‘On the Greenwich Line’ Wins James Tait Black Prize
Five Poems by May Ziadeh
Fiction
Classic Short Fiction: East Is East
“He stood bewildered at the crossroads, not knowing which way to take.” Classic short fiction about Arabs in early twentieth century Paris by Fouad Elshayeb.
From Mohammed Alyahyai’s ‘The War’
It’s publication day for Mohammed Alyahyai’s The War, in Christiaan James’s translation. In this opening passage, Issa Saleh prepares for an evening gathering—only to find that something, or someone, has slipped out of reach.
From ‘The Country Doctor’s Tale’
At this point in ‘The Country Doctor’s Tale,’ the titular country doctor is returning from a house call when he suddenly discovers political posters everywhere, even on the walls of the clinic.
Poetry
Five Poems by May Ziadeh
“sometimes my soul is wild, / an egret flying far / beyond the ocean’s edge, // and sometimes I curl up, / tender as an anemone when touched, / as salty and as damp.”
Two New Poems by Marah Muhammad Al-Khatib
“Alone / on a balcony with no air / I suffocate, grow intoxicated / Coffee cups multiply / stained with lipstick, overflowing with disappointment / taking me to a fresh bout of insomnia / and thoughts, buried before they could ever see the light.”
Interviews
Translating for the Egyptian Stage
In this “BETWEEN TWO ARABIC TRANSLATORS” conversation, Yasmeen Hanoosh and Sarah Enany talk about some of the particulars about translating for the stage and, particularly, for song.
Mohamed Mansi Qandil, on Medicine and Writing
In this conversation with acclaimed Egyptian novelist Mohamed Mansi Qandil, we discuss his latest novel to reach English, The Country Doctor’s Tale, the relationship between doctoring and writing, the novels that shaped him, and why he’d like to see The Country Doctor’s Tale as a film or TV series.
On Translating the Omani Natural Landscape
Marilyn Booth reflects on her experience translating Zahran Alqasmi’s work and provides insight on greater questions of translation.
In Focus
From the archives
Jonathan Smolin on the Relationship Between Ihsan Abdel Kouddous’s Politics and His Novels
“My book really is an examination of how he participated in the coup ,and how he believed fundamentally that the Free Officers were going to install democracy, and—once he realized that they were actually installing military dictatorship—the way he dissented, in the editorials and in person, the way that he was jailed, and the way he turned to fiction to express his dissent directly to Nasser.”
In Conversation: The Possibilities for Doing ‘Right’ in 14th Century Morocco & Spain
Another Road for Syrian Poetry
“The divide among poets has added a diaspora to the spatial diaspora, which scattered Syrians around the world.”