We start off this Women in Translation Month (#WiTMonth) with a list of ten recommended books by women, translated to English and published in 2020.
Bulaq 54: ‘Talking Shit’
We discuss the current situation in Lebanon and literature that looks at the worlds beneath our feet.
Jeddah Bids to Host World Sci Fi Convention
Literary events honoring and hosted by Saudi Arabia attract perhaps the most objections from authors and publishers.
6 Questions on ‘After the Nobel’: Nonfiction by Naguib Mahfouz
"He was an all-round writer with a strong social conscience, and after seeing how he reflected on society and its ills through the indirect allegorical lens of fiction I thought it would be interesting to see how he addressed the issues that concerned him through the more direct medium of a regular newspaper column."
Mehmet Hakkı Suçin on Translating Mahmoud Darwish into Turkish
"For instance, the Palestinian society is more familiar with references to Christianity than the Turkish society. ... So while translating Darwish's works, I brought the references to verses from the Bible or the Torah to the attention of Turkish readers."
Summer of Lock-in Lit: Sonallah Ibrahim’s ‘Arsène Lupin’
“Look, there’s no novels,” a voice suddenly boomed directly above my head. “We don’t sell novels.”
Liverpool Arab Arts Festival Creates an Archive of Digital Delights
"Not only did this create an increased sense of intimacy during the events, it also altered the temporality of the festival by allowing audiences to participate live, view recordings of events at their own leisure and, perhaps most significantly, to return to these events and reconsider their contents through the creation of a digital archive with many of the events still available to view online."
Banipal Prize Announces 2020’s Judges, Eligible Titles
"This year's judging chair will be Paul Starkey, who was a judge on the inaugural committee for the International Prize for Arabic Fiction, a prolific translator, and a previous winner of the Banipal translation prize."
Friday Finds: 8 by Abdul Zahra Zaki, 5 by Riyad al-Salih al-Hussein
Life is beautiful / says the sparrow / and drops dead beside the hunter’s shoe
‘Place a Hope Beyond a Hope’: Devotional Literature as Literature
"Devotional literature never gets viewed as literature because people assume it's for devotional purposes."
‘Inventing a Night Language’: On Translating the 1001
"I wanted to see if I could create a night-language, or find some form to reflect the fact that this is a night work...and the fact that these stories take place where dreams should be."
Mohammed Dib: Celebrating 100 Years
The great Algerian author Mohammed Dib was born 100 years ago today.
