New on Bulaq: Mohamed Choukri’s Brutal Honesty
In the latest episode of BULAQ, co-hosts M Lynx Qualey and Ursula Lindsey talk with translator-scholar Jonas Elbousty about the great Mohamed Choukri.
Jonas Elbousty
On Mohamed Choukri’s ‘Faces,’ Now Finally in English
Mohamed Choukri’s Faces, the third book in his famous trilogy of fictionalized autobiographical works that began with For Bread Alone, finally came out in Jonas Elbousty’s English translation this month, […]
New Poetry: From Akram Alkatreb’s ‘The Screams of War’
These poems come from the collection The Screams of War, a collection of poetry by Akram Alkatreb — translated by Jonas Elbousty — that speaks to a post-2011 Syria. It’s […]
Launching the MIRRORS Issue: Recovering Their Medieval Magic
In the pieces included here, men seem more likely to link mirrors to a past, while for women they are part of an encircling present.
Ahlam Mosteghanemi: A Writer’s Journey of Love for and Devotion to Arabic Literature
“Arabic was my father’s choice, not mine; he wanted me to avenge him, as he was deprived of learning it by the French colonizer, who declared war on the Arabic language as a way of stripping Algerians of their identity.”
Mohamed Boukhza on Mohamed Choukri: ‘Romantic, Short-tempered,’ and with No Time for Hypocrites or Flatterers
“He was a multi-faceted person: romantic, short tempered, and self-loving with a high self-esteem. When surrounded by friends he liked, he would laugh hysterically. In him there was a mixture of spontaneity, adventure, and shrewdness. He was not malicious, and he believed in what he wrote.”