Summer Reads: Basma Alnsour’s “The Time Our Friend Forgot His Phone”
"And so it was out of sheer laziness that he decided to go without his phone for the rest of the day. He assured himself it was safe, and that there was no way it could get stolen. In any case, he could use the landline or his dear wife’s mobile if there was an emergency, and he needed to get hold of family or friends." ...
Summer Reads: ‘And We Still Have the Sea’
"yes, the sea changes colors / drinking the yellow of my doubt and distrust / turning as blue as my melody / my songs and ships set sail on its scattered waves" ...
Summer Reads: ‘The Crime of Translation’
"But in a broader sense, crime as transgression takes in a spate of ideas, images, and conceits from Arabic literature." ...
Summer Reads: Rym Jalil’s ‘My Mother’s Kitchen’
"Every day I lie and say / I know this place. / My mother's kitchen / brims with afflictions / I must pretend to befriend it / we all know it can have only one master / from its beginning to its end" ...
Summer Reads: ‘On Fiction’s Uneaten Meals’: A Talk with Donia Kamal
" Cooking is a central way in which the narrator feels; it reflects her state of mind and how she perceives the events and people around her. So it was more important for me to write about the process of making the food rather than about people eating it." ...
Summer Reads: ‘The Song of the Banu Sasan’
This summer, we will run select pieces from summer issues of ArabLit Quarterly. This excerpt from a tenth-century poem by Abu Dulaf, translated by Brad Fox, ran in the summer 2020 CRIME issue of the magazine ...
Summer Reads: ‘Nobody Mourns the City’s Cats’
This summer, we will run select pieces from summer issues of ArabLit Quarterly. This short story, by author Muhammad El-Hajj, tr. author-translator Yasmine Zohdi, ran in the summer 2019 SEA issue of the magazine, available as PDF, e-pub, and in print ...
From the RAIN Issue: Mohamed Makhzangi’s ‘The Water Cords’
It will be a small miracle if you receive this letter of mine, which I’m writing on a day I skipped from our tour in the forest ...
Launching the Spring 2023 RAIN Issue of ArabLit Quarterly: ‘Pouring All Night Long’
Find the driving rhythm of rain, the prayers to make rain come (and leave), art, poetry, short stories and more in this issue of ArabLit Quarterly ...
An Excerpt from Jan Dost’s ‘A Green Bus Leaving Aleppo’
A Red Crescent flag fluttered from the small ambulance that arrived, parking beside the green bus where Abu Layla sat with the rest of the fighters and civilians and women and men and children. ...
