Short Fiction: Zuher Karim’s ‘The Awakening of Abdulmonam’
“This is a confusing experience, not intended to be comical in any way, shape, or form.”
Country Focus
An Excerpt from Poet Salah Niazi’s Memoir: ‘Curious Passengers’
“I returned to the compartment and found my seat, which a Syrian now occupied. Beside him was a jolly-looking young man with a hunchback. In the seat across from them was an old woman wrapped in an old blanket, constantly sighing.”
30 Reads: A Month of Iraqi Women Writers
Inspired by the inimitable Nadia Ghanem, who pioneered the “30 Reads” series with a list of recommended books by Algerian women writers, we have put together a look at a diverse list of 30 literary works by 30 different Iraqi women writers, in Arabic and Kurdish, and where possible in English translation.
Focus IRAQ: Canonical Works & New Voices
We asked a number of Iraqi writers, translators, and scholars to put together a list of their highlights from Iraqi literature.
Launching ‘In Focus: IRAQ’
Our first focus is IRAQ, curated by contributor Hend Saeed.
Ali al-Tajer on Book-cover Design and Iraqi Stories
“Sometimes, after an initial agreement with the writer on a certain artwork, I read the text and then suggest some changes in the artwork, so I do some retouching on the work to be more suitable for the book.”
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:
Fiction from Sudan: Abdelaziz Baraka Sakin’s ‘A Veteran Warrior’
“Will they shoot again?” the little girl asks her mother.
Al-Bayati: ‘When I Met al-Sayyab in 1947’
“His illusions, his distant dreams, and his winged fantasies seemed to flutter quietly with emotion and land on his poems, leaving their enchanting colorful feathers on them.”