‘A Life That Doesn’t Know How to Live’: New Poetry by Fatena Abu Mostafa
In this poem, by Fatena Mostafa, the narrator endures, “not out of strength, / but because even collapse has grown dull.”
mlynxqualey
About mlynxqualey
Posts by Marcia Lynx Qualey:
Transnationalism and Translation
In this “BETWEEN TWO ARABIC TRANSLATORS” conversation, Yasmeen Hanoosh and Margaret Litvin discuss the triangulation of translating Arabic literature and Soviet Russia into English, vanishing intertexts, and why translating Sonallah Ibrahim’s Ice into a single language would have been like “putting salad through a blender.”
A New Look at Kurdish Literature, Beyond the ‘Selfless, Helpless’ Trope
Next year, Henar Press will bring out its first two titles, translated from Kurdish to English. But already, their website — with its Kurdish Literary Database — is contributing to a wider discussion around and sharing of Kurdish literature. In this brief online chat, publisher and editor-in-chief Aryan Omar Hassan talks about why he wanted to start Henar Press, why they’re looking for experimental literature, and what they’d like to see in their submissions inbox.
List in Progress: Palestinian Literature Forthcoming Fall 2025 or 2026
Although we generally focus on literature in translation, this encompasses literature written by Palestinians in any language (and a few additional titles at the end). Please let us know if you have books to add. Note that by “Fall 2025” we mean any book released September – December. Generally speaking, the list is in approximate order of release date. Corrections welcomed.
Isn’t It Our Time to Take a Break from Death?
While gasping for breath, I write. While my heart is panting, I count all my organs. Who will delete this wound from memory? Who will draw the hardships from my heart? Who will calm it?
First-ever Winners Announced for ‘PEN Presents x International Booker Prize’
Two of the inaugural six winning projects were books in Arabic: Ireme by Stella Gaitano, with a winning sample translation by Mayada Ibrahim and Najlaa Eltom; and Playing with Soldiers by Tariq Asrawi, with a winning sample translation by Anam Zafar.
4 Arabic Titles Longlisted for 2025 National Translation Awards
The American Literary Translators Association (ALTA) today announced the longlists for the 2025 National Translation Awards in two categories: Poetry and Prose. Three novels translated from Arabic were on the prose longlist, while one poetry collection translated from Arabic made the poetry longlist.
On Multiplicity in Translation
In January 2022, Moroccan-Dutch poet and translator Nisrine Mbarki Ben-Ayad published her debut collection of poetry, Oeverloos (Shoreless or Boundless), for which she was nominated for the C. Buddingh’ Prize for the best Dutch-language poetry debut of the year and the Herman de Coninck Prize for the best Dutch-language poetry collection of the year. Here, she talks to Rahael Mathews about translation, multilinguality, and not being bounded to “one place, one language, one life, one role, and one form.”
‘The Children of Nut and Other Myths’: Re-imagining Ancient Egyptian Tales
Published by Takween in 2024, Egyptian novelist Muhamad A. Jamal’s أبناء نوت وأساطير أخرى : حكايات مصرية عتيقة (The Children of Nut and Other Myths: Ancient Egyptian Tales) promises to blow up your understanding of Egyptian myth and mythmaking and put it back together again, as a page-turning delight.