By Arab Women: 6 New Books for Young Readers in Translation
It’s probably not particularly surprising that of the six new Arabic books for young readers that are available in English translation in 2019, six have been written by women.
Poetry
Nayrouz Qarmout on Writing, Pessimism, and How ‘Fear Kills Women’
“But despite all this pain and pressure, women’s creativity is a reason for survival.”
On Raja Alem’s ‘Sarab’ & Translating an Arabic Book Not Published in Arabic
“I was honoured to work on this for many reasons, but I have to say that Raja’s process of not publishing the Arabic first really felt like a mark of faith in what translators can do, and recognition of the different value they can bring to a text.”
Selected: 10 Arabic Short Stories by Women, in Translation, Online
Each Women in Translation Month (#WiTMonth), ArabLit selects 10 Arabic short stories by women, in translation, online.
Hend Ja’far: Short Storycraft and Reading the Obituaries in Egypt
“It’s a vicious cycle, but if I were a publisher, I think I would bet on popular, low-cost, low-quality editions. That way, fraud would no longer be profitable for them.”
Tomorrow is Pub Day for Dominique Eddé’s ‘Edward Said: His Thoughts as a Novel’
“‘I was very moved’, came his voice down the line. ‘But you’re not cruel enough to me D. You’ve protected me. Your novel suffers from that. And you don’t understand, you haven’t written how much I loved you. Mali loves Farid more than he loves her. Farid isn’t me.’”
Friday Finds: Poetry by 2 Iraqi Women, Adapted to English
In “Definitions” all my editorial decisions were guided by the speaker’s urge to define. The raw translation: “My tale, a maiden/ Not led by innocence” became “My story? I’m a girl/ tempted.”
For Your Syllabus: Teaching Arab Women’s Writing in Translation
“[W]e ended up reading only men for two reasons: 1. the availability of translations the library was able to obtain, ordered from overseas; and 2. my own ignorance of Arab women writers and masculine practice in reading.”
Ibtisam Azem on the ‘Power of the Silenced Story’
“[T]he red notebook, which has fragments from the oral history and memory of a Palestinian woman, and her grandson, will be beyond Ariel’s control. It is the power of the silenced or unheard story, that will never disappear.”