An Excerpt from Jan Dost’s ‘A Green Bus Leaving Aleppo’
A Red Crescent flag fluttered from the small ambulance that arrived, parking beside the green bus where Abu Layla sat with the rest of the fighters and civilians and women and men and children.
From ArabLit Quarterly
‘Have You Seen Afifa, Have You Seen Latifa?’ Recovering History Through Folktales
Every year, we run a special holiday gift on December 25. This year, it’s an essay from our most popular edition, the ArabLit Quarterly FOLK issue,
Goodbye, Hello: The BEGIN AGAIN issue of ArabLit Quarterly
“And although beginnings have the better reputation, a beginning also serves to close off other possibilities. The ending, meanwhile, opens them up.”
‘Matters of National Football’
In honor of today’s match, we’re running this essay from our beloved FOOTBALL issue, by Moroccan author Yassin Adnan, translated by Moroccan translator Hicham Rafik, with photographs by Moroccan photographer Omar Mesrar.
From the WEDDINGS Issue: ‘The Grim Symbolism of Weddings in Algerian Oral Literature’
“Grim Symbolism” is one of the essays included in the Fall 2022 issue of ArabLit Quarterly.
A Poem from ALQ: Fowziyah Abu Khalid’s ‘Wedding’
“I’ve been dreaming of a wedding since the splash of / the first wet ink”
With Joy & Glad Tidings: The WEDDINGS Issue of ArabLit Quarterly
Performers and performance are also central to weddings, both for their ability to entertain and to temporarily violate social norms.
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”
#WiTMonth Fiction: ‘The Sharp Bend at Al-Bakur’
This story, from Najwa Binshatwan’s acclaimed 2019 collection, An Ongoing Coincidence, won the ArabLit Story Prize that same year in Sawad Hussain’s translation. We re-run it this year as part of Women in Translation Month.