Summer Reads: ‘The Limping Couch’
“It wasn’t just the Obesity Control Police. Everyone in town constantly challenged my humanity because of my weight. They called me an animal so many times that, for a moment, I thought I’d become one.”
ALQ: Crime
Summer Reads: Sonallah Ibrahim’s ‘Arsène Lupin’
“My father got dressed, brushed off his tarbush with the sleeve of his jacket, and placed it at an appropriate tilt on his head. Then he twisted the ends of his white mustache all the way up to his nostrils. We left the apartment, locking the door behind us, and went down to the street. I noticed we were heading toward the tram stop.”
Summer Reads: ‘The Crime of Translation’
“But in a broader sense, crime as transgression takes in a spate of ideas, images, and conceits from Arabic literature.”
Summer Reads: ‘The Song of the Banu Sasan’
This summer, we will run select pieces from summer issues of ArabLit Quarterly. This excerpt from a tenth-century poem by Abu Dulaf, translated by Brad Fox, ran in the summer 2020 CRIME issue of the magazine.
Summer of Lock-in Lit: Sonallah Ibrahim’s ‘Arsène Lupin’
“Look, there’s no novels,” a voice suddenly boomed directly above my head. “We don’t sell novels.”
‘Place a Hope Beyond a Hope’: Devotional Literature as Literature
“Devotional literature never gets viewed as literature because people assume it’s for devotional purposes.”
From ALQ’s Crime Issue: Meet the Banu Sasan
Brad Fox called in from lockdown in Peru to read from — and discuss — his translation (or recovery? or adaptation?) of Abu Dulaf’s “Song of the Banu Sasan.”
Occupation + 100: Listen to This Issue’s Literary Playlist
“The year is 2048, in Palestine. It’s one hundred years after the violent establishment of the state of Israel in 1948—an event known in the Arab world as “the Nakba” or “catastrophe,” forcing more than 700,000 Palestinians to flee their homes.”
Launching Today: ArabLit Quarterly Summer 2020, the CRIME Issue
The Summer 2020 issue of ArabLit Quarterly — our issue of summer insight & delight — is now available.