Egyptian Books Now in English: Nov/Dec 2009
Fiction Cairo Swan Song, Mekkawi Said. This book was shortlisted for the Arabic Booker in 2007-2008; Said has said in part because of a blog campaign for the book. I […]
Poetry
MLA Translation Award Will Go to Haydar, Beard for Translation of Adonis (Ali Ahmad Said)
The MLA apparently will present a major translation award to Dr. Michael Beard (University of North Dakota) and Adnan Haydar (University of Arkansas) for their transation of Adonis’s Mihyar of […]
Beyond Prurience
My interest in Arabic literature follows my interest in all literature: it’s artistic, it’s sympathetic, it’s aesthetic. My ideal book could be Sonallah Ibrahim’s (Egyptian) Stealth, could be W.G. Sebald’s […]
Eid Mubarak, Eid Sayeed
Naguib Mahfouz’s Eid al-Adha reminiscences.
Mahmoud Darwish, on Writing
RS: Do you build on the work of others? MD: Yes. Very much so. I feel that no poem starts from nothing. Humanity has produced such a huge poetic output, […]
Cairo As Book Market
Bikya Masr has an interesting piece about the business of buying books in Cairo, seeming to attribute the rise in book-buying solely to the publication of The Yacoubian Building in […]
The Writing Life, from Sonallah Ibrahim
Ibrahim’s referring to Al-Talasus, out soon as Stealth from Aflame Books. And my God it’s good. A review of the original here. “I don’t expect anything in return for completing […]
Winter reading
Publications will trip over themselves to tell you what to lug to the beach for “summer reading.” But who can concentrate with all that sun? The best time for reading […]