A Look Back at ArabLit: April 2026
~April 2026~
Particular thanks this month to editors & contributors Zia Ahmed, Allison Armijo, Marilyn Booth, Leonie Böttiger, Amr El-Zawawy, Danae Fonseca, Sawad Hussain, Ursula Lindsay, Bushra Khalfan, Ibtihal Rida Mahmood, Tugrul Mende, and Mennan Salih.
In April, Lebanon suffered relentless blows, including the massive attack Israel launched on April 8, killing more than 350, and the assassination of Lebanese journalist Amal Khalil, which Lebanese poet Abbas Beydoun wrote about in “The South, The Last Day.”And over at The Markaz Review, Amal Ghandour considers Lebanon’s future in “Civil War In Lebanon? A Mad Prospect Looms Again” while Lina Mounzer writes “Dear Souseh: Incandescent with Rage.”
New translations & anthologies
Books released this month included The Country Doctor’s Tale, by Mohamed Mansi Qandil, tr. R. Neil Hewison; Best Literary Translations 2026, ed. Arthur Sze; and The Penguin Book of the International Short Story, ed. Rabih Alameddine and John Freeman (Penguin, April 2026).
Prize announcements
The International Prize for Arabic Fiction announced the 2026 winner (Said Khatibi’s I Resist the River’s Course) and the Sheikh Zayed Book Award belatedly announced its winners across ten categories. The 2026 EBRD Literature Prize also announced its 10-book shortlist, which included two books translated from Arabic.
New libraries and bookshops
In Gaza this month, the Phoenix Library opened its doors.
A new bookshop — la Llibreria Finestres Palestina — is set to open May 15, Nakba Day.
Fiction from ArabLit
An excerpt from Areej Gamal’s ‘Mariam, It’s Arwa,’ tr. Addie Leak
An excerpt from Mohamed Mansi Qandil’s ‘A Country Doctor’s Tale,’ tr. R. Neil Hewison
An excerpt from Mohamed Abd ElGawad’s ‘A Report on the Pussycat,’ tr. Omar Ibrahim
Ahmed Khaled Tawfik’s ‘The Wall’
Classic Short Fiction: ‘The Funeral of the Machine’
Poetry in translation
‘I Want to Smile,’ by Rasha Omran, tr. ArabLit
‘Obituaries,’ by Osama Esber, tr. Jonas Elbousty
Nonfiction from ArabLit and beyond
‘Damascus: A Tomb and a Prison,’ by Dima Wannous
‘A House of Poetry’: Huda Fakhreddine writes about her family home in South Lebanon, in a village that now lives under the terror of Israel’s bombs on The Key.
‘Four Women in Berlin,’ by Alaa Alqaisi
Interviews
Moneera Al-Ghadeer Answers: ‘Why Saudi Poetry?’
On Translation, Love, and Israeli Prison: In Conversation with Addie Leak
On Translating Egyptian Village Life: In Conversation with R. Neil Hewison
Book reviews
“In the Details: Masks, Memory, and Narrative Defiance,” a review of Bassem Khandaqji’s A Mask the Color of the Sky, by Fifi Bat-hef
News
2 Arabic Titles on EBRD Literature Prize’s 2026 Shortlist
Said Khatibi’s ‘I Resist the River’s Course’ Wins 2026 IPAF
Sheikh Zayed Book Award Announces 2026 Winners
On BULAQ
Ursula Lindsay and M Lynx Qualey spoke with Sara Yasin about the new publication from PalFest, The Key. Listen here.
On ARABLITe
Poesía de Palestina a Náquera, Valencia
From our monthly publishing newsletter
This month’s newsletter for publishing professionals focused on a “spring roundup” of lit prize, book-fair, and funding news. You can sign up for our monthly newsletter for publishing professionals here.
From our weekly poetry newsletter
Mennan Salih, editor of our weekly poetry newsletter, curated poems by Mohsen Mohamed, Nasser Rabah, Rasha Omran, Ashjan Hendi, and Muzaffar al-Nawwab. You can sign up for the poetry newsletter here.
From our “opportunities for Arabic<–>English translators'” newsletter
This month, we shared our “spreadsheet of opportunities” for those who translate between Arabic and English. You can sign up for the newsletter here.
From our YouTube channel and beyond
Our YouTube channel featured a discussion on Omani literature and translation with Bushra Khalfan, Marilyn Booth, and Zia Ahmed. Watch it here.
If you missed the discussion with Sinan Antoon about his novel Of Love and Lavender, you can watch it on the Jadaliyya YouTube channel.