Luqman Derky: ‘Knocking on Freedom’s Door’
“Do the players belong to the police force or the thieves?” one of our failed players asked. “The thieves, you moron,” our always-angry coach said.
From ArabLit Quarterly
From ALQ: Football Chants and a Football-issue Playlist
“This chant reflects the intersections of football, politics, socioeconomics, migration, and the feelings of hogra. For those who want to escape the ills of the homeland, the wooden boat is often a symbol of their freedom.”
On Poets and Stadiums: Announcing the Fall 2021 FOOTBALL-themed Issue of ArabLit Quarterly
“When Naguib Mahfouz was a boy, he tells us, two paths lay before him. There was the path of the literature he loved to read and write. He could take that path and become a distinguished author. There was also the path of the football he loved to play and the footballers he admired. He could take that, it was said, and become a member of the Egyptian Olympic football team.”
From ArabLit Quarterly: Naguib Mahfouz’s ‘The Man in the Picture’
“Sheikhun Muharram disappeared.”
New Poetry: Rym Jalil’s ‘My Mother’s Kitchen’
“Every day I lie and say / I know this place. / My mother’s kitchen / brims with afflictions / I must pretend to befriend it / we all know it can have only one master / from its beginning to its end”
Fiction from the Magazine: Raghad Qasim’s ‘Hair or No Hair’
“The no-hair phenomenon certainly has a backstory. “
‘Arsène Lupin,’ a Short Story by Sonallah Ibrahim
“His mouth discharged a second snort. I worried he might attack me, or tear me apart, but he settled his body back into the chair and sighed. “
‘THE KITCHEN’ Issue: Food Fictions and Poetry, Family Histories, Table Manners & More
The Summer 2021 issue of ArabLit Quarterly is available in print and digital formats.
Publication Day for ArabLit Quarterly’s Spring 2021 Issue: SONG
The Spring 2021 issue of ArabLit Quarterly — with voices moist and cricketlike, stirring and gritty, ploverlike and tremulous — is available today in print and e-form.