9 Short Stories by Iraqi Women, in Translation
Today, the last in our Women in Translation Month (#WiTMonth) Wednesday series of “9 Stories” lists.
mlynxqualey
About mlynxqualey
Posts by Marcia Lynx Qualey:
#WiTMonth Fiction: ‘The Sharp Bend at Al-Bakur’
This story, from Najwa Binshatwan’s acclaimed 2019 collection, An Ongoing Coincidence, won the ArabLit Story Prize that same year in Sawad Hussain’s translation. We re-run it this year as part of Women in Translation Month.
Lit & Found: Bushra al-Maqtari’s ‘What Have You Left Behind?’ tr. Sawad Hussain
The 2018 book, al-Maqtari said in an interview with al-Madaniya, was an attempt to “resist death through writing”; she added: “It was a simple attempt to document the narrative of the war and its dark memory based on those affected by it. It contains the memories of victims, whose suffering the warring parties insist on deepening and exploiting, and shows how all of the parties in the conflict, in the end, are murderers.”
9 Short Stories by Moroccan Women, in Translation
ArabLit Staff This week, we continue our Women in Translation Month (#WiTMonth) Wednesday series of “9 Stories” lists. In 2021, we featured short fiction by Sudanese and South Sudanese women, by Algerian women, by Egyptian […]
In Memory of Ghassan al-Jibai, His ‘Nails’
I had no access to poison, a rope, or any sharp objects. They confiscated any tool that would make death feasible. Had I owned pins, I wouldn’t have been satisfied with only pricking out my eyes in the manner of King Oedipus. They confiscated my tie, eyeglasses, belt, watch, and my wedding ring, and they placed me in a bare and cramped prison cell where it wasn’t even possible to smash my head against its walls.
9 Short Stories by Lebanese Women, in Translation
In this ad hoc anthology, we bring together an oral tale that’s been put to paper; classic stories by Emily Nasrallah and Layla Baalbaki; works by emerging writers like Batoul Fahs; and a graphic story by Lena Merhej.
Three Translations of Asmaa Azaizeh’s ‘Dragonflies’
These three translations of Asmaa Azaizeh’s “Dragonflies” appeared in the first issue of ArabLit Quarterly, which came out in the fall of 2018.
Lit & Found: An Excerpt from Hawra Nadawi’s ‘Qismet’
Both novels, as the postscript on Y’alla notes, deal with themes of identity and alienation.
#WiTMonth Conversations: Karima Ahdad on ‘Cactus Girls’
“But I also gave the male characters, like the father, individual voices, not just to show how their chauvinist mentality harms women, but also to emphasize that men are poor and marginalized too; they have to fight to survive too.”