Words Without Borders has posted a new special issue this kid-lit-heavy month, “Time-Travelers, Fisherwomen, and Sleuths: Arabic Young Adult Literature,” curated by translator Elisabeth Jaquette:
As Jaquette writes in her introduction to this special section:
In the past decade, YA titles like The Servant by Fatima Sharafeddine and Code Name: Butterfly by Ahlam Bsharat have not only seen success in Arabic—The Servant, for instance, won the Best Book award at the Beirut International Book Fair in 2010—they have also begun to make their way into English. It should be noted that categories of middle grade, young adult, and adult literature do not always map neatly between Arabic and English, and books that are written for a YA readership in Arabic might be considered middle grade or adult literature in English. Yet stories like those included in this feature demonstrate that these books can be enjoyed by readers of many ages.
The three excerpts:
Sonia Nimr’s Thunderbird, tr. M Lynx Qualey
Taghreed Najjar’s Against the Tide, tr. Elisabeth Jaquette
Djamila Morani’s The Djinn’s Apple, tr. Sawad Hussain
Also read:
Why Djamila Morani’s ‘The Djinn’s Apple’ Should Be on the IPAF Longlist
An Excerpt from Taghreed al-Najjar’s YA Novel, ‘Sitt al-Kul’
One Girl ‘Against the Tide’: A Gazan Story, a Universal Story
‘Whose Doll Is It?’ Read from an Etisalat Award Winner
New in Translation, from ‘The Mystery of the Falcon’s Eye’
YA Novelist Sonia Nimr on Discovering and Reinventing the Treasure of Palestinian Folktales
