Al Mutanabbi Street Starts Here project organizer (and poet) Beau Beausoleil said in a recent email update: “I always say that Iraq is the darkest room in the house of the United States, and that this project is but one small… Read More ›
Iraq 
‘Reel Iraq’: Art, Culture, and Creativity 10 Years Post-invasion
Later this month, the 2013 Reel Iraq festival will be bringing more than 50 events to nine different cities, with events in London, Edinburgh, Bristol, Glasgow, Dumfries, Leeds, Derry/Londonderry, Newcastle and Stirling: Events include lectures, film screenings, author talks, music, and the poetry of — among others — the eight poets… Read More ›
Navigating the Space Between American Readers and Iraqi Writers
This piece originally appeared in the Egypt Independent’s print edition. You, too, can subscribe to EI print: The book about Iraq most well-known to English readers is perhaps Chris Kyle’s best-selling “American Sniper,” a memoir told from behind the barrel of a gun…. Read More ›
Home of Iraqi Poet Badr Shaker al-Sayyab To Become ‘Cultural Forum’
The Iraqi ministry of culture announced recently that the family home of poet Badr Shaker al-Sayyab (1926-1969) will be turned into a cultural forum. The al-Sayyab home is in Jaikour, about 20 kilometers south of Basra. It will reportedly be renovated and… Read More ›
Submit Your Stories to ‘IRAQ + 100′ – ‘العراق 2103′
I have some of you particularly in mind, but even if I don’t know you personally, I’m sure either: a) you have a brilliant story to contribute to this collection, or b) you will want to read it. The notice… Read More ›
On Translating ‘The Art of Party-crashing in Medieval Iraq’ and Why ‘Everybody Loves a Joker’
Syracuse University Press recently released Emily Selove’s translation of al-Khatib al-Baghdadi, Selections from the Art of Party-crashing in Medieval Iraq. She answered a few questions about the project: ArabLit: What brought you to this project? Why this particular text (in the whole world of… Read More ›
Saadi Youssef’s Language, ‘The Language Used By All’
I am still reading and re-reading Nostalgia, My Enemy, poems by Saadi Youssef, trans. Sinan Antoon and Peter Money. Youssef, one of the world’s great living poets, differs significantly from his fellow Arab poet Adonis, who has built grander and grander towers… Read More ›
Iraqi Novelist Hadiya Hussein on Personal and Public Memory
Qantara has this week a short interview I conducted with Iraqi novelist Hadiya Hussein whose novel, Beyond Love, was released last year in beautiful translation by Ikram Masmoudi. (Review.) Was there a moment when you began to write, in reaction to something?… Read More ›
‘The Iraqi Christ’: An Unsparing, Unforgiving Depiction of the Human Condition
Sarah Irving recently wrote about Iraqi short-story writer Hassan Blasim’s visit to London; here, she reviews his latest collection, The Iraqi Christ, trans. Jonathan Wright: By Sarah Irving One of the inventions of Terry Pratchett’s ‘Discworld’ fantasy series was Klatchian coffee, a… Read More ›
Looking at the Longlist: Sinan Antoon on Writing ‘Ave Maria’
Sinan Antoon’s (@sinanantoon) third novel, Ave Maria (2012) has been longlisted for the 2013 International Prize for Arabic Fiction (IPAF). It followed quickly on the heels of his previous novel, The Pomegranate Alone, which is forthcoming in English in 2013 from Yale University Press. Antoon,… Read More ›
Fadhil al-Azzawi: ‘All These Genres Mixed Together’
Fadhil al-Azzawi, renowned Iraqi author, was briefly in London to judge the Saif Ghobash-Banipal prize for Arabic Literary Translation, the results of which will be announced in January. Banipal took the opportunity to host an informal discussion with him on… Read More ›
Hassan Blasim: I’m Not Interested in Preserving ‘The Beauty of the Arabic Language’
” I want to talk about what the Iraqi was like before he went to Abu Ghraib, not Abu Ghraib itself. I don’t want to talk about the big events that lots of writers and journalists talk about; I’m more interested in the marginal events that don’t get talked about.”
