5 Libyan Women Writers Re-shaping the Literary Landscape
“Libyan poet Fatima Mahmoud wrote such powerful things in the 70’s, at the height of Gaddafi’s suppression of the people. Everything she wrote still rings true today.”
Country Focus
An Translated Excerpt from Rania Mamoun’s PEN-support-winning ‘Thirteen Months of Sunrise’
“Then another dog tossed me a piece of bread, half-moldy, and another a piece of raw meat, and another a chicken leg, and another, and another, things I couldn’t make out.”
An Excerpt from Najwa Bin Shatwan’s International Prize for Arabic Fiction-shortlisted ‘Slave Pens’
“Why scrape off my scabbed wound now, Haj Ali? Why prolong tales after the season of their telling has passed?”
On the Khartoum Omnibus: Stories of Sudan’s Cosmopolitanism
“As Max and I read more short stories about Khartoum for the collection, we began to notice that Gaetano’s focus on a bus was far from unique.”
‘The Return’: Hisham Matar’s Greatest Book So Far
“If there is a villain in this book, it is not Muammar Ghaddafi, who we never see. It is his bald son Seif[.]”
Beating — or Joining — Literary Piracy in Sudan
“To start with, a literary work is subject to taxes and customs, whereas a religious book is not.”
Ibrahim al-Koni’s ‘The Scarecrow’: The Death of Settling Down
“Settling is the death of nomads: the scarecrow, then, is the fate of settling down.”
Asia Alfasi’ ‘Extraordinary Tales’: Bringing Together Libya, Scotland, and Manga
Translator Valentina Viene profiles “Muslim Libyan Arab British graphic novelist” Asia Alfasi, who has moved from writing about her identity to, more broadly, life in Libya and Scotland.
‘Confines of the Shadow’: ‘A Passion for the Other, But Not for the Exotic’
“I decided to translate him after reading the first few pages of ‘The Confines of the Shadow,’ so almost immediately.”