From Najwa Bin Shatwan’s ‘Tree of Soap’
From Charles Akl’s ‘Red Like Orange’
Words, Music, and Translating ‘Red Like Orange’
Fiction
From Najwa Bin Shatwan’s ‘Tree of Soap’
Libyan writer Najwa Binshatwan’s latest novel, شجرة الصابون (Tree of Soap, Dar Arab 2026) unfolds with her signature sarcastic-surrealism. In this world, the State encourages citizens to express themselves, ensures their participation, and provides them everything necessary to practice democracy. Nothing is forced, exactly; it’s just that absence is unwelcome and silence requires explanation.
From Charles Akl’s ‘Red Like Orange’
“Before singer-songwriter Yousra Hawwari, who made great use of the accordion, it was nobody’s favorite instrument despite being widely used. Perhaps it earned a kind of universal dislike precisely because it was overused in Egyptian songs from the 1990s, songs from other Arab countries that imitated Egyptian songs, and Turkish songs that either plagiarized Egyptian ones or vice versa.”
Classic Short Fiction: East Is East
“He stood bewildered at the crossroads, not knowing which way to take.” Classic short fiction about Arabs in early twentieth century Paris by Fouad Elshayeb.
Poetry
Five Poems by May Ziadeh
“sometimes my soul is wild, / an egret flying far / beyond the ocean’s edge, // and sometimes I curl up, / tender as an anemone when touched, / as salty and as damp.”
Two New Poems by Marah Muhammad Al-Khatib
“Alone / on a balcony with no air / I suffocate, grow intoxicated / Coffee cups multiply / stained with lipstick, overflowing with disappointment / taking me to a fresh bout of insomnia / and thoughts, buried before they could ever see the light.”
Interviews
Words, Music, and Translating ‘Red Like Orange’
This month, Hoopoe Fiction (an imprint of AUC Press) publishes Charles Akl’s debut novel Red Like Orange, which won a 2023 Sawiris Cultural Award. Now, three years later, Sarah Enany’s translation of this novel is available to a new readership.
Translating for the Egyptian Stage
In this “BETWEEN TWO ARABIC TRANSLATORS” conversation, Yasmeen Hanoosh and Sarah Enany talk about some of the particulars about translating for the stage and, particularly, for song.
Mohamed Mansi Qandil, on Medicine and Writing
In this conversation with acclaimed Egyptian novelist Mohamed Mansi Qandil, we discuss his latest novel to reach English, The Country Doctor’s Tale, the relationship between doctoring and writing, the novels that shaped him, and why he’d like to see The Country Doctor’s Tale as a film or TV series.
In Focus
From the archives
A Talk with Poet Golan Haji: ‘Languages Never Draw Geographical Boundaries’
” Jaziri wrote poetry with one set of alphabets which at that time were used in four languages: Kurdish, Ottoman Turkish, Persian, and Arabic. Sometimes, he used the four languages in one couplet. His poems are still recited and sung by Kurds. That coexistence of languages was quite natural, the alluring music was convincing, although I sometimes understood almost nothing.”
Jonathan Smolin on the Relationship Between Ihsan Abdel Kouddous’s Politics and His Novels
“My book really is an examination of how he participated in the coup ,and how he believed fundamentally that the Free Officers were going to install democracy, and—once he realized that they were actually installing military dictatorship—the way he dissented, in the editorials and in person, the way that he was jailed, and the way he turned to fiction to express his dissent directly to Nasser.”
Egyptian Novelist Shady Lewis on Coptic Identity, Church-State Relations, and Citizenship
“In Ways of the Lord, Christians are mistaken for being Jews and are accused of spying for Israel, which demonstrates the lack of recognition of Copts and their conflation with other minorities.”