Arabic Lit in Translation: Forthcoming in 2025

The list of Arabic works forthcoming in English translation often shifts through the year; this is why we also have lists at start of each month. This list — of more than 30 titles — represents what translators and publishers have told us about what’s coming in 2025. Note that not all have finished covers available.

If you have more to add, please tell us in the comments or at info@arablit.org.

Winter/Spring 2025

January

Imprisoning a Revolution: Writings from Egypt’s Incarcerated, ed. Collective Antigone (University of California Press, January 7)

“This book contains letters, poetry, and art produced by Egypt’s incarcerated from the eruption of the January 25, 2011, uprising. Some are by journalists, lawyers, activists, and artists imprisoned for expressing their opposition to Egypt’s authoritarian order; others are by ordinary citizens caught up in the zeal to silence any hint of challenge to state power, including bystanders whose only crime was to be near a police sweep.”

A Calamity of Noble Houses, by Amira Ghenim, tr. Miled Faiza and Karen McNeil (Europa Editions, January 14)

“Tunisia, 1930s. Against the backdrop of a country in turmoil, in search of its identity, the lives and destinies of the members of two important upper-class families of Tunis intertwine: the Ennaifer family, with a rigidly conservative and patriarchal mentality, and the Rassaa, open-minded and progressive.”

The Many Lives of Ibrahim Nagui, by Samia Mehrez, tr. Eleanor Ellis (AUC Press, January 21)

“A multigenerational literary memoir that sheds new light on one of the Arab world’s most renowned Romantic poets, through the eyes of his granddaughter.”

February

Honey Hunger, by Zahran Alqasmi, tr. Marilyn Booth (Hoopoe, February 4)

“A breathtaking novel of longing, uncertainty, and ultimately of hope, written by an International Prize for Arabic Fiction-winning author and an International Booker-prize winning translator.”

On the Greenwich Line, by Shady Lewis, tr. Katharine Halls (Peirene Press, February 18)

“Told with a wry cynicism and deadpan wit, On the Greenwich Line traces the absurdities of racism, austerity, and bureaucracy in contemporary England. This is a story about systemic failure and human courage, and about London and its many lost souls.”

Premonition News Flash, by Yass Assaidi, tr. Mbarek Sryfi (DarArab)

A Bait AlGhasham DarArab Prize-winning collection of poetry by Iraqi poet, novelist and playwright Yass Assaidi.

I have brought you a severed hand, by Ghayath al-Madhoun, tr. Catherine Cobham (Action Books, Divided Publishing)

“At first glance, Ghayath Almadhoun writes prose, because what he writes about is not suitable for the lyrical poem: it is the consequence of ongoing war, a reality that can only be described in parables. In his poems, he captures the feeling of utter despair and bewilderment in the face of the terrible using the means of paradox – for Ghayath Almadhoun, the surreal is a way of depicting the impossible.“

Note: The book will be published simultaneously in the USA by Action Books and in London and Brussels by Divided Publishing.

Sololand, by Hassan Blasim, tr. Jonathan Wright (Comma Press)

The Book of Sana’a: A City in Short Fiction, ed. Laura Kasinof (Comma Press)

The stories in this anthology demonstrate how Sana’a, Yemen’s capital city, is continually adapting and responding to new layers of pressure being put on it. With the ever-present civil war raging in the background and the constraints of religious conservatism growing tighter, they depict characters navigating their own way through trauma, finding redemption in their own ingenuity – from hallucinatory delusions, to supernatural consultations, to the upturning of gender roles. At the heart of each story is a deep-rooted appreciation for this beautiful, beleaguered city, a heart-felt connection with it that remains universally relatable.

For over a decade, Yemen has found itself the battleground of a war being fought both locally and regionally – not juist a war between the Zaydis (often referred to in the West as ‘Houthis’) and state-sponsored Salafis, but also a proxy war, being fought internationally between Iran and Saudi Arabia (backed by the US), respectively. Caught in the middle of this have been ordinary Yemeni citizens, whose precarious living standards, poverty and exposure to violence has been widely ignored by the international community. Thes stories give a glimpse into this life, and a sense of the real battles being fought in the region

March

The Orchards of Basra, by Mansoura Ezz Eldin, tr. Paul Starkey (Interlink, March 18)

“Hisham Al Khattab is Yazid ibn Abih. At least he thinks he is. Some 13 centuries separate the two, but in the despaired mind of Hisham Al Khattab, and through the magical power of dreams, Hisham is Yazid.”

Safe Corridor, by Jan Dost, tr. Marilyn Booth (DarArab)

An extraordinary journey in search of refuge in Syria narrated by a boy who “comes of age” far too quickly.

April

I Want Golden Eyes, by Maria Dadouch, tr. Sawad Hussain and M Lynx Qualey (University of Texas Press, April 1)

“A girl must save herself and her family after discovering her society’s secrets in this sci-fi novel in translation. I Want Golden Eyes is set on the Comoros Islands at the end of this century in a futuristic city called Quartzia, the home of a genetically privileged minority called the Golden Eyes. The rest of the population, the Limiteds, live in a cavity called the Hive beneath the city. Dalia is a sixteen-year-old girl who lives in the Hive but works with her family in Quartzia at Professor Adam’s house, where she cleans, her sister grows organic food in the garden, and her deaf father works as the cook.”

