Meeting Mahfouz: An Evening at the Nadwa
Margaret Litvin is assistant professor of Arabic and comparative literature at Boston University and author of Hamlet’s Arab Journey. She met Naguib Mahfouz in 2001 along with scholar and critic Robyn […]
November 2011
Designing Covers for ‘The Cairo Trilogy’
Several readers emailed, tweeted, or commented about the covers I posted along with translator William Hutchins’ thoughts about The Trilogy by Naguib Mahfouz. So I tracked down designer Christine Clayton […]
Two Eid Memories from Naguib Mahfouz
The following passage is from Naguib Mahfouz’s Naguib Mahfouz at Sidi Gaber: Reflections of a Nobel Laureate, 1994-2001. The section is titled “Happy Eid.” Nobody feels the joy of the […]
Hanan al-Shaykh’s Novel-in-progress Based in the South of France
In an interview that ran in yesterday’s Daily Star, Hanan al-Shaykh said, “I am working on short stories and a novel. All I can say now is that [the novel] […]
‘Life is More Beautiful than Paradise’ to Become Film
I wrote yesterday in Al Masry Al Youm about Khaled al-Berry’s lovely memoir Life is More Beautiful than Paradise being made into a movie.
Will Reading Arabic Literature (in Translation) Make Me a Better Person?
At the prodding of Claire Armitstead of The Guardian, I went over to the newspaper’s website and read the extract of Steven Pinker’s new The Better Angels of Our Nature. […]
Imen Yacoubi on Writing in English in Tunisia
Author Imen Yacoubi teaches English at the University of Jendouba and is a doctoral candidate in English literature. She is looking to establish Moorings, a new Maghrebi cultural review in […]
Banipal 42 and Emirati Women Writers
The editorial that introduces the autumn 2011 issue of Banipal has an unusually defensive edge. The tone here is very different from the triumphant feeling of Banipal 40 (Libyan Fiction!), which […]
Two Cairo Lectures: ‘Orientalism after Said’ and ‘Arabia Fantasia: U.S. Literary Culture and the M.E.’
Now, what would be wrong with a nice “Taha Husayn” or “Yusuf Idris” Hall? And more on John Carlos Rowe.