The editor of these pages, M. Lynx Qualey, is grateful for support and contributions from the writers listed (alphabetically) below. If you would like to submit something to ArabLit, please email mlynxqualey – at – gmail.com.
Inas Abassi
Tunis International Book Fair 2012: Successful, Considering
Asmaa Abdallah
Ibrahim Eissa: I Do Not Write Novels As a Political Act
The Past, Present, and (Possible) Future of Egypt’s Culture Ministry
Faris Adnon was born in Diwaniah, Iraq in 1966 and was forced to leave his homeland in 1991. He entered the USA as a refugee in 1992. He contributed to an Iraqi poetry anthology in Spanish named Gilgamesh Curse in 2005 and his first poetry collection, مظلة من كلمات, was published in Beirut in 2009.
In Iraqi Discourse, No Room Left for Poets
Katrina Weber Ashour is an arts and communication consultant with experience in the Middle East, whose current clients include Mathaf: Arab Museum of Modern Art.
‘We Don’t Live in a Post-colonial World’: On Music & Translation
Hisham Bustani
Hisham Bustani was born in 1975 in Amman, Jordan. He writes fiction and has three published collections of short fiction: Of Love and Death (Beirut: Dar al-Farabi, 2008), The Monotonous Chaos of Existence (Beirut: Dar al-Farabi, 2010) and The Perception of Meaning (Beirut: Dar al-Adab, 2012). Bustani is acclaimed for his contemporary themes, style, and language. He experiments on the boundaries of narration and poetry, using the internal music of language as a driving force. He often utilizes philosophy, physics, biology, cosmology and visual art in his fiction. The German review Inamo has chosen Bustani as one of the Arab world’s emerging and influential new writers, translating one of his stories into German for its special issue on “New Arab Literature” (No. 60, December 2009). He was also featured in the March/April 2012 issue of Poets & Writers in the report “Middle Eastern Rhythms: A Report from Literary Jordan.” His translated fiction has appeared in The Saint Anne’s Review andWorld Literature Today.
Short Story: ‘Nightmares of the City’
Maurice Chammah is a writer, currently a Fulbright Fellow in Egypt, a follower of Egyptian media, and a reporter on culture and politics. His blog is Adrift on the Nile.
A Visit to Alaa Al-Aswany’s Literary Salon
Viewing Translation Through the Lens of Bahaa Taher’s ‘Love in Exile’
‘Judgment Day’: A Conversation About Poetry, the Quran, and the Future of Arabic
The International Prize for Arabic Fiction’s First 5 Years: A Look Back
Ibrahim Nasrallah, on Writing, Palestine, and Flying with Two Wings
Dr. Mona Elnamoury is a lecturer at the faculty of Arts, English Dept., Tanta University. She also teaches at the MSA in the faculty of Languages and Translation, and has translated Ursula LeGuin into Arabic. She also writes.
The Blown-up Bridges of Translation in Mona Baker’s ‘Translation as (Re)-Narration
The Flowing River of Translation in Michael Cronin’s ‘Global Perspectives’
Why Would Kate Chopin Want to Participate in the IPAF ‘Nadwa’?
In Memory of Sufi Writer Ahmed Bahjat
Radwa Ashour on the Train of Images in the Egyptian Revolution
Radwa Ashour’s ‘Siraaj’: A Trip into the Past that Ends in the Present
When Is Revolution Untranslatable? When It’s Fast and Funny
Nadia Ghanem is a reader based in London and tweets at @ayatghanem.
A Short Walk through Tahir Wattar’s ‘The Earthquake’
Two Views of Etel Adnan’s ‘Crime of Honor’
Author Nihad Sirees: ‘We Are Fighting the Formal History of a Regime’
Two Views of ‘Syria Speaks’: A Lens on Syria Through the Arts
Amina Hachemi (@ahach) holds a BA from Paris-Sorbonne University and an MA in Translation, Writing and Cultural Difference from the University of Warwick. She is a passionate linguist with particular interest in literary translation and writing, especially short stories. She enjoys creative experimentation and, being of Algerian and Irish descent, she also likes to explore cultural perspectives and interaction through her work. Amina believes in the arts as a fundamental platform for intercultural dialogue and understanding. She is currently working as a freelance editor and translator.
