Kareem James Abu-Zeid on Why *You* Should Apply for a Banff Residency
Yes, he means you. Well, at least if you’re a translator in the Americas or translating an American work. Apologies to non-Americas-based translators of Arabic literature.
On Translation
‘As Detailed A Picture of Ibn Ḥanbal’s World as We’re Likely to Get’
As regular readers already know, I’m a fan of Ibn al-Jawzi’s biography of Ibn Hanbal. Translator Michael Cooperson answered a few questions about the project in a post that originally appeared on the Library of Arabic Literature blog.
If You’re in Cairo: Translation Studies Workshop at Cairo University
On December 9 and 10, the British Academy is sponsoring a Translation Studies workshop at Cairo University in the English Department to help launch a new MA in Translation Studies
Do Muslim Female Characters Need Saving?
I returned from travels yesterday to find a copy of Lila Abu-Lughod’s new book, Do Muslim Women Need Saving? The ideas Abu-Lughod raises, at least in the sections I have read thus far, dovetail with Adam Talib’s musings in “Translating for Bigots.”
‘Syria Speaks’ Wins PEN Promotes Award, Grant for Boualem Sansal’s ‘Harraga’
English PEN announced their latest set of translation awards, which features — as the news release note — works from over 27 languages, “27 languages from Arabic to Zapotec.”
In the Room at the Poetry Translation Centre: Reading al-Saddiq al-Raddi
Last week in London, the Poetry Translation Centre held another of its collaborative poetry translation workshops. Clarissa Aykroyd was there and shares her impressions.
On Collaboratively Translating Arabic: ‘We Don’t Want To Do the Notes’
It was nearly a year ago that Library of Arabic Literature stalwarts Devin Stewart, Chip Rossetti, James Montgomery, Joe Lowry, Richard Sieburth, Michael Cooperson, Julia Bray, Philip Kennedy — with an absent Tahera Qutbuddin — met in Abu Dhabi to discuss Caliphs and Consorts, a forthcoming translation of anecdotes and poetry collected in Ibn al-Sa’i’s Nisaʾ al-khulafa. But it’s only now that the discussion, of poetry and collaborative translation, has been posted online.
Arabic Literature, French Readers
This Tuesday, AL starts a new series, “Arabic Literature in X,” where X = any non-English and non-Arabic language. It begins with observations from acclaimed French translator, critic, and thinker Richard Jacquemond, who has translated more than a dozen books from Arabic into French, including Zaat and Amreekanli.
Does Translation Make for ‘Literature Without Style’?
The English language seems, generally, to have a greater anxiety about translation than do others. It is not just bringing other works into translation (which we do rather sparely) or translating out (which we do a lot, but with occasional hand-wringing) it is the fact of translation’s existence, and how it affects literature.