Emerging Sudanese author Mansour El Souwaim has received a number of plaudits. He was named one of the “Beirut39” in 2009, one of the top 39 Arab authors under 40, won the Tayeb Salih award for his second novel, and was selected to participate in the 2009 International Prize for Arabic Fiction nadwa. Souwaim has a new novel out, The Last Sultan, which Nassir Elsayed Elnour says “calls on us to rethink history.”
Translator Max Shmookler, who is currently co-editing a collection of Sudanese short stories with ArabLit contributor Raphael Cormack, explores the tension between what Sudanese readers think is a great story and the story that will appear “great” in English translation.
This is part two to eminent and pioneering translator Denys Johnson-Davies’ reflections on Tayeb Salih, after the passing of would’ve been Tayeb Salih’s eighty-fifth birthday. Here, Johnson-Davies returns to Salih’s work, particularly his most famous novel, and what stands as Salih’s real and lasting achievement.
As what would’ve been Tayeb Salih’s eighty-fifth birthday passes, eminent and pioneering translator Denys Johnson-Davies shares some reflections on his time with Salih when the great Sudanese novelist first joined the Arabic section of the BBC in London.
Amir Tag Elsir (@amirelsir), longlisted for the 2014 International Prize for Arabic Fiction for his novel 366, was previously shortlisted for his novel The Grub Hunter (in 2011), which was translated into English by William Hutchins. Elsir was born in Sudan in 1960 and currently works as a physician in Doha, Qatar. He talked to ArabLit’s M. Lynx Qualey about his writing process, the novel 366, and the literary scene in Sudan.
Tunisian poet Inas Abassi reviews Amir Tag Elsir’s 366, longlisted for this year’s International Prize for Arabic Fiction.
En Liang Khong recently talked to Sudanese poet Al-Saddiq al-Raddi for the New Statesman; al-Raddi was recently fired as cultural editor of al-Sudani because of his politics. But, he told the NS: “…that won’t stop me from speaking my mind.”
Recently, I’ve been trying to educate myself about literature from the Sudan(s). After all, her historic vote is just one small piece of the Sudan’s rich cultural history.
