Ali Shakir – ARABLIT & ARABLIT QUARTERLY

What Is the Self in Self-Translation?

This is part of a special section on self-translation. By Ali Shakir Trivia What does the “self” in “self-translator” stand for? A hand that slices a bilingual author’s entity in […]

On Self-Translation, On Translation

Special Section: On Self-translation

In this special section on self-translation, authors and author-translators Mona Kareem, Khalid Lyamlahy, Deena Mohamed, Dunya Mikhail, and Ali Shakir reflect on what it means to transport their own writing from one of their languages to another.

diverse Iraq

Translating My Jewish Grandmother

“My defenses crumbled, and despite an old pledge never to cry over Iraq, when I finished translating her emotional farewell to Baghdad, tears were rolling down my face.”

Poetry

Excerpt in Translation: ‘Saddam and Me and the Stockholm Syndrome’

The book “tackles Saddam’s growing posthumous popularity among thousands of young Arabs and Iraqis.”