‘Christ in Yarmouk’
Translator Fawaz Azem brings us another poem from young Syrian-Palestinian poet Dima Yousf: “Embrace your cross lovingly and go!”
April 2014
Postponed: Launch of Amjad Nasser’s ‘Land of No Rain’
“Land of No Rain’s” English-language launch has been postponed.
Starting Tuesday: NINITI International Literature Festival in Erbil, Iraq
Now in its third year, the Erbil International Literature Festival has been renamed NINITI, after a Sumerian healing goddess, to reflect 2014’s focus on women writers.
That’s Enough. No More ‘Top 10 Novels About Africa’
I get it: We moderns like lists. The six inhabited continents are messy, big, and multilingual places (yes, even Australia), and we would like the events therein to be curated.
Inaam Kachachi: ‘We Are Experiencing a True Upsurge in Iraqi Fiction’
Al-Mustafa Najjar continues with his interviews of authors shortlisted for the 2014 International Prize for Arabic Fiction, discussing Inaam Kachachi’s novel Tashari with its author.
6 Great Desert Narratives That Don’t Involve the RAF or TE Lawrence
Robert Allison is right: The desert is a fertile ground for novelists: “Not only in the otherworldliness of the landscape but also for its capacity to act as an existential sounding board for characters; such vast expanses of emptiness naturally encouraging introspection and reflection.” Yet his list of the “top 10 novels of desert war” focuses oddly on English-language narratives.
‘I Would Like To Be Radwa Ashour’
Translator Barbara Romaine was unable to make the March 22-23 conference on Radwa Ashour and her writing. She presents her tribute to a novelist of “exceptional humanity” here.
‘Leg Over Leg,’ ‘Horses of God’ Both Finalists for 2014 Best Translated Book Award
The Best Translated Book Award has announced the 10 finalists for its 2014 Best Translated Book Award (BTBA). Both Lebanese novelist Ahmad Faris al-Shidyaq’s Leg Over Leg, trans. Humphrey Davies, and Moroccan writer Mahi Binebine’s Horses of God, trans. from the French by Lulu Norman, have made the list.
Kickstarter: Help Palestinian Poets Reach ‘A Bird is not a Stone’ Events
From now through May 9, 2014, the editors and and organizers of the poetry collection A Bird is not a Stone are running a campaign to rise £3,000 to distribute the book more widely and to support bringing Palestinian poets to Scotland and England for a series of readings.