“In its direct, stripped-back lines, the collection demonstrates both the limits and the necessity of language, inviting us to ask, together, how we can move through and beyond suffering.”
“The translation of poetry is poetry stretched to its very limits.”
The American Literary Translators Association (ALTA) announced yesterday that Najwan Darwish and Kareem James Abu-Zeid’s Exhausted on the Cross was one of the four-book shortlist for their poetry prize, alongside works by Mandelstam (tr. Peter France), Dante (tr. D. M. Black), and atalka Bilotserkivets (tr. Ali Kinsella and Dzvinia Orlowsky).
Join this interview with translator Kareem James Abu-Zeid about his translations of Rabee Jaber’s novel Confessions and poet Najwan Darwish’s collection Exhausted on the Cross as part of the afikra Book Club series.
“Translators of Palestinian poetry, in addition to untangling the poetics of pain (or in our case, exhaustion), carry the additional burden of making people listen.”
The Center for Fiction is hosting their last Translation Clinic of the year, “What Does it Take to Translate the Intangible?” with Kareem James Abu-Zeid and Alta L. Price.
Yesterday, PEN America announced the longlists for their 2022 literary awards, including the two categories for work in translation.
In this hybrid talk/reading, Kareem James Abu-Zeid will take us on a whirlwind journey through Arab poetry, using his own recent translations as stopping points.
“The source of love opened / And a lily emerged.”
