Adil Babikir, Reem Abou-El-Fadl Win Global Africa Translation Fellowships

Congratulations to ArabLit contributing translator Adil Babikir, to translator and scholar Reem Abou-El-Fadl, and to all the awardees of the 2021 Global Africa Translation Fellowships, which were announced today:

The winners of this first-ever translation fellowship were announced by the Africa Institute, which launched the initiative as part of its African Languages and Translation Program. Grants ranging from $1,000 to $5,000 will be offered annually to support “the completion of translations of original works from the African continent and its diaspora, into Arabic and/or English.”

Selected works may be retranslations of old, classic texts, or previously untranslated works, collections of poetry, novel, prose, or critical theory. The project may be a work-in-progress, or a new project feasible for completion within the timeframe of the grant.

The awardees for the 2021 the Global Africa Translation Fellowship are:

Reem Abou-El-Fadl, for translation and editing of the Arabic-language memoir of Egyptian intellectual and activist Helmi Sharawy, Sira Misriyya Ifriqiya (An Egyptian African Story), which was first published in 2019 by independent Cairo press Dar Al-Ain.

Adil Babikir, for the translation of Sudanese author Abdelaziz Baraka Sakin’s book Samahani from Arabic into English.

Claretta Holsey, for the translation of four scholarly essays from René Ménil’s Tracées: Identité, Négritude, Esthétique aux Antilles from French into English.

David Shook, for the translation of Francisco José Tenreiro’s collected poems from Portuguese into English, including his seminal 1942 debut Ilha de Nome Santo (Island with a Holy Name).

To learn more about the Global Africa Translation Fellowship Program and the application process, visit their website.