This poem is from Yamani’s collection, Farewell in a Tiny Triangle, published by Dar Almutawassit. A translation originally ran on ArabLit in October 2022. Love By Ahmed Yamani Translated by Omar Ibrahim   Love was a single blow from neither an axe nor a hand — a bucket of cold water where the head and legs swim a hospital bed and blood dripping from the bedroom to the bathroom * Love was vomiting in friends’ houses where they ran here and there in search of a hope of survival * Love was painful like a rose’s thorn in the wet garden of a deserted house where a lonely man once lived then ..read more

“Writing from the vortex of war,” by Muhammad al-Zaqzouq, translated by Katharine Halls , recently appeared on The Ideas Letter. It opens: After much wrangling and back-and-forth with myself, alternately accepting and refusing, believing and disbelieving, asking what the point would be, I have decided to start writing. 106 days since we were suddenly, startlingly, swept into the vortex of war once again, I am writing so as not to become brutalized, so as not to be consumed by the pitiless machine of war and turned into a monster in a dark hole. I have spent days paralyzed, disoriented, doubt ..read more

This short story appeared in the “Gaza! Gaza! Gaza!” issue of ArabLit Quarterly. Today My Sight Is Sharp By Yousri Alghoul Translated by Graham Liddell   You were totally heedless of this. Now We have lifted this veil of yours, so Today your sight is sharp! —Qur’an 50:22   The cold eats away at me, and the darkness surrounds me… Alone in this place for ten days, I’m frozen, unable to scream or implore them to make a hole so I can breathe. Men enter and exit without showing me the slightest compassion. One of them said in disgust, “We must get rid of this old man as soon as possible ..read more

In Atef Abu Saif’s 2019 novel, set in Jabalia, Gaza, a host of local characters attempt to solve an ever-expanding mystery, each in their own way, but all relying mainly on their imaginations. In this extract, we join the action early on and witness the initial accident around which everyone’s suspicions will be activated. This excerpt appeared in the Spring 2024 “Gaza! Gaza! Gaza!” issue of ArabLit Quarterly. From ‘Walk Don’t Walk’ By Atef Abu Saif Translated by Alice Guthrie In reality, he didn’t die. The truck took the corner fast. He was wheeling his old bicycle across the ..read more

By M Lynx Qualey Each anthology of near-future fiction in Comma Press’s “Futures Past” series has had a distinctly different flavor. The stories in Iraq + 100, ed. Hassan Blasim, are set in 2103, a hundred years after the disastrous US-led invasion, and many of them map the catastrophic aftereffects of this war.  Palestine + 100, ed. Basma Ghalayini, is set a hundred years after the 1948 Nakba, and its authors explore the meaning of occupation, time, and truth. Kurdistan + 100, ed. Orsola Casagrande and Mustafa Gündoğdu, is set 100 years after the short-lived Republic of Kurdistan; many ..read more

JULY 15, 2024 — On Saturday, July 13, the Jean-Luc Lagardère Foundation and the Arab World Institute announced the shortlist for the eleventh annual  of Prix de la Littérature Arabe, which celebrates Arab authors who write in French or have been translated into the language. The prize — one of the few in French that focus on Arab literary works — grants its winner €10,000.This year, as last year, about half were translated from Arabic and half written in French. Screenshot The 2024 shortlist: Bread on Uncle Milad’s Table by Mohammed Alnaas, translated from Arabic to French by Sarah Rolfo ..read more

For unclear reasons, Egyptian censors halted the distribution of Yassen Ghaleb’s novel 15+; the novel has been sitting in storage since 2020, when it was meant to be launched at that year’s Cairo International Book Fair. The book’s first chapter has since adapted into a theatrical performance held in Helsinki, Finland, titled “Migratory Birds,” with another section of the novel adapted for Finnish radio, set to be broadcast this summer. An excerpt from 15+ By Yaseen Ghaleb Translated by the author Chapter One A tasteless joke, death. The doors close with a tuut tuut tuut sound as the last pa ..read more

Say By Olivia Elias translated by Jérémy Victor Robert A poet of the Palestinian diaspora, Olivia Elias writes in French. Born in Haifa in 1944, she lived until the age of sixteen in Lebanon, where her family took refuge in 1948, then in Montreal, before moving to France. Her work, translated into English, Arabic, Spanish, Italian, and Japanese, has appeared in anthologies and numerous journals. In 2022, she published her first book in English translation, Chaos, Crossing (World Poetry), translated by Kareem James Abu-Zeid. Jérémy Victor Robert is a translator between English and French who ..read more

Inspired by BookRiot’s recent list of new books in translation featuring cats, we revisit some of our favorite feline-focused short fictions. Egypt Egypt has many fictional cats, many of which transform between the real and the supernatural, between human and cat. “Holy Wednesday”by Mahmoud Aboudoma, tr. Sarah Enany “Tale of the Resurrected Brother and the Metamorphosed Mother,” by Amgad ElSabban, tr. Mona Khedr “The Cats,” by Mohamed El-Makhzangi, tr. Omar Ibrahim Iraq In this story from Iraq, a woman promises to come back as a cat after her death. “The Return,” by Mahdi Issa al-Saqr, tr. H ..read more

Late this fall, Tenement Press will be bringing out a selection of work by the celebrated Lebanese-Australian poet Wadih Saadeh, titled A Horse at the Door. The book, forthcoming December 10, will bring together a “chronology” of Saadeh’s poems, drawing from collections published between 1968 and 2012. “Another Light” (ضوء آخر) comes from Saadeh’s 2006 collection, تركيب آخر لحياة وديع سعادة (Another Configuration of the Life of Wadih Saadeh). Another light On the high mountain he closed his eyes not wanting the old light, come walking thousands of years to reach him. He closed his eyes and ca ..read more