‘Can We Get in Touch with You?’ Short Fiction by Mai Al-Maghribi
In this short fiction by Mai Al-Maghribi, the narrator has dreams of art but doesn’t have the connections and gets dragged into an uncle’s tannery business.
Egypt
New Short Fiction: ‘You Know Nothing of Love, Dumbass’
You Know Nothing of Love, Dumbass By Kareem Mohsen Translated by Mandy McClure We sat side by side in the restaurant. I made sure our knees were touching to create […]
Sarah Enany on Living — And Making a Living — As a Translator in Egypt
Sarah Enany is a Banipal Prize-winning literary translator (for her translation of Rasha Adly’s The Girl with Braided Hair) and a professor in the English Department of Cairo University. She […]
Early 20th Century Short Fiction in Translation: Muhammad Taymour’s ‘A Boy Who Became a Man’
This short story originally appeared in Muhammad Taymour’s collection What the Eyes Can See (1922), and this story was written in 1917. It recounts events in the life a fictional […]
Sunday Submissions: Rowayat’s ‘Faith’ Issue & Bread Loaf Writers’ Conference
Egyptian magazine Rowayat has opened submissions for its sixth issue, ‘Faith’, and applications for Middlebury’s Bread Loaf Writers’ Conference are also now open.
From ALQ: A Playlist for the Underground Music Scene of Post-Revolutionary Egypt
“Hey little brittle Balaha dates
Your four years have passed by in disgrace
We’ve been too long with your grace
And we’re sick of your dumb face”
New Short Fiction: ‘Invisible,’ by Taha Sewedy
“In the not-too-distant past, more or less thirty autumns ago, his mother had given him the mirror, which she named The Moon’s Face.”
13 Books in Translation: A Literary History of Egypt After 2011
These thirteen books (six novels, three works of literary nonfiction, a graphic novel, a poetry collection, a short-story collection, and a collection of playtexts) provide a not-insubstantial literary landscape of contrasting visions and emotions:
9 Short Stories by Egyptian Women, in Translation
Although this list does include short stories by Radwa Ashour and Salwa Bakr, it largely focuses on work by women writers who emerged in the ’90s, ’00s, and ’10s.