“The project brings together ten poets from the Arab world, Spain and Catalonia, selected by a committee of experts from the Arab world and Spain, and invites them to compose works on a specified theme. These are then translated by a team of professional translators in a workshop that is held in Barcelona.”
“It allows me to be even more creative, I think, than I could be when translating modern prose. There’s such a divide that needs to be crossed by the translator, and that’s where the creativity comes in.”
“Only poetry submissions in English will be considered. However, translated works are accepted, with a percentage of the prize awarded to the translator.”
“There are only three non-Omani writers: Egyptian Mohammed Abdel Qahar, Moroccan Mohsen Akhrif, and Tunisian Nabil Gueddiche.”
“The captain was well aware of the battle taking place in Saed’s mind and he intensified his assault, switching between encouragement and threats. Saed braced himself, finding ways to keep his body moving, choking back the breakfast that was surging up from his stomach toward his mouth.”
“The further I got into the process of translating, the more important it began to seem that my text be able to do the work of topography — the writing of place — needed to make Beirut intelligible as a spatial configuration to Anglophone readers.”
The story is interesting for several reasons. It shows this Arabic cultural journal (marketed outside the US as much as within it) taking an interest in the American issues of the day – Prohibition had been brought in at the beginning of 1920. It is also an early example of modern Arabic speculative fiction. Most of all, it is a fun little story and glimpse into Jacob Raphael’s 1920s Arabic publishing venture.
Author J.C. Michaels recently visited Cairo to talk with audiences about the Arabic translation of his YA novel Firebelly: By Yasmine Motawy J. C. Michaels, the author of the award-winning and […]
Today, the book at the center of the case officially appears in Ben Koerber’s translation, published by University of Texas Press.
