"They arrested me yesterday evening. The patrol head greeted me in his own way, and I was very surprised: instead of shaking my hand, he warmly shook my face with his fist, causing one of my teeth to fly from my mouth and land on the street."
Winner of 2021 ArabLit Story Prize Goes to ‘Fresh, Disquieting Translation’ of ‘Compelling and Haunting Tale’
Judge Leri Price said: "Absurd, grotesque, and unsettling, [this story] stays with you, ready at any moment to make solid ground feel that little more unstable beneath your feet."
2021 ArabLit Story Prize: Shortlisted Translator Dima El-Mouallem on Authors and Their Ghosts
I find myself asking, “Would you have liked this translation? Would you have done it differently?” I hope the ghosts of my authors approve.
2021 ArabLit Story Prize: Shortlisted Translator Burnaby Hawkes on the Translingual Experience
"Translation made me understand language much better. ... This translingual experience has changed my perspective, of course. I became aware of the merits and limitations of each language. "
2021 ArabLit Story Prize Shortlisted Translators Maissa Tanjour and Alice Holttum: On the Value of Co-translations
"We are both outsiders and insiders, readers and translators, hence approaching the text from various angles and perspectives which ultimately enriched the translation process and product."
2021 ArabLit Story Prize: Shortlisted Translator Katherine Van de Vate on Great Storytelling
"“The Baffling Case of the Man Called Ahmet Yilmaz” was actually written at my request. Karima is primarily a novelist, though she published an award-winning collection of short stories at the age of only 18. I asked Karima if she had any short stories I could translate, and she wrote this one in response to my question. It was based on an event she heard about while she was working as a journalist in Istanbul."
Editing and Translating al-Hamadhānī, Who’s Always ‘Just One or Two Steps Ahead of You’
"Equivalence is bolder but also riskier. The translation may end up effacing the particularities of the text in the first place. If it is all these different things, then what is it? Where did it come from?"
2021 ArabLit Story Prize: Shortlisted Translator Katharine Halls on Dismantling and Rebuilding Stories
"The reader will never know these things, but I like to know them so I can orient myself properly towards the text. I want to come at the text in the right direction."
Friday Finds: ‘A Contemporary Novel’ by Maya Abu al-Hayat & Five More
"The female protagonist visits him in the mornings, / taps shyly on the window, sweeps the street with a glance. / (Did anyone see her?)."