For Women in Translation Month (#WiTMonth), a discovery: Yasmine Seale translates the great 12th-century Arabic-language Jewish poet of Andalusia, Qasmuna bint Ismail.
Lamia Abbas Amara: ‘Had the Fortune-teller Told Me’
If only the fortune-teller had told me that I would meet you in this labyrinth
Friday Finds: Rasha Omran Poetry Collection Free, Online
Each time I begin to write about love the other woman reaches out and pushes my fingers from the keyboard
On Nazik al-Malaika’s 95th: ‘Night Lover’
My girl, the storm knows nothing, though it rages, raves, and shrieks, Have mercy on your heart, for these shadows will never speak.
#WiTMonth Picks: 5 of Novelist Donia Kamel’s Favorites
Egyptian novelist Donia Kamel -- whose charming Cigarette Number Seven recently came out in Nariman Youssef's equally charming translation -- shares five of her favorite books by Arab women for Women in Translation Month.
From Leila Baalbaki’s ‘Spaceship of Tenderness to the Moon’
"He kissed my ear, gathered himself together, and sat up on the edge of the bed. Searching, his fingers struck the glass of water on the small table, then the book he had been reading that afternoon, the box of cigarettes, and the ashtray. Finally, he grabbed the wristwatch (the time was now a few minutes past nine)—as if he had to consult it in order to ensure that he awoke in an hour or a minute, or whatever instant of regularity he chose...like the regularity of his breath, which rushed out eagerly, weary of its stealth."
Translate This! Khadija Marouazi’s ‘Biography of Ash’
"There, where my body seemed to lay a great distance from me, I put my hand on my leg, on my fingers, and I couldn't tell they were mine. My thighs. My legs. My waist. Everything was dry and withered."
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.
Iraqi Author Maysaloon Hadi: ‘The Number of Readers Has Increased’
"In the last few years, a change has happened, because of social media channels. These channels have helped to build up the relationship between the reader and the writer through the increase in the number of book clubs on social media and online book sales and delivery and connecting with authors online."
8 Books for Young Readers: Arab Women’s KidLit in Translation
For Women in Translation Month (#WITMonth), eight books for younger readers, written by women and translated to English, for readers in utero and up.
Safia Ketou: The First Algerian Sci-fi Novelist of Post-independence Algeria
For Women in Translation Month, our Algeria editor writes about one of her favorite discoveries, whose La Planète Mauve et Autres Nouvelles should certainly be brought into English By Nadia Ghanem In six years of rummaging through Algerian literature, Safia Ketou’s sci-fi story "The Mauve Planet" remains my favorite find. Born Zohra Rabhi in 1944, Safia Ketou wrote … Continue reading Safia Ketou: The First Algerian Sci-fi Novelist of Post-independence Algeria
Sunday Submissions: A New Press for Poetry in Translation
Their first two titles are scheduled for release in 2019, and are Camouflage by Lupe Gómez, translated from Galician by Erín Moure, and Tell Me, Kenyalang, selected poems of Kulleh Grasi, translated from Malay and Iban by Pauline Fan.
