arabic in 2012. The novel is available now in ...
New Short Fiction: ‘Holy Wednesday’
As this is a novelette, some readers may prefer to read on a tablet, in PDF or epub form. It’s available free on the ArabLit store. Holy Wednesday By Mahmoud Aboudoma Translated by Sarah Enany “I saw them split open ...
From Duna Ghali’s ‘Orbits of Loneliness’
A few years ago, when we asked Egyptian novelist Miral al-Tahawy for a favorite book in Arabic by a woman writer, she said, “Truth is, there is a long list of Arab women’s work that I’m sure was important in ...
Poetry
When the War Parts: A Poem from Gaza by Heba Al-Agha
When the War Parts By Heba Al-Agha Translated by Julia Choucair Vizoso I won’t be the same might become a ...
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 ...
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, ...
Interviews
Recommendations: On the New Wave of Memoirs from Iraq
Editor’s note: Publishers who are interested in Iraqi literatures will find more in our May Publishers Newsletter, out on May ...
Sarah Enany on Living — And Making a Living — As a Translator in Egypt
Sarah Enany is a Banipal Prize-winning literary translator (for her translation of Rasha Adly’s The Girl with Braided Hair) and ...
‘Today, We Need to Write at Least a Thousand Syrian Novels’
Tugrul Mende, in conversation with Fadi Azzam and Ghada Alatrash In April, Interlink Books published Fadi Azzam’s Huddud’s House—which was longlisted for ...
Country Focus
From the archives
Alexander Key: On Domesticating Al-Jurjani 110%
“I’m trying to translate al-Jurjani so that he sounds like a literary critic writing in English, writing in his native language. I don’t want the reader of al-Jurjani’s experience with metaphor to think this guy is foreign – because al-Jurjani didn’t think he was foreign.”
Egyptian Novelist Shady Lewis on Coptic Identity, Church-State Relations, and Citizenship
“In Ways of the Lord, Christians are mistaken for being Jews and are accused of spying for Israel, which demonstrates the lack of recognition of Copts and their conflation with other minorities.”
A Talk with Poet Golan Haji: ‘Languages Never Draw Geographical Boundaries’
” Jaziri wrote poetry with one set of alphabets which at that time were used in four languages: Kurdish, Ottoman Turkish, Persian, and Arabic. Sometimes, he used the four languages in one couplet. His poems are still recited and sung by Kurds. That coexistence of languages was quite natural, the alluring music was convincing, although I sometimes understood almost nothing.”