There is vivid interest in the growth of Arabic science fiction, fantasy, and horror novels — among Arab readers, scholars, and readers abroad. Among the emerging SF novelists is Emirati writer Noura Noman: This Monday, I saw on the “World… Read More ›
Noura Noman’s debut science fiction novel, Ajwan, was just released this past week at the Sharjah International Book Fair at a packed event.
Cheryl Morgan has a Q&A with Egyptian novelist Ahmed Khaled Towfik this week on “The World SF Blog.”
Ray Bradbury, maestro of English-language sci fi, died on Tuesday in Los Angeles. He was 91. How much does contemporary English-language science fiction, like Bradbury’s, owe to the fantastical proto-science fiction of A Thousand and One Nights? Well, who knows. But… Read More ›
Among the “long-form” finalists for the 2012 Science Fiction and Fantasy Translation Awards — for works published in 2011 — is Egyptian author Ahmed Khaled Towfik’s engaging Utopia, trans. Chip Rossetti.
Apparently Juan Cole was not fibbing when he wrote, last summer, that Jordan plans a Star Trek Theme Park to attract tourists. This, Cole said, comes despite sci fi not weighing in as a major Arabic literary genre. Cole surmised that… Read More ›
Last year in The Guardian, Nesrine Malik published a widely-quoted lament about the disappearance of science fiction from contemporary Arabic literature.
Apex itself mentions nothing about this on its submissions page, but editor Catherynne Valente has tweeted that the November issue of the popular sci fi magazine will be “an entirely Arab/Muslim issue.”
Words Without Borders is featuring international science fiction this December. Unfortunately, there are no offerings from the Arabic (I would love to read a narrative about 22nd century Cairo), but there is an interesting, readable excerpt from the 19th century… Read More ›
