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The best of the short stories and poetry recently translated from Arabic and published online.

Yet of the books arriving in English translation this year, these five “PEN Promotes” winners are among those you are most likely to see reviewed in your local broadsheet and to trip over in your local bookstore.

Events that touch on Arab and Arabic literatures happening around the world.

“This was a man who wanted to write a book, and he wanted to write it the way he wanted to write it. He may have had all sorts of unconscious models in his mind, but this was an enterprise that was not trammeled by what it should be and what it should be called.”

If you’re in London, or can get there, synchronize your calendar with these events.

“I lost inspiration for three years, only to recover it in my small frigid box — cell 5, ward 23.”

“The Upper Egyptian events were supposed to be financially backed by the Egyptian Ministry of Culture, as had been promised when Gaber Asfour was the minister. But with the recent change of ministers, the fund was cancelled with the new staff.”

“Age manipulation can make entire families physically appear to be of a single generation: such is the case with the Christian community of Fuhais, who in a literalist reading of the Bible have all decided to live their lives in the same blissful childhood state.”

“The idea was that the readers who were informed would know which author was intended without having to be told. Especially when authors were criticizing contemporaries or scholars of recent memory, oblique criticism was considered to show more finesse.”