The Emirati Short Story: A Focus on Identity
Mohga Hassib is an English and Comparative Literature graduate student at American University in Cairo. She has been president of the university’s literature club since fall 2011.
Review of ‘Arabic Booker’-shortlisted ‘Embrace at Brooklyn Bridge’
‘Silencing the Sea’: A Look at the Landscape of Palestinian Poetries
‘The Iraqi Christ’: An Unsparing, Unforgiving Depiction of the Human Condition
Hassan Blasim: I’m Not Interested in Preserving ‘The Beauty of the Arabic Language’
A Bilingual Poetry Collection that Looks at Life through the Lens of Islam
‘Touch’: Poetry of Palestinian Landscape, Through a Girl’s Eyes
Two Views of ‘Syria Speaks’: A Lens on Syria Through the Arts
‘Perhaps This Poem Has No End’: Reel Iraq in Edinburgh
Marilyn Booth on What Should Be Obvious (But Isn’t) About Translating Arabic Literature
Launch of ‘Lady from Tel Aviv’: Whose Story Is It?
Review: ‘Head over Heels in Saudi Arabia’ at Edinburgh Fringe
If You’re in Edinburgh: Highlights from the Fests
‘Reclaiming Arabic As a Language of Sex’
Elisabeth Jaquette is a MA student in Anthropology at Columbia University and a CASA fellow at the American University in Cairo. She has lived in Cairo since 2007, where she runs an Arabic-English book club and tweets at@lissiejaquette.
Salwa Bakr on ‘Women and Arabic Literature’
Formerly Banned Graphic Novel ‘Metro’ Now Available in Cairo
Margaret Litvin is assistant professor of Arabic and comparative literature at Boston University.
The Egyptian Military Elite, Reflected in ‘Moon over Samarqand’
Ghada Mourad
‘The Best Poems Are Not Political Poems,’ But—
Mishka Mojabber Mourani
Lebanese Novelist Nazik Yared on Starting Late and Writing with Honesty
Memoir: Teta, Did You Know Aleppo?
Alone Together: The Global Story Behind a Bilingual Book of Poems
Nora Lester Murad has written two children’s books on Palestinian themes (not yet published) and is working on a women’s literary novel called One Year in Beit Hanina. She lives in Jerusalem, blogs at www.noralestermurad.com, and is known to tweet disparaging comments about Palestinian drivers at @NoraInPalestine.
The Literary Scene in Palestine
Stolen Books, Stolen Identity: What Did Israel Do with Palestinians’ Literary Heritage?
MASNAA: Language Melting, Merging, and Crossing Boundaries
Assmaa Naguib
Assmaa Naguib is a PhD student at the Institute of Arab and Islamic Studies at the University of Exeter.
Narrating the ‘Arab Spring’: Who Owns the Story?
Hussein Omar is a history PhD candidate at Merton College, Oxford and the co-founder of the “Downtown Memory and History Project.”
Who Should Save Egypt’s Archives?
Nora Parr
Ibrahim Nasrallah: Part of My Ambition Was to Surprise the Reader Who Knew Palestine
Layla Qasrany an Iraqi-American writer who published her first novel in Arabic (Sahdoutha) in 2011.
The Meaning of ‘Haditha, Iraq‘
Yasmine Seale
Abdellatif Laâbi, Terra Incognita
The Process and Politics of Translating Arabic Lit: A Symposium at Queens College
‘We Don’t Live in a Post-colonial World’: On Music & Translation
Hisham Matar and Ali Al-Muqri on Writing During a Revolution
Adonis at Alwan: Always More Beauty to Be Seen
Tea Boys or Interns? Translators Tackle the Language of Najwan Darwish
Maia Tabet was born and raised in Beirut. She has worked as a journalist, editor and freelance translator. Her translation of Elias Khoury’s White Masks (2010) was commended by the judges of the 2011 Banipal Prize for Arabic Literary Translation.
‘Translation In Practice’: A Review
Rawad Z. Wehbe
‘Translations’ Residency: Three Languages on an Equal Footing
Zuberino loves books and theatre and lives in London. He tweets @zuberino.
At the London Lit Fest with Mohammed Achaari and Raja Alem
Hassan Daoud on the Present and Possibilities of Arabic Fiction