‘Black’: A Short Memoir by Hoda Salem
“This, too, felt like an insult, despite the fact that I have never identified as either Sudanese or Egyptian.”
Nonfiction
The Two Autobiographies: Salim Barakat Bleeding in Forgotten Places
Salim fans can rejoice now to see this pure marvel — mad and dangerous writing full of poetry — that will be available in bookstores again.
Poet Mourid Barghouti on His Wife, Novelist Radwa Ashour (1946-2014)
The relationship between Palestinian poet Mourid Barghouti and Egyptian novelist Radwa Ashour — as traced through their literary works — is one of the twentieth century’s great love stories.
Snapshots from a Life: Egyptian Novelist Radwa Ashour, 1946-2014
Photos and quotes from Egyptian novelist Radwa Ashour (1946-2014).
Tayeb Salih’s ‘Season of Migration to the North’: Acclaimed for the Wrong Reason
This is part two to eminent and pioneering translator Denys Johnson-Davies’ reflections on Tayeb Salih, after the passing of would’ve been Tayeb Salih’s eighty-fifth birthday. Here, Johnson-Davies returns to Salih’s work, particularly his most famous novel, and what stands as Salih’s real and lasting achievement.
Denys Johnson-Davies on How Tayeb Salih Got His Start
As what would’ve been Tayeb Salih’s eighty-fifth birthday passes, eminent and pioneering translator Denys Johnson-Davies shares some reflections on his time with Salih when the great Sudanese novelist first joined the Arabic section of the BBC in London.
‘Silence for the Sake of Gaza,’ Mahmoud Darwish
Ibrahim Muhawi’s translation of Journal of an Ordinary Grief (Ar: 1973, Eng: 2010) is dedicated to the people of Gaza. This is from the section “Silence for the Sake of Gaza”:
Hisham Matar: On the Novelist and Dictatorship
Libyan creative writer Hisham Matar writes as if he dreams; no detail is without a symbol or an emotional function.