“The horizon stretched endlessly in front of her. Yusra had forgotten the world was so huge. She left the shore farther and farther behind, and thanked God the sea was calm that day. Far off in the distance, far away, she saw Israeli naval patrol ships looming menacingly on the horizon. They were poised like sea monsters, ready to snatch up the fishing boats. She turned away and gazed out even farther, imagining far-off countries she wished she could visit.”
“The residency, set for October, will give Bustani a chance to finish his upcoming book of short stories, to be published by Kotob Khan and launched at the 2018 Cairo International Book Fair.”
“What is wrong with this metaphor?”
“Medium-term goals include book fairs in schools, prisons, and refugee camps. The project’s long-term goals include a radio show and a museum for rare Arabic books.”
“We denounce the systemic prosecution of advocates of sexual and religious freedom.
“We denounce the censorship of artists anywhere in the world.”
“She is the one who has become his widow, and I am a woman of sin who deserves to be stoned, who steals men from the warmth of their homes.”
“This text confronts the translator with extraordinary challenges.”
The judges…noted in a prepared statement that each finalist had “strategically selected their language of translation and was to some extent self-taught.”
Jordanian author-blogger Fadi Zaghmout and translator Ruth Ahmedzai Kemp are set to launch the English translation of Zaghmout’s debut in a tour subtitled “Sexual Freedoms and Body Rights in the Middle East.”
Last November, The Perception of Meaning was chosen as a co-winner of the University of Arkansas Award for the Translation of Arabic Literature; now a bilingual edition of the book by Hisham Bustani, trans. Thoraya El-Rayyes, is coming from Syracuse University Press this fall.
“The collection has…an unusual near-balance between men’s stories and women’s.”
“Chreiteh…takes not just the license to portray a gay character as fully rounded, but to mock her two leads as one would mock oneself.”
