The Latest

On the Choice to Write in Colloquial Arabic

On the Choice to Write in Colloquial Arabic

Interviews /
"Some classical poets feel that the popularity of colloquial writers has nothing to do with the quality of their work, but rather because they have chosen the easier path." ...

New Poetry in Translation: Sayed Abolela’s ‘Cinema’

New Poetry in Translation: Sayed Abolela's 'Cinema'
Poetry /
This poem is from a forthcoming collection,  مصمم معارك, to be published by the General Egyptian Book Organization ...

New on Bulaq: Episode 120

New on Bulaq: Episode 120
News /
Listen to episode 120 of the BULAQ podcast, with a focus on literatures of the Maghreb and Mashreq ...

Fiction

Classic Short Fiction: ‘A Criminal Against His Will’

Classic Short Fiction: 'A Criminal Against His Will'

“It was five o’clock in the morning. The station, faintly illuminated by dim lamps, lay beneath a murky canopy of locomotive smoke. Qasim stood beside the steps of one of the coaches, gazing at the station clock.”

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World Cup Lit: From ‘Hot Maroc’

World Cup Lit: From ‘Hot Maroc’

This excerpt appeared in the FOOTBALL issue of ArabLit Quarterly, which you can still get in print and digital. 

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World Cup Short Fiction: Adania Shibli’s ‘A Tin Ball’

World Cup Short Fiction: Adania Shibli's 'A Tin Ball'

This week, we’re celebrating the World Cup with work from our Fall 2021 FOOTBALL issue.

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Poetry

New Poetry in Translation: Sayed Abolela’s ‘Cinema’

New Poetry in Translation: Sayed Abolela's 'Cinema'

This poem is from a forthcoming collection,  مصمم معارك, to be published by the General Egyptian Book Organization.

...

In Memory: ‘Oh Stones Cloaked in Grief’

In Memory: 'Oh Stones Cloaked in Grief'

In memory of the July 2025 massacres in Sweida, Syria.

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A Football Chant for Egypt

A Football Chant for Egypt

In celebration of the World Cup, a football chant from Egypt.

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See all posts in Poetry


Interviews

On the Choice to Write in Colloquial Arabic

On the Choice to Write in Colloquial Arabic

“Some classical poets feel that the popularity of colloquial writers has nothing to do with the quality of their work, but rather because they have chosen the easier path.”

...

Translating Trauma, the Trauma of Translating

Translating Trauma, the Trauma of Translating

Here, Leri Price talks about the referred trauma (and guilt) of translating testimonies from a genocide, how she worked with translators bringing the book into other languages, and the particular challenges of translating this book.

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Kawthar Al-Jahmi’s Journey: From ‘Bint Tripoli’ to Award-winning Novelist

Kawthar Al-Jahmi's Journey: From 'Bint Tripoli' to Award-winning Novelist

Today, Kawthar al-Jahmi talks about her writing and reading journeys, the role of literary prizes, submitting her novel to the publisher a day before giving birth, and developing a writing practice while working and raising children.

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In Focus

From Gaza
Between Two Arabic Translators with Yasmeen Hanoosh
May Goes On: (Re)-Introducing May Ziadeh

From the archives

Jonathan Smolin on the Relationship Between Ihsan Abdel Kouddous’s Politics and His Novels

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.”

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Samer Abu Hawwash’s ‘It No Longer Matters If Anyone Loves Us’

Samer Abu Hawwash's 'It No Longer Matters If Anyone Loves Us'
This poem originally appeared in an-Nahar on October 25. * It No Longer Matters If Anyone Loves Us By Samer Abu Hawwash Translated ...

For Valentine’s Day: The Many Loves of Nizar Qabbani

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,

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