It feels as if he is stuck in a closed space that ends at the beginning and begins at the end. He is the author of four novels in Arabic: Stories of Sleep (2008), Napolitana (2010), Limbo Beirut (2012), and Once Upon a Time, Tomorrow (2016). As they approach, his fear grows. Anna Ziajka Stanton’s English translation of Limbo Beirut (2016) was longlisted for the PEN
Summer Re-runs: On Turning ‘Sayyidat al-Qamr’ into ‘Celestial Bodies’ and the Tyranny of the New
Jokha was a great partner, helping with things I didn’t understand, and also respecting my artistry completely. And this is such a fundamental aspect of Arabic, of the language and of speakers’ identity with it. But my irritation with the state of translation now is that publishers only want ‘the new’. Ouch. That’s a shame.
An Introduction: Arabic Literature in German Translation
Sina de Malafosse (from the French), Claassen (May 2021)Hisham Matar, Ein Monat in Siena (A Month in Siena), tr. Their selections, however, tend to err on the “safe side” of what will be well-received by readers and have so far avoided much of the interesting, innovative developments and experiments that have emerged in Arabic literature
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Publisher Stephan Trudewind of Edition Orient on How the Translation-support System Should Be Restructured
Also a move towards support for projects, not just translations, so children’s books and other genres become eligible for support, too. ST: Our sales haven’t changed significantly; at most, external factors like the COVID pandemic have caused a certain drop in sales. What does a typical publishing process look like at your press, from discovering
Translator Hakan Özkan: Immigrant Translators in Germany ‘Don’t Get a Chance’
HO: I haven’t been actively translating for quite some time—this is a general problem for full-time literary translators, because you basically can’t live off of it. The German cultural machinery really isn’t a very humanist one, it is very capitalistic. I also think that you should have experienced living in a country where the language
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Translator Larissa Bender: On the Clichés and Media Interest that Overdetermine Arabic Literature in German Translation
Based on this text, I inch towards a German version that reads well. Publishing houses and editors work according to their own logic. Accordingly, Tunisian literature has hardly been translated at all, except for a few books that make refugees and migration their subject. What I feel is still missing is a true and deep
A List of Arabic Literature in German Translation
Ghada Samman Mit dem Taxi nach Beirut (Bayrut 75), tr. Bilingual Arabic-German edition. Gedichte, tr. from the French Regina Keil-Sagawe. C.H. Pendragon: 2019. Kamal Ben Hameda Sieben Frauen aus Tripolis (La compagnie des Tripolitaines), tr. Beck: 2001. Ägyptische Kurzgeschichten, tr. Unionsverlag: 1999. Edwar al-Charrat (al-Kharrat) Safranerde (Turabha za‘faran), tr. Hartmut Fähndrich. Die Attentäterin (L’attentat), tr.
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Translator Sandra Hetzl: On the Difficult Balance of Making a Living and Translating What One Loves
Sometimes such a publication even generates the money to do a translation sample for potential publishers in the first place. She has translated short stories, poems and non fiction by Rasha Abbas, Kadhem Khanjar, Aref Hamza, Bushra al-Maktari, Aboud Saeed, Assaf Alassaf and Raif Badawi. It is difficult to find a balance sometimes between practical
Sunday Submissions: Last Call for the ArabLit Story Prize 2021
The prize: $500 to the winner, split between author and translator (except in cases where the work is in the public domain). Sunday Submissions: Last Call for the ArabLit Story Prize 2021 We are open for submissions through August 1, 2021: The ArabLit Story Prize is an award for the best short stories, in any
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Celebrating Author Jabbour Douaihy (1949-2021) and Publisher Fares Sassine (1947-2021)
Read the full excerpt, translated by Paula Haydar –M Lynx Qualey .Our last meeting was when I was signing the novel in Beirut book fair 2018. His work has been translated into many languages, and has won prizes in several, including English and French. Read the full excerpt, translated by Paula Haydar June Rain, by
Lit & Found: Bouchaib Gadir’s ‘Small Dreams,’ ‘The Stranger,’ ‘Joy’
His poetry collection Les lettres de La Nouvelle-Orléans was published in 2017, and his latest collection of poetry, Petits rêves, appeared from Editions Non Lieu (Paris) in June of this year. / The source opened again / And a narcissus emerged. While marking contrasts between immigrants’ dreams and the harsh realities where they
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Summer Re-runs: The Translational Challenges of Dubbing and Subtitling
Mobarak, as introduced by Samia Mehrez, was the star of a theatre group at the AUC. We do not have to have the same rhyming pattern as the original language but we have to have rhyme. Reading out the dialogue is a good way to assure that it is a good one. Mobarak showed examples
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Adonis: ‘When al-Sayyab Visited Beirut in 1957’
But we know that religion has a noble purpose, and so does poetry”. Ghareeb received his PhD from SOAS, University of London in comparative literature with an emphasis on literary translation. From these myths, the poet creates “symbols from which he builds worlds that defy the logic of gold and iron”. It is a “world
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Humphrey Davies and the ‘Tabloid Touch’ Demanded by Translating a 13th-century Charlatan
HD: I think it’s a mixture. I’m curious about the construction of the “I” in this book, as well as in the other books al-Jawbari might have modeled it after. Indeed, many of these read like short puzzle mysteries of the kind one might expect to find in a 1940s detective magazine, while others are
New Fiction: Excerpt from Badriya al-Badri’s ‘The Last Crossing’
Except for their color, the spots were all different, and all the eggs were about to hatch. New Fiction: Excerpt from Badriya al-Badri’s ‘The Last Crossing’ One of the film pitches featured during the opening night of the “BILA HUDOOD: Arabic Literature Everywhere” festival was Katherine Van de Vate’s pitch of Badriyah al-Badri’s The Last
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Sunday Submissions: The Other Side of Hope
Sunday Submissions: The Other Side of Hope Literary magazine the other side of hope is calling for submissions for their annual print issue: They write: We admire, respect, and are friends with writers and poets from all walks of life. For the categories of fiction and poetry, which are only open to refugees, asylum seekers,
AUC Shuts Down Center for Translation Studies
AUC Shuts Down Center for Translation Studies The American University in Cairo has decided to shut down its Center for Translation Studies (CTS), director Samia Mehrez announced Sunday: The CTS was launched in December 2009 as a research center, fostering “collaborative outreach programs and research in translation and translation studies within an interdisciplinary context.” The
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An Excerpt from Laila AlOthman’s Classic ‘Wasmiya Comes Out of the Sea’
Akh… Tomorrow he will return for the net. The forecast called for high tide at three in the morning. But what if the net is barren, catching only rocks and seaweed? He moves his arms, trying to break through, so that the aura may fall into the sea, to fade away with the waves,
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Center For Palestine Studies At Columbia University Launches New Radio Play Program
Center For Palestine Studies At Columbia University Launches New Radio Play Program A new platform for Palestinian playwrights called NO PLACE / LA MAKAN / لا مكان had its launch event last week: The event was a conversation between Palestinian writers Selma Dabbagh and Ahmed Masoud “about what it means to write for radio and
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Sudan Says Farewell to Two Greats: Poet Mohammed Taha al-Gaddal and Short-story Writer Eisa Al-Hilo
He referred to Al-Hilo’s style as “a mysterious artistic sensitivity woven into the texture of Sudanese fiction.” His short-story collections include: “The Parrot’s Feathers”, “The Angel on its Daily Trip”, “A Red Rose for Mariam” and “Good Morning Beautiful Invisible Face” among others, together with his novels: “The Orange”, “The Paradise on Top of the