Sunday Submissions: Libyan Wanderer
Malak al-Taeb has opened up calls for submissions to her blog ‘Libyan Wanderer’.
Libya
New Fiction in Translation: Azza Maghur’s ‘Mowgli and Shere Khan’
It’s not a jungle, it’s a city, but not any city, it’s the capital. He’s not “Mowgli”—his name is Ihab. As for “Shere Khan,” he’s nothing but an animal. This story takes place in Tripoli. As I write it, I won’t be telling you about the Tripoli that I’ve lived in for half a century; I’ll tell you stories about the war that’s devouring it.
Lit & Found: Najwa Binshatwan’s ‘Portrait of a Libyan Scream’
Later this month, UEA Publishing Project will release Mo(a)t: Stories from Arabic, an anthology of short fiction by Arabophone writers from the African diaspora, edited by Garen Torikian and translated by Sawad Hussain and Nariman Youssef.
Opening of ‘Resistance, Rebellion & Revolution’: On Libyan Artist and Satirist Hasan ‘Alsatoor’ Dhaimish
Resistance, Rebellion & Revolution is a project on the life and works of the late Libyan artist and satirist, Hasan ‘Alsatoor’ Dhaimish (1955-2016).
An Excerpt from Najwa Bin Shatwan’s International Prize for Arabic Fiction-shortlisted ‘Slave Pens’
“Why scrape off my scabbed wound now, Haj Ali? Why prolong tales after the season of their telling has passed?”
Libyan Poet Khaled Mattawa: Now That We Have Tasted Hope
This weekend, Libyan-American poet Khaled Mattawa has been at New York’s Alwan for the Arts, reciting his own poems and those of other Arab poets. Among the poems he’s reciting, I imagine, is his new work, “Now That We Have Tasted Hope.”
I wouldn’t normally lift an author’s entire work, but, since its initial appearance on BBC’s The World Today, it seems to have been reposted on a number of websites. (Is that a good excuse?) Anyhow:
Poems for Benghazi, Poems for Libya
Tonight, my hopes are with Benghazi. I’ve been re-reading poems from award-winning Khaled Mattawa, who grew up in Benghazi.
A Celebration of Ibrahim al-Koni, the Desert, Russian Literature, and ‘Swiss Sufism’
Encouraged by translator/scholar/writer Elliott Colla—who had an interesting short essay about Ibrahim al-Koni in yesterday’s Ahram Online—I thought we’d make this an al-Koni week. Although not an “Arab” writer, al-Koni is one of the giants of contemporary Arabic literature, and has a unique and world-encompassing literary vision.