New Poetry: From Akram Alkatreb’s ‘The Screams of War’
These poems come from the collection The Screams of War, a collection of poetry by Akram Alkatreb -- translated by Jonas Elbousty -- that speaks to a post-2011 Syria. It's out now from Seagull Books. The Statues of Midday By Akram Alkatreb Translated by Jonas Elbousty My friends are the brothers of darkness, statues of midday, nothing left from their features beside the smell of the hand extended to the waiter behind the coffee shop’s ...
New Fiction in Translation: From Khaled Alesmael’s ‘Selamlik’
Selamlik, out this April from World Editions, is the story of a man finding love in Syria just as his world is shattered. This excerpt, from early in the novel, gives a sense of both the sexual heat and the fear of Syria's dictatorship that twine together to propel the novel forward. It is a scene marked by new beginnings, desire, and a lurking threat of unrest. In Room 333, Part 1 By Khaled Alesmael ...
New Short Fiction from Sudan: Abdulmajid Olesh’s ‘The Doctor’
A man is feeling dizzy, and goes to visit a doctor. The Doctor By Abdulmajid Olesh Translated by Nassir al-Sayied al-Nour There was only a little time left to get there, as the dizziness and light buzzing sensation started all at once. They told me there was a clinic, and I moved slowly and cautiously, to avoid falling. I stepped into a narrow lane. The walls of its old houses loomed high above me, and ...
Fiction
New Fiction in Translation: From Khaled Alesmael’s ‘Selamlik’
Selamlik, out this April from World Editions, is the story of a man finding love in Syria just as his world is shattered. This excerpt, from early in the novel, gives a sense of both the sexual heat and the ...
New Short Fiction from Sudan: Abdulmajid Olesh’s ‘The Doctor’
A man is feeling dizzy, and goes to visit a doctor. The Doctor By Abdulmajid Olesh Translated by Nassir al-Sayied al-Nour There was only a little time left to get there, as the dizziness and light buzzing sensation started all ...
New Short Fiction: Suheir Daoud’s ‘The Miracle’
The Miracle By Suheir Daoud Translated by Leonie Rau I was born after October 7, under the rubble. The cold was severe, and my mother’s voice was the only thing that covered me. I was about to start wailing, like ...
Poetry
New Poetry: From Akram Alkatreb’s ‘The Screams of War’
These poems come from the collection The Screams of War, a collection of poetry by Akram Alkatreb — translated by ...
New Poetry in Translation: Yahya Ashour’s ‘When a Missile Lands’
This poem appeared in the “THIS MOMENT” section of our Gaza! Gaza! Gaza! issue, produced together with Majalla 28. When ...
‘Every Time I Leave the House’: New Poetry by Haidar al-Ghazali
This poem was inadvertently left out of the THIS MOMENT section of ArabLit Quarterly’s “Gaza! Gaza! Gaza!” section. We will be correcting ...
Interviews
On Translating a Novel of Might-have-beens in ’60s Dubai
New publishing house ELF Publishing has brought out Emirati author Reem Al Kamali’s International Prize for Arabic Fiction-shortlisted Rose’s Diaries ...
Shakir Mustafa on the Obstacles to Translating Iraqi Literature into English
Shakir Mustafa was a scholar focused on Irish literature and drama in 2003 and 2004 when the invasion and occupation ...
Recommendations: On the New Wave of Memoirs from Iraq
Editor’s note: Publishers who are interested in Iraqi literatures will find more in our May Publishers Newsletter, out on May ...
Country Focus
From the archives
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 ...
‘When Darkness Falls’: On the Shortened, Brilliant Life of Iraqi Author Hayat Sharara
“The word eib rings in my head, it is eib to love, to sing, to get sick, to divorce, to show your emotions…and.…and. I felt these social chains were burdening me with fear, despair, and confusion, and I almost abandoned work on the book, but when I looked at the materials that I had collected, I knew that if I didn’t publish it now, it would never be published.”
Alexander Key: On Domesticating Al-Jurjani 110%
“I’m trying to translate al-Jurjani so that he sounds like a literary critic writing in English, writing in his native language. I don’t want the reader of al-Jurjani’s experience with metaphor to think this guy is foreign – because al-Jurjani didn’t think he was foreign.”