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An English-language Debut Collection from Abdulkareem Kasid: ‘Cafés’
The Many Press is bringing out its first book in 10 years: a debut English-language collection from Iraqi poet Abdulkareem Kasid, titled Cafés: Photo by Amarjit Chandan. The collection was reviewed in...
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April 2013: New Arabic Poetry and Prose (in Translation)
Some beautiful work newly available in translation. Thanks in particular to some great work by translator Yasmeen Hanoosh in organizing the special “Writing from Iraq” issue this month on Words Without...
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Ghassan Zaqtan’s ‘Like a Straw Bird It Follows Me’ on Prestigious Griffin...
Palestinian poet Ghassan Zaqtan and Palestinian-American poet-translator Fady Joudah have made the prestigious Griffin Prize shortlist for Joudah’s translation of Like a Straw Bird It Follows Me: The...
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Banipal 46: How a Little Magazine Gets Big Poems
Banipal recently hit the e-waves, bookstores, and mailboxes with its issue 46: “80 New Poems”: There are a lot of literary magazines here in the e-verse – a lot – which publish new poetry (whether it’s...
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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: Nasreldin notes, in her MFA thesis — where she writes about...
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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 launch of Madani’s collection Tales of a Severed Head: I haven’t gotten a copy,...
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Someone Crazy Enough to Translate al-Mutanabbi
At this year’s Abu Dhabi International Book Fair, I had the chance to sit down with Philip Kennedy, editor of the Library of Arabic Literature (LAL) project. The interview still needs to be...
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Tea Boys or Interns? Translators Tackle the Language of Najwan Darwish
At this year’s PEN translation slam, work by Najwan Darwish was translated into English by Ahmad Diab and Ryah Aqel: By Jennifer Sears The PEN Translation Slam, part of the annual PEN World Voices...
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Rachida Madani and Marilyn Hacker Reading for Poets & Players
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...
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What Fady Joudah’s Learned from the Poetry of Translation
Today, the 2013 Palestine Festival of Literature begins. Hopefully by later this afternoon, or at least by evening, posts will start to arrive. In the meantime, this week on Poetry Foundation, Alex...
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‘And the Freight of…Sufi Poetry That They Bear’
Over at the blog ‘The Stone and the Star,’ host Clarissa Aykroyd writes about translating work by Ateif Khieri at the Poetry Translation Centre (PTC) in London: Aykroyd wrote, about the May 29 PTC...
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Golan Haji: ‘Translation Is a Process of Changing Places While You Are in the...
Thanks to @ALTA_USA for pointing the way toward an interview with Syrian poet Golan Haji (جولان حاجي), published last month on Prairie Schooner: “A verse from the poem “8th Son” by Syrian poet Golan...
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Fady Joudah and Ghassan Zaqtan Win 2013 Griffin Poetry Prize
Like a Straw Bird It Follows Me: and Other Poems, by Ghassan Zaqtan, trans. Fady Joudah, has won this year’s international Griffin Poetry Prize: The prestigious Griffin poetry prize is awarded annually...
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At Venice Biennale: The Words of a Palestinian Poet Who Wasn’t a Poet
“Otherwise Occupied” is an exhibition composed of two projects by Palestinian artists Aissa Deebi and Bashir Makhoul. It runs until 30 June at the 55th Venice Biennale: The first project, called “The...
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Dunya Mikhail on Winning a $25K Kresge Arts Fellowship
Iraqi poet Dunya Mikhail yesterday became one of ten Detroit-area writers — eighteen grants; nineteen artists in all* — to be awarded a Kresge Artist Fellowship. ArabLit asked Mikhail a few questions...
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Rachida Madani’s ‘Tales of a Severed Head’ on PEN’s 2013...
Yesterday, PEN American Center announced the shortlists and judges for the 2013 PEN Literary Awards: On the shortlist for the poetry-in-translation category is Moroccan poet Rachida Madani’s Tales of a...
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Ibrahim al-Rubaish’s ‘Ode to the Sea’ Pulled from Calicut University Syllabus
It was 2007 when Poems from Guantanamo: The Detainees Speak was published: At the time, American poet-critic Robert Pinsky said that these voices “deserve, above all, not admiration or belief or...
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Basim al-Ansar: ‘Poetry Is the Source of All the Arts’
Poet Basim Alansar was born in Baghdad in 1970. He has been publishing his poetry since the early 1990s and, since 1998, has made his home in Denmark. In 2009, he the only Iraqi poet to be named one...
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Khaled al-Maaly: Poetry Worldwide Has No Boundaries
Poet and publisher Khalid al-Maaly was born in as-Samawa, Iraq in 1956; he left Iraq in 1979 and ended up in Cologne, Germany in 1980, where he founded the publishing house Al-Kamel Verlag. He writes...
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Selected Works: On the 5th Anniversary of Mahmoud Darwish’s Death
Palestinian poet Mahmoud Darwish died on August 9, 2008: I particularly appreciate this 2002 interview Darwish gave to Raja Shehadeh: Raja Shehadeh: Do you build on the work of others? Mahmoud Darwish:...
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