At the end of April, Moroccan poet Rachida Madani and poet-translator Marilyn Hacker traveled around the UK reading from Hacker’s translation of Madani’s “Tales of a Severed Head.” Here, Madani and Hacker read at Poets & Players.
Morocco 
Moroccan Author Fouad Laroui Wins Prix Goncourt de la Nouvelle
Moroccan author Fouad Laroui has won the 2013 Prix Goncourt de la Nouvelle, one of France’s top literary prizes, for his novel “L’étrange affaire du pantalon de Dassoukine.”
‘Horses of God’: Book Launch with Moroccan Author Mahi Binebine
Moroccan author Mahi Binebine’s first novel translated into English, Welcome to Paradise, appeared last year to some acclaim. Now, Binebine is launching his second novel to be translated into English, also by Lulu Norman, Horses of God.
Rachida Madani’s ‘Tales of a Severed Head’ Tour
If you’re in England, Moroccan poet Rachida Madani and translator-poet Marilyn Hacker will be at several events for the UK launch of Madani’s collection ‘Tales of a Severed Head.”
New Poems and More from Mohammed Bennis
In the latest issue of Asymptote are three newly translated poems by Moroccan poet Mohammed Bennis (b. Fez, 1948), trans. Nashwa Nasreldin. Here, why she chose these poems and more on Bennis’s relationship to poetry.
Trilingual ‘Literature in the Making’ Workshops in Casablanca: Applications Due April 7
Last summer, L’école de littérature sponsored a trilingual “Translations” program in the south of France: This year, the same folks are organizing their second session, called مصنع , in Casablanca, Morocco. According to this year’s مصنع organizers: The program concerns processes of… Read More ›
2 Arab Authors Coming to the 2013 Oxford Lit Fest
CORRECTION: Three of the 5 originally noted were from last year’s fest. The remaining two are: Qatari writer Abdul Aziz al Mahmoud, whose novel The Corsair has just come out in English from BQFP. Al-Mahmoud is one of relatively few Qatari novelists; he recently… Read More ›
Abdellatif Laâbi, Terra Incognita
Recently, Moroccan poet Abdellatif Laâbi was at London’s Mosaic Rooms and Free Word Centre, celebrating the release of his Bottom of the Jar and a new chapbook of his poems. Roland Glasser earlier reported on the launch; now Yasmine Seale reflects on Laâbi’s poetry and… Read More ›
‘A Child of this Century’: Launching Abdellatif Laâbi’s Dual-language Chapbook
On Monday, Feb. 18, author Adbellatif Laâbi and translator André Naffis-Sahely launched the dual-language chapbook Poems/Poèmes at Free Word. French-English translator Roland Glasser was there. By Roland Glasser ‘I am the poem tree. They have tried to manipulate me, but their efforts came to… Read More ›
‘Poems for the Millennium 4′: On Choosing Work for a New Maghreb-focused Anthology
Poet-translators Pierre Joris and Habib Tengour have recently assembled a new anthology: Poems for the Millennium, Volume Four: The University of California Book of North African Literature (2013).* We exchanged emails with Pierre Joris about how it came together: ArabLit: Although the title is “poems,” you include… Read More ›
(If) You’re Coming to See Abdellatif Laâbi in London
Abdellatif Laâbi will be launching the English translation of a new collection of his latest poems on Feb. 18 and of his novel, The Bottom of the Jar (both trans. André Naffis-Sahely) on Feb. 20: Laâbi, best known as a… Read More ›
Andre Naffis-Sahely on Translating the ‘Fearlessly Political’ Collection ‘The Rule of Barbarism’
The new Pirogue Poet Series, which aims to “encourage long-term, sustained dialogue between African artists and writers and the rest of the world,” has published its first volume: Andre Naffis-Sahely’s translation of Abdellatif Laâbi’s The Rule of Barbarism (1976 Fr; 2012 Eng). The visceral, searing collection, which throbs with Laâbi’s powerful orality, was first published while the poet was serving an eight-year prison sentence (1972-1980) for “crimes of opinion” against the Moroccan state. There is an excerpt now on Jadaliyya; ArabLit also corresponded with Naffis-Sahely about translating the book:
