"Celebrated novelist and short-story writer Ghassan Kanafani was born on this day in 1936. Almost fifty years have passed since his assassination at the age of just 36."
An Excerpt from Mahmoud Shukair’s ‘Me, My Friend, and the Donkey’
A humorous donkey detective novel for young adults, set in and around Jerusalem.
Born on This Day: 9 Poems by Fadwa Tuqan
Palestinian poet and memoirist Fadwa Tuqan (1917-2003) — whose acclaimed autobiography, A Mountainous Journey, was translated to English by Olive E. Kenny and Naomi Shihab Nye — was born on this day in 1917.
Remembering Mourid: 10 in Translation, Online
A selection from the prose and poetry by Mourid Barghouti available in translation, online.
Beloved Palestinian Poet and Memoirist Mourid Barghouti Dies at 76
Palestinian poet and memoirist Mourid Barghouti -- widow of the great Egyptian novelist Radwa Ashour (1946-2014) -- died on February 14, 2021.
In Translation: Ameer Hamad’s ‘The Wooden Castle’
I don’t know when exactly the idea came to me: of building a castle like the ones I’d imagined when reading stories, or like the ones I’d seen in cartoons.
New: Samira Azzam Collection Forthcoming from ALQ Books
"The collection -- being translated by Ranya Abdelrahman -- will draw from the collections published during Azzam's lifetime."
Friday Finds: Excerpt from Rula Jurdi’s ‘Camera Obscura’
Near the end of the excerpt, as Nour falls asleep, she thinks about how her own father "in a matter of days, transformed into an entirely different person."
A Search for Beauty and Appreciation: Kay Heikkinen on Translating ‘Velvet’
" I will never look at rain the same way I used to; the author talks about it as if it were a living being with a will, attacking the earth, and how it has an effect on the streets."
Sunday Submissions: ‘Strange Horizons’ Call for Palestinian Speculative Fiction
They are open for submissions through January 31, 2021.
Aida Bamia on Why ‘My First and Only Love’ Was Such An Emotional Translation Experience
" This novel was the most emotional for me to translate, as it also marked the end of a comfortable childhood for me and my siblings, and the beginning of a life in exile."
Jabra Ibrahim Jabra: ‘Soliloquy of a Modern Faust’
"The wave of days rises / and recedes, bidding farewell to / shells of love and hate / upon the body / resounding with the echoes of words."
