MENAWA Book Club: Hoda Barakat’s “Voices of the Lost”
Join MENAWA’s virtual book club to discuss Hoda Barakat’s Voices of the Lost (tr. Marilyn Booth) on December 15, 5 pm UK time. Email menawapocoreads@gmail.com to join.
Marilyn Booth
Banipal Translation Prize Announces 2021’s 5-book Shortlist
November 23, 2021 — This morning, organizers of the Saif Ghobash Banipal Prize for Arabic Literary Translation announced this year’s shortlist. Three translators have made the shortlist of the Banipal […]
Lit & Found: Three YouTube Panels on Arabic Literature and Translation
“Three recent panels on Arabic literature and translation have appeared on YouTube.”
Arabic English Translation: Today’s Landscape and Future Horizons
Join moderator Nariman Youssef and panellists Marilyn Booth, M Lynx Qualey, and Bishan Samaddar for a discussion on the contemporary translation scene and where we are heading next.
Summer Re-runs: On Turning ‘Sayyidat al-Qamr’ into ‘Celestial Bodies’ and the Tyranny of the New
“Oh!! Titles… sometimes I think I stress over titles – and opening sentences – for more hours than I spend on the rest of the translation.”
Sunday Classics: The Fearless Zaynab Fawwaz (c. 1850-1914)
“When Zaynab Fawwaz died in early 1914, long obituaries appeared in Egypt’s newspapers: she was not forgotten in her own time.”
Marilyn Booth: ‘I Try To Let the Arabic Guide Me’
“Often being literal — or almost literal — is the best way to do it. So I try to let the Arabic guide me. I’m also a translator who often leaves quite a lot of Arabic in the text, and I have to come up with ways of explaining that but without being heavy about it.”
Forgetting and Remembering the Fearless Zaynab Fawwaz
“I was also drawn to Fawwaz years ago because of her incredible work on historical biography – and I now have no hesitation in calling her massive biographical dictionary of women (published 1893-6) a work of feminist history.”
Jokha al-Harthi and Marilyn Booth Win 2019 Man Booker International for ‘Celestial Bodies’
“A book to win over the head and the heart in equal measure, worth lingering over.”