Gaza: The Poem Said Its Piece, by Nasser Rabah, tr. Ammiel Alcalay, Emna Zghal, and Khalid Al-Hilli, with a foreword by Mosab Abu Toha (City Lights, April 15)

“Born in Gaza in 1963, Rabah spent some of his formative years in Egypt, before returning to Gaza in his early twenties, where he has lived ever since. There, among the generations who built its neighborhoods and populate its villages, in a place of great natural beauty and vibrant cities, living under constant surveillance, military occupation, blockade, siege and regular attack, in a culture steeped in literary and spiritual tradition, Rabah developed his distinctively singular vision and poetics.”

May

Empty Cages, by Fatima Qandil, tr. Adam Talib (AUC Press, May 6)

“Winner of the Naguib Mahfouz Medal for Literature, Empty Cages is an urgent and raw confessional of memory and family and all that is lost and won in one woman’s lifetime The discovery of an old tin of chocolates, its contents long ago devoured, marks the entry into this intimate story that reaches back through a lifetime of memories in search of self and home.”

Sleep Phase, by Mohamed Kheir, tr. Robin Moger (Two Lines Press, May 13)

48 kg, by Batool Abu Akleen, tr. the author, with Graham Liddell, Wiam El-Tamami, Cristina Viti & Yasmin Zaher (Tenement, May 16)

A debut collection from the Palestinian poet—Modern Poetry in Translation’s ‘Poet in Residence,’ 2024—a
bilingual assembly of forty-eight poems in which each work accounts for a single kilogram; a body’s mass; a testament to a sieged city; a vivid and visceral voicing of the personal and the public in the midsts of unspeakable violence.

30 Seconds From Gaza, by Mohammad Sabaaneh, tr. Nada Hodali (Interlink, May 13)

“Mohammad Sabaaneh is an acclaimed Palestinian political cartoonist who has gained worldwide attention for his insightful and provocative linocut artwork, which sheds light on the reality of Palestinian life under occupation. His striking black-white-and-gray cartoons bring attention to the horrors of the Israeli assaults and atrocities in Gaza and open people’s eyes to the suffering Palestinians endure under Israel’s brutal settler colonialism and its system of apartheid.”

One Night in Tunis (originally: الغوريلا), by Kamel Riahi, tr. Raphael Cohen (Dar Arab)

“In his novel published by Saqi, the Tunisian writer and journalist Kamal Al Riahi lets us into a world of a society ravaged by political tyranny, before one of «Bourguiba’s children» makes his appearance and changed the rules of the game.”

The Book of Damascus: A City in Short Fiction, ed. Zaher Omareen (Comma Press, May 29)

Bringing together fiction from celebrated writers, The Book of Damascus is an anthology of short stories charting the social and and cultural change of Damascus over the last fifty years, creating a literary map of the city.

Summer 2025

June

My Dragon, by Bassam Altaji, ill. Charlotte Shama, tr. Elisabeth Jaquette (Crocodile Books, June 17)

Fear in the Middle of a Vast Field, by Mustafa Taj Aldeen Almosa, tr. Maisaa Tanjour and Alice Holttum (University of Texas Press)

Mario And Abu Labbas, by Reem Bassiouney, tr. Roger Allen (Dar Arab)

July

The Iron Grasshopper: A Childhood Autobiography, by Salim Barakat, tr. Mahmoud Hosny Roshdy (Seagull Books, July 15)

Palestine – 1 Stories from the eve of the Nakba, ed. Basma Ghalayini

Writings on Translation, by Abdessalam Benabdelali, tr. Marouane Zakhir and Christian Hawkey, with introductions by Brahim El Guabli and Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak (Seagull Books, July 15)

The Garden, by Bushra Khalfan, tr. Luke Leafgren (Dar Arab)

August

The Man of Middling Height, by Fadi Zaghmout, tr. Wasan Abdelhaq (Syracuse University Press)

Ras Madrakah: The Sailor’s Notebook, by Younis Al Akhazami, tr. Mbarek Sryfi (Dar Arab)

Fall/Winter 2025

September

Translating the World: Contemporary Poetry from Saudi Arabia, ed. and tr. Moneera Al-Ghadeer (Syracuse University Press)

Rock of The Land: The Battle Between Conquerors and Protectors in Afghanistan, by Ahmed Vall Dine, tr. Mbarek Sryfi (Dar Arab)

October

The War, by Mohammed Yahyaei, tr. Christian James (Dar Arab)

November

The Earth and Sky, by Sahar Khalifeh, tr. Aida Bamia (Hoopoe Fiction)

The Memoirs of Najati Sidqi, by Najati Sidqi, tr. Anas Bin Alfadino, Gideon Gordon, and Margaret Litvin (University of Texas Press)

TBD

The Gates of Paradise, by Taleb Alrefai, tr. Kay Heikkenen (Interlink)

Red Like Orange, by Charles Akl, tr. Sarah Enany (Hoopoe Fiction)

Sa’iba; or Verity, by Alis al-Bustani, tr. Marilyn Booth (Oxford World’s Classics)