This May 2022, we launch our third “In Focus” section. For our “New & Inventive Voices” feature, we asked a number of Sudanese writers to put together a list of their highlights from among recent books, and for “Women Recommend: Sudanese Women Writers,” women writers give an overview of the landscape as well as their favorites by other women. We also have new fiction and poetry in translation, as well as interviews, essays, art, and more. Explore more special features below, with more from our archives on the left.
Writers Select: New and Inventive Voices in Sudanese Literature
As part of our special “In Focus: Sudan” section, three Sudanese writers put together a list of their highlights from recent Sudanese literature. We asked: If you were to choose 4-7 titles that would represent, to you, the most interesting books (perhaps experimental, challenging, or influential in some way) written by Sudanese writers in the last 10 years, what would they be? And (perhaps more importantly) why? Mansour El Souwaim صقر الجديان (The Secretary Bird), ...
19 Short-short Fictions by Fatima as-Sanoussi
Fatima as-Sanoussi is one of the prominent champions of Sudanese flash fiction, having spearheaded the spread and popularity of micro fiction in Sudanese newspapers throughout the 1980s. According to author Lemya Shammat, her "densely packed narratives seemed to particularly resonate with young people, who welcomed her mini fictions." Here, award-winning Sudanese translator Adil Babikir brings us 19 short-short fictions by as-Sanoussi. By Fatima as-Sanoussi Translated by Adil Babikir 1 We had an argument one evening ...
New Poetry from Sudan: Mughira Harbya’s ‘Three Songs for the Ghajar’
Editor's note: Within an Arabic literary translators' email group, there was a vibrant discussion about how to translate الغجر, with suggestions ranging from Travellers to Roma or Romani to transliteration. Translator Kay Heikkinen helpfully pointed us to Kristina Richardson's Roma in the Medieval Islamic World. In this instance, the translator, Adil Babikir, opted to go with transliteration. Three Songs for the Ghajar By Mughira Harbya Translated by Adil Babikir First: Only a ghajari knows the ...
New Short Fiction: Ibrahim Ishag’s ‘A Dinner with Mr. MacNeil’
By Ibrahim Ishag Translated by Nassir al-Sayeid al-Nour They prepare for the feast methodically, while still leaving countless possibilities and hiccups to chance. Today, the sons of al-Kabashi, with the blessing of Allah, have become people of wisdom, wealth, vision, and passion. Months ago, Osman, Masued, Hazim, Abdel Ghaffar, and Abu Zaid traveled with Qassem wad Sarur to visit his father in Shendi: Asim Wad Sarur wad Aljwab. They told him about how much Omer, ...
Looking for Literature in Khartoum
Max Shmookler -- who previously wrote about "How To Separate Mediocre, Good, and Great Stories for Translation" and his work in assembling a collection of Sudanese short stories -- now explores the literary scene in Khartoum in a post that originally appeared on Baraza: By Max Shmookler The stories in our collection span the roughly four decades since the publication of Tayyib Salih’s much acclaimed Season of Migration to the North in 1969. Some are ...
Recommended anthologies:
Modern Sudanese Poetry: An Anthology, ed. Adil Babikir
Literary Sudans, ed. Bhakti Shringarpure.
Book of Khartoum, ed. Max Shmookler and Raph Cormack.
Banipal 55: Sudanese Literature Today, ed. Samuel Shimon.
The Common 19, Sudan section ed. Hisham Bustani and Jennifer Acker
Online:
Words Without Borders: Coming into Focus: Sudanese Women Writers
All Posts on Sudan
New Short Fiction from Sudan: ‘Nameless,’ by Mohammed Hamad Mahmoud
"On joining primary school, I started leaving sufficient space for my non-existent name at the right margin of the page, followed by my father’s full name, who died and immortalized his name through me. I did the same in my English notebooks, at the left side of the page. I was the third person in all languages and descriptions in the universe." ...
Remembering Salah Ahmed Ibrahim, an Avant Garde Pioneer of Sudanese Poetry
"Were they a bundle of arugula,
displayed for sale to the westerners in the big city,
they’d have been spared the scorching heat.
Instead, they’d have been carefully placed on a wet matt in the shade,
their lips kept wet with sprinkled water
their cheeks sparkling with freshness and moisture." ...
A Translator’s Canon of Sudanese Literature
For our focus on Sudan, scholar, translator, and writer Adil Babikir highlights a few of Sudan's most important literary greats ...
Writers Select: New and Inventive Voices in Sudanese Literature
If you were to choose 4-7 titles that would represent, to you, the most interesting books (perhaps experimental, challenging, or influential in some way) written by Sudanese writers in the last 10 years, what would they be? And (perhaps more importantly) why? ...
Launching ‘In Focus: SUDAN’
We launch this section with a discussion of the exciting new voices with Sudanese authors, an overview of Sudanese women's writing, and a list of Sudanese literature available in English. Coming later this week, we have short stories by Fatima as-Sanoussi and Ibrahim Ishag, and poetry by Mughira Harbya. ...
Fiction from Sudan: Abdelaziz Baraka Sakin’s ‘A Veteran Warrior’
“Will they shoot again?” the little girl asks her mother ...
