‘History of Ash’: A Discussion on Light, Darkness, and Writing and Translating the Political Prisoner
By M Lynx Qualey Published this month by Hoopoe Fiction, History of Ash is a fictional prison account narrated in turns by Mouline and Leila, both imprisoned for their political activities during Morocco's "Years of Lead," a period in the 1970s and '80s characterized by heavy-handed state repression. The novel, published in 2000, arrived during a new period, when authors and former prisoners were beginning to narrate their experiences. Earlier this week, we ran an excerpt from the novel, tr. Alex Elinson, and a list of Arab prison narratives compiled by Elinson and ArabLit staff. Today, we have a three-way conversation about History of Ash that brings together author and translator. Khadija, one of the things that really struck me about the political ...
Arab Women of Words: Conversation With 9 Industry Leaders
For this year’s Women in Translation Month, we wanted to introduce readers to a few of the women in key roles across the publishing industries across countries in the Maghreb and Mashreq ...
Researching the Past: A Conversation with Iman Mersal
It's publication week for Traces of Enayat. Read an excerpt from the book, an excerpt from Enayat al-Zayyat's Love & Silence, and, here, a conversation with the author. By Tugrul Mende In Iman Mersal’s award-winning Traces of Enayat, translated by Robin Moger and published by And Other Stories, she takes the reader on a journey to discover who Enayat al-Zayyat (1936-63) was. In her genre-encompassing book, Mersal works to uncover the mystery of Enayat by going through personal and official archives, helping us understand the life of Enayat and the times in which she was living. In this interview, Mersal talks about the process of writing about Enayat and what it meant to be a woman writer in Cairo in the 1960s. When ...
On Translating Khaled Khalifa: A Conversation with Leri Price
By Tugrul Mende This July, Khaled Khalifa‘s No One Prayed Over Their Graves was published in Leri Price‘s translation. Price has several long-term relationships with authors. Her second book by Samar Yazbek is coming out next year, and this was her fourth translation of a novel by Khalifa. No One Prayed Over Their Graves is a historical novel set in early 20th century Aleppo. In this conversation, Leri Price talks about the process of translating this novel, working with Khaled Khalifa and where this book fits in his overall oeuvre, and lastly she shares advice for emerging translators. How different was your process in translating this novel, vs. his other novels? Leri Price: I think because this is the fourth ...
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." ...
From ‘Russian-Arab Literary Worlds,’ A Talk with Khalil Alrez
"The zoo in the Russian quarter is not Russian. Like any zoo in the world, it is a place of estrangement where animals reside far from their natural habitats and countries of origin." ...
Sherif Meleka on ‘Suleiman’s Ring,’ the Challenges of Fictionalizing Gamal Abdel Nasser, and Being a Doctor-Writer
"And then this thought crossed my mind like a bolt of lightning: what if I had the legendary Ring of Solomon? What could I do with it to improve Egypt’s fate? " ...
A Talk with Publishing House Dar Naufal on the ‘Naufal Novel,’ Their Top Sellers, & Where They’re Finding Readers
Rana Hayeck, the editor-in-chief of Naufal imprint at Hachette Antoine, answered a few questions about the house, with a cameo from Naufal’s community-engagement specialist Hoda Marmar, who answers a question about social media ...
Nada Faris on Why She Stopped Avoiding Translation & Bringing Bothayna Al-Essa’s ‘Lost in Mecca’ into English
" I often avoided translation events because of the ways in which propaganda often slipped into discussions. Even the most liberal and well-meaning teachers were guilty of claiming that the Arabic language is more beautiful and more complex than all other languages and that Arabic poetry is incomparable and thus untranslatable." ...
Going ‘Inside the Giant Fish’ with Rawand Issa and Amy Chiniara
Maamoul Press recently released an English edition of Rawand Issa’s graphic novel في بطن الحوت (now Inside the Giant Fish) in Amy Chiniara’s translation. This powerful, short graphic novel pairs and parallels the story of privatizing public beaches in El Jiyeh, Lebanon with the effect of living in distant Canada, multiplying the effect of alienation and frustration. In the end, the only wide-open, multi-colored space that remains accessible to the narrator is her imagination, which still cannot be fenced off and privatized, thank God. Rawand Issa has published several graphic novels (The Insubordinate is available in a bilingual edition from Maamoul) in work that often blends the political and personal. Amy Chiniara is an illustrator and graphic designer and has ...
