New Short Fiction from Sudan: Abdulmajid Olesh’s ‘The Doctor’
A man is feeling dizzy, and goes to visit a doctor. The Doctor By Abdulmajid Olesh Translated by Nassir al-Sayied al-Nour There was only a little time left to get there, as the dizziness and light buzzing sensation started all at once. They told me there was a clinic, and I moved slowly and cautiously, to avoid falling. I stepped into a narrow lane. The walls of its old houses loomed high above me, and ...
A Look Back: Iconic Egyptian Writer Ihsan Abdel Kouddous
Yesterday, Ihsan Abdel Kouddous’s A Nose and Three Eyes appeared from Hoopoe Fiction, in Jonathan Smolin’s translation. In the foreword, which appeared yesterday on ArabLit, Hanan al-Shaykh writes about her relationship with the iconic Egyptian writer. This marks only the second time Abdel Kouddous (1919-1990), one of the most popular Egyptian authors of the twentieth century, has seen a book in wide English release. The first, I Do Not Sleep, was released in 2022. It was ...
Hanan al-Shaykh on Romance, Writing, & Ihsan Abdel Kouddous
It's publication day for iconic Egyptian novelist Ihsan Abdel Kouddous's A Nose and Three Eyes, translated by Jonathan Smolin. In this foreword to the translation, Hanan Al-Shaykh reflects on her romantic relationship with Kouddous and the insights that relationship offers into A Nose and Three Eyes. Beyond the details of their much-gossiped-about romantic relationship and the inspiration that it offered both writers, Al-Shaykh writes on the meaning of freedom, the process of fictionalizing a person, ...
Fiction
New Short Fiction from Sudan: Abdulmajid Olesh’s ‘The Doctor’
A man is feeling dizzy, and goes to visit a doctor. The Doctor By Abdulmajid Olesh Translated by Nassir al-Sayied al-Nour There was only a little time left to get there, as the dizziness and light buzzing sensation started all ...
New Short Fiction: Suheir Daoud’s ‘The Miracle’
The Miracle By Suheir Daoud Translated by Leonie Rau I was born after October 7, under the rubble. The cold was severe, and my mother’s voice was the only thing that covered me. I was about to start wailing, like ...
From Reem al-Kamali’s ‘Rose’s Diaries’
Yesterday, we talked with Chip Rossetti about his translation of Reem Al Kamali’s International Prize for Arabic Fiction-shortlisted Rose’s Diaries. Today, we have an excerpt from the middle of the novel, where the narrator recalls her lost nuclear family. 58. I ...
Poetry
New Poetry in Translation: Yahya Ashour’s ‘When a Missile Lands’
This poem appeared in the “THIS MOMENT” section of our Gaza! Gaza! Gaza! issue, produced together with Majalla 28. When ...
‘Every Time I Leave the House’: New Poetry by Haidar al-Ghazali
This poem was inadvertently left out of the THIS MOMENT section of ArabLit Quarterly’s “Gaza! Gaza! Gaza!” section. We will be correcting ...
‘Houses That Cling to the Tongue’: New Poetry by Mahmoud Kiralla
Houses That Cling to the Tongue By Mahmoud Kiralla Translated by Tamer Fathy Mabrouk When I was young, the train ...
Interviews
On Translating a Novel of Might-have-beens in ’60s Dubai
New publishing house ELF Publishing has brought out Emirati author Reem Al Kamali’s International Prize for Arabic Fiction-shortlisted Rose’s Diaries ...
Shakir Mustafa on the Obstacles to Translating Iraqi Literature into English
Shakir Mustafa was a scholar focused on Irish literature and drama in 2003 and 2004 when the invasion and occupation ...
Recommendations: On the New Wave of Memoirs from Iraq
Editor’s note: Publishers who are interested in Iraqi literatures will find more in our May Publishers Newsletter, out on May ...
Country Focus
From the archives
For Valentine’s Day: The Many Loves of Nizar Qabbani
Your love has taught me… how to be sad.
And I have needed, for ages
A woman to make me sad
A woman in whose arms I could weep
Like a sparrow,
Teaching with Arabic Literature in Translation: Pairing Arabic Literature and Film
“Iraq is just one example, but there are so many corners of this thing we call ‘Arabic Literature’ that are worthy of more attention than they get. I hope that we will see more of this literature make its way into university reading lists.”
14th-Century Cookbook ‘Profoundly Rich Resource for Egyptian Culinary Heritage’
“Our anonymous author was most probably a gourmet cook himself but not necessarily a professional cook. He might have had a profession like those people to support his family, and wrote about cooking, his passion.”