Poetry

International poetry star Hissa Hilal did not win the Million’s Poet finals two weeks ago. But was this because she wasn’t the best poet—or because she didn’t have a big […]

I have heard and read a lot about the West’s sudden interest in Arabic literature: it’s The Yacoubian Building, it’s 9/11, it’s the International Prize for Arabic Fiction, and now […]

I can’t find anyone blogging from the festival. Guardian editor Claire Armistead is (tweeting? is that the accepted verb?), but too sporadically and personally to give a view of the […]

There are lots of things that irritate me: the plastic wrap publishers put on their books here in Cairo so that I can’t thumb through the first few pages; sloppy, […]

According to Al Hayat, Ha’aretz, and Guardian editor Claire Armistead’s Twitter account, author and Beirut39 winner Ala Hlehel has thus far been unable to get to Beirut. Now the refusal […]

Well, that’s wrong. I can’t comment on the whole list, as I was only really familiar with the Arab lit on the longlist (Madman of Freedom Square (Hassan Blasim), Sunset […]

Two interesting pieces this week address what the new Arabic-English publishing venture, Bloomsbury Qatar Foundation Publishing (BQFP), has got up its bilingual sleeves. From Chip Rosetti in Publishing Perspectives: “We […]

It’s our friends at Kikah. They have a rundown of what to expect in the issue. It includes an excerpt from Mahdi Issa al-Saqr’s new book in English, available soon […]

If you’re Youssef al Mohaimeed, author of Munira’s Bottle and Wolves of the Crescent Moon, this: I worked hard to teach myself. I have read many psychology books about women. […]