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.”
Libya
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?”
‘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[.]”
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.”
10 Translations, 10 Poems from ‘Genius Grant’-ee Khaled Mattawa
Wednesday morning, the MacArthur Foundation announced its list of “Genius Grants.” On the list to receive a no-strings-attached stipend of $625,000 is Libyan poet and translator Khaled Mattawa, who said he plans to use the money to further his translations and take on larger projects.
On Bringing a Benghazi-set ‘Panoptic Masterpiece’ into English
Alessandro Spina — the nom de plume of Benghazi-born author Basili Shafik Khouzam — died last year, two weeks before André Naffis-Sahely came to an agreement with a London publisher to translate his epic “The Confines of the Shadow,” which, Naffis-Sahely writes, “belongs alongside panoptic masterpieces like ‘Buddenbrooks,’ ‘The Man Without Qualities’ and ‘The Cairo Trilogy.'”
A Novel That Represents ‘A Complete Generation of Libyan Writers and Intellectuals’
Libyan poet, translator, and short-story writer Ghazi Gheblawi has been enthusiastically tweeting about Mansour Bushnaf’s “Chewing Gum,” now out in English translation, by Mona Zaki, from Darf Publishers. So, what’s the big deal about “Chewing Gum”?