A Look Back at ArabLit: April 2026
A look back at April 2026 in Arabic literature and translation.
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Posts by Marcia Lynx Qualey:
Translating Oman
The”Translating Oman” event, hosted by Syracuse University Press, featured a discussion about Omani literature and translation.
From ‘The Country Doctor’s Tale’
At this point in ‘The Country Doctor’s Tale,’ the titular country doctor is returning from a house call when he suddenly discovers political posters everywhere, even on the walls of the clinic.
On Translating Egyptian Village Life
In this conversation with Neil Hewison, we discuss what brought him to Mohamed Mansi Qandil’s The Country Doctor’s Tale, the pleasures of the Egyptian village novel, Mansi Qandil’s attention to women’s pain, and what makes a “modern classic.”
Unlocking Palestine: Sara Yasin on Editing ‘The Key’
In the latest episode of the BULAQ podcast, co-hosts M Lynx Qualey and Ursula Lindsey talk with editor-writer Sara Yasin about the new publication The Key.
On Translation, Love, and Israeli Prison
Addie Leak talks with Tugrul Mende about the translation process, literary awards, and two very different translations processes: translating one book through a riot of multilingual voicenotes and another by an author who was inaccessible, in an Israeli prison.
Dima Wannous’s ‘Damascus: A Tomb and a Prison’
“We passed a vast area near my house in Mazzeh, its surface covered with unfinished cement buildings. The driver told me it was a residential and commercial development owned by Asma al-Assad. The next day, one torture survivor told me the purpose of the project was to hide corpses[.]”
Sheikh Zayed Book Award Announces 2026 Winners
Organizers at the Sheikh Zayed Book Award (SZBA) today announced their 2026 winners across ten categories.
Moneera Al-Ghadeer Answers: ‘Why Saudi Poetry?’
Tracing the Ether Contemporary Poetry from Saudi Arabia, ed. Moneera Al-Ghadeer, came out late last year from Syracuse University Press. The anthology brings together 26 poets responding to — and writing a new future for — a rapidly changing Saudi Arabia. Moneera answered a few questions about the collection.