Abdellatif Laâbi Receives 2009 Goncourt Poetry Prize Today
It was early December when the yearly Prix Goncourt for poetry was announced, but the ceremony takes place on Jan. 12 of the new year. The prize is to a […]
January 2010
The New Yorker Discovers Arabic Fiction
A few of the big authors of the last decade (the Alaa el Aswany, the Elias Khoury) as well as the obligatory “taboo breakers” (Girls of Riyadh) are reviewed by […]
Happy 50th, AUC Press
Gamal Nkrumah at Al Ahram Weekly looks at the press’s first 50 years. It’s interesting, but, outside the Naguib Mahfouz phenomenon, the impact of AUC Press’s literary translations is little-examined. […]
Sales at Qatar Book Fair Disappointing
Sales of non-children’s, non-religious books were down this year, according to the Gulf Times. Bummer.
Banipal 36: The (Not-so-Great) State of Literature in Yemen Today
Yemen is still thick in the U.S. headlines. Coincidentally, (unless you can think up some fabulous conspiracy theory involving writers, planes, bombs, and Christmas) the most recent issue of Banipal […]
Most Underappreciated Egyptian Lit (in Translation) of 2009
I say this as though I’ve read all of the Egyptian lit published (in translation, in 2009), which I haven’t. Nonetheless: Moon over Samarqand, by Mohamed Mansi Qandil. Qandil isn’t […]
2010 Best Translated Book Award: al-Ghitani on Longlist
One Arabic novel (in English) makes the 2010 Best Translated Book Award list from “Three Percent” and Open Letter Books. It’s The Zafarani Files by Gamal al-Ghitani, which was translated […]
More Talk of Women Being Shortchanged on Arab Booker List
Elan has a piece about women being shortchanged on the IPAF (Arabic Booker) shortlists. This criticism follows that of Susannah Tarbush, published last month, but lacks her question: Why? Instead, […]
LA Times: ‘Yemen Poet Has a Line on the Region’
This piece would’ve been much more interesting as a Q & A. Instead we get Jeffrey Fleishman’s thoroughly chewed and swallowed, chewed and swallowed (and swished-around-in-his-mouth) ideas about Yemen and, […]