Announcing the Shortlist for 2020 ArabLit Story Prize
This year’s shortlisted stories — selected blindly, as in past years — were chosen by Hilal Chouman, Donia Kamal, and 2019 ArabLit Story Prize winning translator Sawad Hussain.
News
Bulaq 55: ‘Ten Out of Ten’
Following a month-long break, BULAQ co-hosts M Lynx Qualey and Ursula Lindsey put together a list of 10 books they plan to discuss this fall.
‘Readings for the City of Shattered Glass’: Support Lebanese Theater
“We are in such a critical situation that we are inverting the role of theater: instead of having that art form as a tool to reflect on society, to convey social order, to incite rebellion or revolution, and most of all justice in times of crisis, what we are striving for at the moment is to gather the dismantled pieces of a very vivid theatrical scene in Lebanon. It is our particular role now to keep theater and theatermakers alive and dignified.”
Virtual ‘Arabic Book Cover Archive’ Showcases Range of Styles
Starting with the first post in February of this year, a team of volunteers from across the region started scanning and posting images to Instagram as a start at an archive tracing the shifts and movements in Arabic cover design.
Two Books Translated from Arabic Make 2020 NTA Prose Longlist
Yesterday, the American Literary Translators Association (ALTA) announced the longlists for the 2020 National Translation Awards (NTA) in Poetry and Prose. Two works translated from Arabic — a novel and a collection of interlinked short stories — made the twelve-book longlist for prose.
2020 Arab American Book Awards Include Award’s First-ever Prize for Graphic Memoir
“This is the only award that could possibly matter to me, as anyone who has read ‘When We Were Arabs’ is well aware.”
Former ‘Arabic Booker’ Winners, Jury Members Call on Prize to Stop Taking UAE Gov’t Money
On August 26, 2020, a group of 17 former winners, shortlistees, jury members, and former members of the International Prize for Arabic Fiction Board of Trustees called on the prize to stop accepting Emirati government funding, or any government funding, in light of the UAE-Israel “Abraham Accord” announced August 13, 2020.
Trading Misery for Death: The Tragic Death of a Sudanese Poet
“Let me hold you to my breast, / I have plenty of room. / Let me wash the dirt of misery off your soul.”
Khaled Khalifa Awarded the 2021 Banipal Visiting Writer Fellowship
Khaled Khalifa is set to arrive in Durham on January 11, 2021. During the term, he’s expected to engage in literary activity with writers and readers in Durham, the North East of England, and other parts of the UK, in addition to pursuing his work-in-progress.