"When Naguib Mahfouz was a boy, he tells us, two paths lay before him. There was the path of the literature he loved to read and write. He could take that path and become a distinguished author. There was also the path of the football he loved to play and the footballers he admired. He could take that, it was said, and become a member of the Egyptian Olympic football team."
Upcoming Events: ‘The Common’ Launch, ‘Making Film in Egypt,’ & more
A few upcoming online events.
From the Archives: Belal Fadl’s ‘Into the Tunnel’
"No one expected things to go this way."
Upcoming Poetry Translation Centre Workshop, Focus: Mostafa Ibrahim
Places are limited, so organizers ask that those who book arrange to attend both sessions: Tuesday March 16 and Tuesday 23, from 18:30-20:00 GMT.
Friday Finds: Adania Shibli, Haytham el-Wardany, and Sinan Antoon in ‘Specimen’
"Assuming that words’ eyes have also been gouged, this dossier asks: How can literature assist us in reclaiming the capacity to imagine a less monstrous form of togetherness today?"
Friday Finds: An Excerpt of ‘Cigarette Number 7’
I didn’t talk much, but I absorbed every detail around me: every grain of rice on the red tray on Grandma’s lap, every word in the song coming out of the radio— “the evening sauntered toward us, then harked to the love in our eyes”—and every line on Grandpa’s serene face as he listened.