Publication Day for ‘Slender Thorns’

MARCH 1, 2025 — It’s Publication Day for our new short-story anthology, Slender Thorns: Award-winning Flash Fiction in Arabic and English.

  أشواك رفيعة: مجموعة ثنائية اللغة من القصص الومضية

You can find digital copies here on ArabLit and at Gumroad; print copies are available through Amazon, Gumroad, and will be available in select locations worldwide. Winning author Karima Ahdad will launch the print edition in April at the 2025 Rabat International Book Fair.

The bilingual collection includes work by the fifteen finalists of our 2024 Arabic Flash Fiction Prize. Their stories were selected from among more than 800 submissions by celebrated authors Shahla Ujayli and Mansoura Ez Eldin, and celebrated translator Sarah Enany.

The selected short-short fictions, all 1,001 words or fewer, range widely in tone, style, and focus: from mordant criticism of political (in)action, to explorations of the dark and light of parent-child relationships, to the changing ways technology mediates human relationships.

The audio stories, recorded by professional voice actors, will also be available in Arabic and English at the Komet Kashakeel website. You can watch the Arabic and English trailers at SoundCloud and YouTube.

On Monday, March 3, they will release Karima Ahdad’s “A Slender Thorn Digs into My Foot” (شوكةٌ رفيعة تحفر عميقاً في قدمي), in Arabic and in Katherine Van de Vate’s English translation.

On Wednesday, March 5, they will release Nasser Rabah’s “Seedlings for the Dead” (شتلات الموتى), in Arabic and in Hazem Jamjoum’s English translation.

On Friday, March 7, they will release Azza Abulanwar’s “The Days of Nasi’” (أيام النسىء), in Arabic and in Wiam El-Tamami’s English translation.

The rest of the stories in the collection include:

Ahmed Abo-Amer’s “Obituary Broadcast” (إذاعة نعي)

Haidara Nabeel Assad’s “The Boy on the Bus with Gooseflesh” (فتى الحافلة ذو القشعريرة)

Hamza Dhahbi’s “Desires That Only Result in Pain” (رغبات لا ينتج عنها الا الألم)

Laila Hashemi’s “Second-hand Life” (حياة مستعملة)

Mahmoud Hosny’s “Here’s the Pulse in My Neck, Ismail” (ها هو نبض عنقي، يا إسماعيل)

Loqman Hussain’s “He Said: I’ll Kill You” (قال: «لأقتلنَّك»)

Yassin Mahmod’s “Circles Open on All Four Sides” (دوائر مفتوحة من الجهات الأربع)

Imad Saad’s “Bird with a Broken Wing” (طائر بجناح مكسور)

Doha Salah’s “Mercy Killing!” (!قتلٌ رحيم)

Ahmed Abdelaty Hafni al-Samman’s “House of Righteous Women” (بيت السيدات الصالحات)

Bassma Shaikho’s “Printing Error” (خطأ مطبعيّ)

Basem Suleiman’s “Zorba’s Dance” (رقصة زوربا)

This project is funded by the British Council’s Beyond Literature Borders programme corun by Speaking Volumes Live Literature Productions.