"For my grandmother, her father was a martyr in the glorious battle of Annual. She convinced herself of this, and she believed it."
Friday Finds: Conor Bracken Translates the Late Mohammed Khaïr-Eddine
"Time fled past the trashcans. Zodiac partied hard with long and bloody fireflies."
Winners of 2019 Prix du Maroc du Livre in French, Arabic, Tamazight
Awards were given in seven categories, including: poetry, prose, children's literature, and translation.
On Publication Day for ‘Shimmering Red Fish,’ 5 of Youssef Fadel’s Favorites
To mark publication day, Youssef Fadel sent five of his favorite reads: one from Jordan and four from Morocco; two available in translation and three not yet translated to English.
2019 IWP Residents Include Soukaina Habiballah, Amira-Géhanne Khalfallah
This year, two IWP residents come from neighboring Maghrebi nations.
Friday Finds: Excerpt of Youssef Fadel’s ‘A Shimmering Red Fish’
"The man is stretched out on his bed. He’d rather not know who the woman is whose body is underneath it."
Poet and Novelist Mohcine Akhrif Dies by Electric Shock at Book Event
Moroccan poet and novelist Mohcine Akhrif (1979-2019) died Sunday at a regional book fair in the northern city of Tetouan.
Friday Finds: Zrika’s ‘Sun Tearing the Page’s Flesh’
The second, "Mice in the Wardrobe of Solitude," closes with a gorgeous, terrifying image of the world as a refrigerator, which, when opened, gives off nothing: "but the odor / of the white / rotted by the ice."
Ahmed Bouanani’s ‘The Hospital’ Makes BTBA Longlist
No book translated from the Arabic made either the poetry or fiction longlists of the 2019 Best Translated Book Award (BTBA), announced yesterday.
PEN Finalists: Translations of Mikhail’s ‘The Beekeeper’ & Bouanani’s ‘The Shutters’
The winners will be celebrated at the 2019 PEN America Literary Awards Ceremony on February 26 in NYC.
Friday Finds: ‘The Earth Opens and Welcomes You,’ by Abdellatif Laâbi
"The earth opens / and welcomes you / Why these cries, these tears / these prayers. / What have they / lost / What are they looking for / those who disturb/ Your new-found peace?"
Book Review: ‘Marrakech Noir,’ Edited by Yassin Adnan
"The 15 stories in Marrakech Noir are translated from Arabic, French and Dutch, and the crimes within are suited to a city where extreme wealth and poverty brush shoulders. There are women fleecing men, youths fleecing elders, guides fleecing tourists, and stories where everyone is trying to cheat everyone else."
