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.”
Poetry
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.”
In/for Translation: 5 Arab Women Playwrights
The “In/for Translation” series — set to run Tuesdays in August — focuses on work by women that we recommend either in or for English translation. Here, work by five Arab women playwrights.
On Hanane Hajj Ali’s ‘Jogging’: Sex, Prime Ministers, and Running in Circles
On the night I saw the play, for example, Ali paused in the middle of describing an unpleasant sex dream about Fouad Al-Seniora—the former Minister of Finance and prime minister of Lebanon—to ask who the equivalent, physically unappealing politician in England would be; she received a chorus of “Boris Johnson!” from the audience.
Special for #WiTMonth: Stella Gaitano’s ‘Withered Flowers’
Anyone who becomes a Patreon subscriber to ALQ during the month of August also gets a copy of Stella Gaitano’s limited-edition, almost-impossible-to-acquire Withered Flowers, in Arabic or English, while supplies last.
Friday Finds: Omayma Abdullah’s ‘The Route Through Purgatory’
“As far as the eye could see, the sands swelled in every direction, wild and silent. It even felt like they were stealthily watching us.”
Sunday Submissions: Lunch Ticket’s Amuse-Bouche Closes July 31
They charge no fees.
Friday Finds: 13 Poems by Youssef Rakha
“& I didn’t taste her lips / & company didn’t show until the final day I filled the space that’s for your body / consciously or lost”