Sarah Enany on Living — And Making a Living — As a Translator in Egypt
Sarah Enany is a Banipal Prize-winning literary translator (for her translation of Rasha Adly's The Girl with Braided Hair) and a professor in the English Department of Cairo University. She has translated several operas including the acclaimed sung versions of Les Miserables and Mozart's The Magic Flute into Egyptian Arabic, as well as Sayed Higab's libretto for the opera Miramar into English. She is also the Arabic-->English translator of Witness to War and Peace: Egypt, ...
New Short Fiction: ‘Holy Wednesday’
As this is a novelette, some readers may prefer to read on a tablet, in PDF or epub form. It's available free on the ArabLit store. Holy Wednesday By Mahmoud Aboudoma Translated by Sarah Enany “I saw them split open your chest and pull out your heart. I saw your blood flow into the dirt; I saw them recite the prayers for the dead over you; I saw them write the story of your absence ...
Announcing the Launch of our Spring 2024 Issue, with Majalla 28: ‘Gaza! Gaza! Gaza!’
Copies of ArabLit Quarterly's Spring 2024 issue are available for sale through our Gumroad store, at Amazon, and in select bookshops. As always, if you need a free e-copy, email us at info@arablit.org. All profits from this magazine go to our Gaza partners at Majalla 28. Also: Look for more about a launch event on Saturday, May 18, 2024. Mohammed and Mahmoud will be there if at all possible. In this special spring issue, ArabLit ...
Fiction
New Short Fiction: ‘Holy Wednesday’
As this is a novelette, some readers may prefer to read on a tablet, in PDF or epub form. It’s available free on the ArabLit store. Holy Wednesday By Mahmoud Aboudoma Translated by Sarah Enany “I saw them split open ...
From Duna Ghali’s ‘Orbits of Loneliness’
A few years ago, when we asked Egyptian novelist Miral al-Tahawy for a favorite book in Arabic by a woman writer, she said, “Truth is, there is a long list of Arab women’s work that I’m sure was important in ...
An Excerpt from Najem Wali’s ‘My Romantic Aunt’
Najem Wali’s 2024 novel My Romantic Aunt, published by Rewayat, follows a man’s relationship with his boundary-breaking aunt. From ‘My Romantic Aunt: Her friends, Her Relationships, and Me’ By Najem Wali Translated by Nada Hodali About Her My “Romantic Aunt.” Whoever ...
Poetry
When the War Parts: A Poem from Gaza by Heba Al-Agha
When the War Parts By Heba Al-Agha Translated by Julia Choucair Vizoso I won’t be the same might become a ...
From ALQ: Football Chants from Palestine
In the Fall 2021 issue of ArabLit Quarterly, we focused on FOOTBALL, and especially its many literary manifestations. Among these are the ...
New Poetry: ‘From Gaza, Answering Darwish’
From Gaza, Answering Darwish By Basman Eldirawi with Mahmoud Darwish, translations by Ibrahim Muhawi In March, spring rains return, ...
Interviews
Sarah Enany on Living — And Making a Living — As a Translator in Egypt
Sarah Enany is a Banipal Prize-winning literary translator (for her translation of Rasha Adly’s The Girl with Braided Hair) and ...
‘Today, We Need to Write at Least a Thousand Syrian Novels’
Tugrul Mende, in conversation with Fadi Azzam and Ghada Alatrash In April, Interlink Books published Fadi Azzam’s Huddud’s House—which was longlisted for ...
Duna Ghali on Writing, Translating, and Publishing Between Arabic and Danish
Last week, we shared an excerpt from Iraqi author Duna Ghali’s acclaimed novel Orbits of Lonelinessin maia tabet’s translation. This ...
Country Focus
From the archives
A Talk with Poet Golan Haji: ‘Languages Never Draw Geographical Boundaries’
” Jaziri wrote poetry with one set of alphabets which at that time were used in four languages: Kurdish, Ottoman Turkish, Persian, and Arabic. Sometimes, he used the four languages in one couplet. His poems are still recited and sung by Kurds. That coexistence of languages was quite natural, the alluring music was convincing, although I sometimes understood almost nothing.”
Another Road for Syrian Poetry
“The divide among poets has added a diaspora to the spatial diaspora, which scattered Syrians around the world.”
‘When Darkness Falls’: On the Shortened, Brilliant Life of Iraqi Author Hayat Sharara
“The word eib rings in my head, it is eib to love, to sing, to get sick, to divorce, to show your emotions…and.…and. I felt these social chains were burdening me with fear, despair, and confusion, and I almost abandoned work on the book, but when I looked at the materials that I had collected, I knew that if I didn’t publish it now, it would never be published.”