How Do You Take a Little of Your Life?
“We never knew that things could disappear all at once, and that memory alone could become the only place to come home to.”
Sarah Enany
Forthcoming August 2026: Plays by Mahfouz, Fiction from Palestine
Two notable Arabic books are coming in English translation this month: a collection of one-act plays by Naguib Mahfouz and a novel by Sara Abu Ghazal.
From Charles Akl’s ‘Red Like Orange’
“Before singer-songwriter Yousra Hawwari, who made great use of the accordion, it was nobody’s favorite instrument despite being widely used. Perhaps it earned a kind of universal dislike precisely because it was overused in Egyptian songs from the 1990s, songs from other Arab countries that imitated Egyptian songs, and Turkish songs that either plagiarized Egyptian ones or vice versa.”
Words, Music, and Translating ‘Red Like Orange’
This month, Hoopoe Fiction (an imprint of AUC Press) publishes Charles Akl’s debut novel Red Like Orange, which won a 2023 Sawiris Cultural Award. Now, three years later, Sarah Enany’s translation of this novel is available to a new readership.
Forthcoming June 2026: YA, Classics, and More
This month, find classic works by Alis al-Bustani and Hussein Barghouti, a YA novel from Palestine, a short-story anthology from Damascus, and a new award-winner from Egypt.
Translating for the Egyptian Stage
In this “BETWEEN TWO ARABIC TRANSLATORS” conversation, Yasmeen Hanoosh and Sarah Enany talk about some of the particulars about translating for the stage and, particularly, for song.
Sarah Enany on Living — And Making a Living — As a Translator in Egypt
Sarah Enany is a Banipal Prize-winning literary translator (for her translation of Rasha Adly’s The Girl with Braided Hair) and a professor in the English Department of Cairo University. She […]
Banipal Book Club: ‘The Book Smuggler,’ by Omaima al-Khamis (tr. Sarah Enany)
Banipal Book Club will be discussing The Book Smuggler by Omaima al-Khamis, translated by Sarah Enany.
Celebrating the Winner: 2021 Saif Ghobash Banipal Prize for Arabic Literary Translation
Winning translator Sarah Enany of the novel The Girl With Braided Hair and her author Rasha Adly in conversation with chair of judges Prof Roger Allen, along with readings in both languages and a Q&A.
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