On Nov. 20, a number of Library of Arabic Literature (LAL) stalwarts will be found at the Penn Bookstore in Philadelphia, giving a talk about “A Corpus, Not a Canon: Translating Classical Arabic for the Modern Reader.”
Issue 51 of Banipal magazine focuses on pioneering Iraqi poet Saadi Youssef, who was born in 1934 near Basra.
Arab authors must engage more with futuristic fiction, al-Mustafa Najjar argues.
Morocco-based writer and educator Nahrain Al-Mousawi explores the development — and future — of Arabic prison literature.
How does a translator re-create the effect of “distancing” a writer without pushing the reader to give up on the text? Ghada Mourad explores Marilyn Booth’s translation of Lebanese novelist Hassan Daoud’s “The Penguin’s Song.”
How do we place ourselves here, on the teeter-totter continuum of using Arabic literature as a prop for discussion of “wider issues” to the engagement of beautiful books on their own terms, or rather on the terms that translation and editing and criticism have set for them?
“Mahmoud captured worlds that have disappeared: the Baghdad of his youth and Prague under communism. His style was uniquely his own and his voice was always clearly identifiable.”
How do Gulf women writers adopt — or challenge — nationalist narratives?
Last Monday, the Emirates Literature Foundation launched the Dubai International Writers’ Centre (DIWC) to “support aspiring writers and host inspiring literary events.”
