"No writer can take the possession of his or her heart for granted; it seems be a writer's fate that their heart is always at in the hands of others, and others’ hearts clustering around them."
Stella Gaitano, Ibrahim El-Salahi’s Prison Notebook, and Sudanese Uprisings
“I started to record it so as not to forget. Not only for me but for anyone who is innocent and has been imprisoned under false pretenses. Just to remember what can happen.”
On Gender Stereotypes in Sudanese Fiction
"Malkat Addar Mohammad’s الفراغالعريض (The Wide Void) was the first novel by a Sudanese woman that was published in Arabic. Written in the early 1950s, it was only published in 1972."
An Ever-so-short History of the ‘Complex, Capacious’ Sudanese Short Story
The essay "In a Sudan Where Literature is Often Smuggled, the Short Story is a Perfect Form," by ArabLit editor M Lynx Qualey, appears on LitHub.
New Arabic Releases: 3 Recommendations from the RAYA Agency
Yasmina Jraissati at the RAYA Agency is recommending three very different titles for the fall. Two are new releases: a debut novel by Palestinian author Asma al-Atawna and a historical novel by award-winning Sudanese writer Hammour Ziada. The third is a fictionalized biography of Saddam Hussain (1937-2006): The least surprising recommendation is الغرق: حكايات القهر والونس (Drowning), by Naguib … Continue reading New Arabic Releases: 3 Recommendations from the RAYA Agency
Award-winning Film ‘You Will Die at Twenty,’ Based on Hammour Ziada Story
"A while ago, Sudanese film director Amjad Abu Alala, who is a friend of mine, approached me and told me that he wanted to adapt a story I wrote years ago into a film. It was about a Sudanese boy, born in a simple Sudanese village, and a prophecy that foresees his death when he turns 20."
Publication Day for ‘Modern Sudanese Poetry: An Anthology’
From the start, he frames Sudan's poetic landscape as oppositional -- African and Arab, Tropical Forest and Desert -- or as a dual and twined Afro-Arab tradition.
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."
Kamal Al-Jizouli and Sudanese Sound Poetry
"A poem brims first with a forceful downpour, followed by soft, tamed sounds, resembling Khartoum’s twin-Nile miracle where the thundering roar of the Blue Nile meets the sleepy sigh of the White."
Sunday Submissions: Sawti Poetry Prize for work in Arabic, Kiswahili, English
Participating poets are asked to respond to the theme of: "‘Poetry as Preservation’ – Exploring poems that seek to identify, rework and archive narratives of preserving a life, a language, a memory, a history or a practice."
A Talk about Sudanese Short Stories and ‘Thirteen Months of Sunrise’
"There are many writers whose short stories I enjoy. For example, the South Sudanese writer Stella Gaitano, as well as Abdel Aziz Baraka Sakin and Mansour Suwaim. Also Mohsen Khalid—although he hasn’t written for a while."
