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Rehab Bassam on Publishing, Writing, and Translating Arabic Children’s Literature
November 17, 2021 @ 11:30 am - 12:30 pm
Rehab Bassam is a seasoned wordsmith with many hats. The hat she thinks suits her most is that of a translator and editor of children’s books. She has worked in translation for several sectors, but translating children’s books is her passion, although a very challenging one. Over ten years, Rehab worked for one of Egypt’s largest publishing houses – Dar El Shorouk, as a translator, editor, and publishing manager; with a special focus on children’s books. She had the privilege of working with numerous authors and illustrators of children’s books, in Egypt and the Arab world.
Rehab translated some of the Mr Men and Little Miss titles into Arabic, like Mr Tickle and Little Miss Sunshine. Recently, two of her translated books, All About Feelings and All About Friends, were among the children nonfiction bestsellers at the Cairo Book Fair 2021 over the summer. Moreover, she edited a 10-book series titled “Our Folktales”, that will be published soon by Makouk.
Rehab is currently based in Newcastle, UK, where she teaches Arabic in an engaging and fun way to children under her franchise of the Kalamna Arabic School. She collaborated and edited a 10-book series of the Kalamna PhonicsTM graded readers to help children read Arabic. Rehab used to be a prolific blogger that her online writings got edited and published in a small pink book titled “Rice Pudding for Two” (Dar El Shorouk, 2008). One of her short stories got published and translated by Mada Masr. More recently, two additional short stories got translated and published by ArabLit Quarterly. Rehab holds a BA in English Literature from Ain Shams University and studied written and simultaneous translation at the American University in Cairo.
