Joys and Challenges: On Translating a History of Ramallah
By Samira Meghdessian The importance of historiography lies in ensuring a continuity between past and present, even as bombs erase everything that has been built, as we have witnessed recently in Gaza, or as homes are destroyed and families evicted, as in cities and villages across historic Palestine. Ramallah is not the oldest of Palestinian cities. In her introduction to The Book of Ramallah, author Maya Abu al-Hayyat describes it as “a seemingly modest city ...
From Duna Ghali’s ‘Orbits of Loneliness’
A few years ago, when we asked Egyptian novelist Miral al-Tahawy for a favorite book in Arabic by a woman writer, she said, “Truth is, there is a long list of Arab women’s work that I’m sure was important in the history of my reading, but what I remember is the last text I read that had a profound impact on me, and that’s Duna Ghali’s Orbits of Loneliness (منازل الوحشة), a novel that tells ...
‘Bidayàt’: Aldo Nicosia on a Collection of Beginnings
The forthcoming collection Bidayàt, ed. Aldo Nicosia, brings together the openings of twenty-two different Arabic novels; these are translated into Italian by Nicosia with the help of two other translators. For ArabLit, Nicosia sat down in front of the mirror and conducted a somewhat impertinent interview with himself about the project. Interviewer: Mr. Nicosia, why Bidayàt? What new does it add to the Italian cultural landscape? Aldo Nicosia: Bidayàt is an anthology that, as its ...
Fiction
From Duna Ghali’s ‘Orbits of Loneliness’
A few years ago, when we asked Egyptian novelist Miral al-Tahawy for a favorite book in Arabic by a woman writer, she said, “Truth is, there is a long list of Arab women’s work that I’m sure was important in ...
An Excerpt from Najem Wali’s ‘My Romantic Aunt’
Najem Wali’s 2024 novel My Romantic Aunt, published by Rewayat, follows a man’s relationship with his boundary-breaking aunt. From ‘My Romantic Aunt: Her friends, Her Relationships, and Me’ By Najem Wali Translated by Nada Hodali About Her My “Romantic Aunt.” Whoever ...
An Excerpt of Abdulaziz al-Saqabi’s ‘A Drop of Alcohol’
In Abdulaziz al-Saqabi’s A Drop of Alcohol, the search for an absent brother turns into a journey of self-discovery. A Drop of Alcohol By Abdulaziz al-Saqabi Translated by Lily Sadowsky Chapter One “Who are you afraid of? Go on, get a move on ...
Poetry
From ALQ: Football Chants from Palestine
In the Fall 2021 issue of ArabLit Quarterly, we focused on FOOTBALL, and especially its many literary manifestations. Among these are the ...
New Poetry: ‘From Gaza, Answering Darwish’
From Gaza, Answering Darwish By Basman Eldirawi with Mahmoud Darwish, translations by Ibrahim Muhawi In March, spring rains return, ...
Poetry in Translation: Riyad al-Saleh al-Hussein’s ‘War. War. War’
Nearly four decades after his death at the age of 28, Riyad al-Saleh al-Hussein’s work remains a vibrant part of ...
Interviews
‘Bidayàt’: Aldo Nicosia on a Collection of Beginnings
The forthcoming collection Bidayàt, ed. Aldo Nicosia, brings together the openings of twenty-two different Arabic novels; these are translated into ...
‘Before the Queen Falls Asleep’: In Conversation with Kay Heikkinen
By Tugrul Mende This month, a second of Huzama Habayeb’s novels was published in English translation, this time by MacLehose ...
Hanan Jasim-Khammas: On Writing the Body in Iraqi Literature After 2003
By Olivia Snaije Iraqi academic Hanan Jasim-Khammas was just 19 in 2004, when the Abu Ghraib prisoner abuse came to ...
Country Focus
From the archives
Jonathan Smolin on the Relationship Between Ihsan Abdel Kouddous’s Politics and His Novels
“My book really is an examination of how he participated in the coup ,and how he believed fundamentally that the Free Officers were going to install democracy, and—once he realized that they were actually installing military dictatorship—the way he dissented, in the editorials and in person, the way that he was jailed, and the way he turned to fiction to express his dissent directly to Nasser.”
Reclaiming the Women of Arabic Popular Epics
This look at the women who seem to have disappeared in scholarship about the Arabic popular epics is a re-run from Women in Translation Month (#WiTMonth) last year.
For Valentine’s Day: The Many Loves of Nizar Qabbani
Your love has taught me… how to be sad.
And I have needed, for ages
A woman to make me sad
A woman in whose arms I could weep
Like a sparrow,