An Excerpt from Falah Raheem’s ‘Hedgehogs on a Hot Day’
In a recent interview, we asked Iraqi writer Duna Ghali which Iraqi writers she recommends; she pointed us to Falah Raheem, whose Hedgehogs on a Hot Day was published to great acclaim in Arabic in 2012. The novel is available now in a translation to English by the author himself. Although independent, it is part of a hexalogy of novels, five of which are already complete. They aim at a fictional depiction of the Iraqi contemporary scene ...
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 has translated several operas including the acclaimed sung versions of Les Miserables and Mozart's The Magic Flute into Egyptian Arabic, as well as Sayed Higab's libretto for the opera Miramar into English. She is also the Arabic-->English translator of Witness to War and Peace: Egypt, ...
New Short Fiction: ‘Holy Wednesday’
As this is a novelette, some readers may prefer to read on a tablet, in PDF or epub form. It's available free on the ArabLit store. Holy Wednesday By Mahmoud Aboudoma Translated by Sarah Enany “I saw them split open your chest and pull out your heart. I saw your blood flow into the dirt; I saw them recite the prayers for the dead over you; I saw them write the story of your absence ...
Fiction
An Excerpt from Falah Raheem’s ‘Hedgehogs on a Hot Day’
In a recent interview, we asked Iraqi writer Duna Ghali which Iraqi writers she recommends; she pointed us to Falah Raheem, whose Hedgehogs on a Hot Day was published to great acclaim in Arabic in 2012. The novel is available now in ...
New Short Fiction: ‘Holy Wednesday’
As this is a novelette, some readers may prefer to read on a tablet, in PDF or epub form. It’s available free on the ArabLit store. Holy Wednesday By Mahmoud Aboudoma Translated by Sarah Enany “I saw them split open ...
From Duna Ghali’s ‘Orbits of Loneliness’
A few years ago, when we asked Egyptian novelist Miral al-Tahawy for a favorite book in Arabic by a woman writer, she said, “Truth is, there is a long list of Arab women’s work that I’m sure was important in ...
Poetry
When the War Parts: A Poem from Gaza by Heba Al-Agha
When the War Parts By Heba Al-Agha Translated by Julia Choucair Vizoso I won’t be the same might become a ...
From ALQ: Football Chants from Palestine
In the Fall 2021 issue of ArabLit Quarterly, we focused on FOOTBALL, and especially its many literary manifestations. Among these are the ...
New Poetry: ‘From Gaza, Answering Darwish’
From Gaza, Answering Darwish By Basman Eldirawi with Mahmoud Darwish, translations by Ibrahim Muhawi In March, spring rains return, ...
Interviews
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 ...
‘Today, We Need to Write at Least a Thousand Syrian Novels’
Tugrul Mende, in conversation with Fadi Azzam and Ghada Alatrash In April, Interlink Books published Fadi Azzam’s Huddud’s House—which was longlisted for ...
Duna Ghali on Writing, Translating, and Publishing Between Arabic and Danish
Last week, we shared an excerpt from Iraqi author Duna Ghali’s acclaimed novel Orbits of Lonelinessin maia tabet’s translation. This ...
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 ...
For Valentine’s Day: The Many Loves of Nizar Qabbani
Your love has taught me… how to be sad.
And I have needed, for ages
A woman to make me sad
A woman in whose arms I could weep
Like a sparrow,
Egyptian Novelist Shady Lewis on Coptic Identity, Church-State Relations, and Citizenship
“In Ways of the Lord, Christians are mistaken for being Jews and are accused of spying for Israel, which demonstrates the lack of recognition of Copts and their conflation with other minorities.”