Translating Arabic Polyglossia
In this “BETWEEN TWO ARABIC TRANSLATORS” conversation, Yasmeen Hanoosh and Jonathan Wright discuss Wright's start in literary translation, its divergence from the sort of translation he practiced as a journalist, and his ideas about what he calls Arabic polyglossia ...
On ‘Fighting Ideological Fantasy with Fiction’
Several authors who contributed short stories to the collection spoke about their thoughts on the collapse of time, historical continuities and the notion of fighting ideological fantasy with fiction ...
Listening to Voices with Hoda Barakat
This is part of an interview with the Lebanese author Hoda Barakat that took place on September 30 2025. It has been translated from French and edited for clarity and length. You can also listen to the BULAQ episode based on this interview, in which we also discuss Barakat’s unique life journey and works ...
In Translation: Blurring the Line Between the Real and the Ludicrous
This December 15, Dar Arab is set to publish Belal Fadl’s The Completely True Tales of Um Mimi and Shari The Adulterer, brought to English by first-time translator Osama Hammad. This darkly humorous coming-of-age is set in a grittily, over-the-top, darkly funny 1990s Cairo. It was originally published in Arabic in 2021 and longlisted for the International Prize for Arabic Fiction in 2022. Here, Hammad talks about how he came to translate this novel, the challenges of translating humor, and what makes this novel so special ...
Translation, Politics, and Solidarity
In this “BETWEEN TWO ARABIC TRANSLATORS” conversation, Yasmeen Hanoosh and Michelle Hartman discuss how the conceptual framework of solidarity raises important questions about translation, what it means to share (or not share) political commitments with an author, and ways of making co-translation equitable ...
‘Llegir Palestina’: Making a Space to Read About Palestine
The book club “Llegir Palestina” (“Read Palestine” in Catalan) has been a success in Catalunya’s public libraries; next, organizers plan to offer workshops to library staff and volunteers on how to start up their own “Read Palestine” books clubs. ...
Wilding Language: Salim Barakat Between a Kurdish Heart and an Arabic Voice
In this “BETWEEN TWO ARABIC TRANSLATORS” conversation, Yasmeen Hanoosh and Mahmoud Hosny Roshdy discuss the idea of untranslatability (and perhaps, by extension, unreadability) and the work Salim Barakat, and why, if a translation were complete and perfect, this might mean that the work was born dead ...
Coming Next Month: The 2025 Palestinian Liberatory Book Fair
The second Palestinian Liberatory Book Fair is set to take place October 17-19. The PLBF promises three days of interviews, talks, panels, workshops and readings centering the Palestinian struggle; organizers answered a few questions about this year's fair ...
New on BULAQ: The Life & Work of Inji Efflatoun
In this episode of BULAQ, co-hosts Ursula Lindsey and M Lynx Qualey speak to Ahmed Gobba and Avery Gonzales, co-translators of Efflatoun’s 1993 memoir, The Memoir of Inji Efflatoun: From Childhood to Prison ...
An Exciting New Lebanese Voice, Now in French
This October will see the release of Lebanese writer Souhaib Ayoub’s second novel, Le Loup de la famille (The Wolf of the Family), in Stéphanie Dujols’ translation. Originally published as Zi’b al-‘a’ila in 2024 by Hachette Antoine/Naufal, the French publication is an event for several reasons, not least because an exciting new voice has arrived in French ...
