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Fallible Men vs Safynaz Kazem

Fallible Men vs Safynaz Kazem

Nonfiction /
This originally ran in the 2020 ROAD issue of ArabLit Quarterly and appears here for Women in Translation Month (#WiTMonth), as this year, we're focusing on underappreciated classics in Arabic by women. And, as Hadil Ghoneim writes below, the gifted and sometimes frightening Kazem was "overshadowed, banned, and deliberately ignored" By Hadil Ghoneim I tried to avoid writing about Safynaz Kazem, preferring to let her writing speak for her. I wanted to tune out the problematic politics ...

‘By Candlelight’: Short Fiction by Latifa al-Zayyat

'By Candlelight': Short Fiction by Latifa al-Zayyat
Fiction /
Part of our focus, this Women in Translation Month (#WiTMonth), is on classic Arabic works by women, especially those at the margins of (or neglected entirely by) critical and readerly attention ...

Five Novels: A Masterclass in Palestinian Literature for Teens

Five Novels: A Masterclass in Palestinian Literature for Teens
Lit Lists /
We recommend these five books as the anchors of a class in Palestinian literature and translation for teen readers ...

Fiction

‘By Candlelight’: Short Fiction by Latifa al-Zayyat

'By Candlelight': Short Fiction by Latifa al-Zayyat

Part of our focus, this Women in Translation Month (#WiTMonth), is on classic Arabic works by women, especially those at the margins of (or neglected entirely by) critical and readerly attention.

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From Zainab Hifni’s ‘I Was Here Yesterday’

From Zainab Hifni's ‘I Was Here Yesterday’

‘I Was Here Yesterday; is set between Saudi Arabia and the Florida coast and entangles grief and memory, centering on how the narrator grapples with her mother’s death and the truths about her mother’s life—and her own—that she uncovers.

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Short Fiction from Syria: ‘The Blacklist’

Short Fiction from Syria: 'The Blacklist'

Haseeb Al-Zainy’s “The Blacklist” appears in the new anthology The Book of Damascus: A City in Short Fiction, out this month from Comma Press. 

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Poetry

Poems of Whiskey and Regret by Rasha Omran

Poems of Whiskey and Regret by Rasha Omran

These poems, translated by Phoebe Carter, are from Rasha Omran’s sixth collection, “A Secret Wife of Absence.”

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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.

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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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Interviews

On the New Platform, ‘Palestine is Everywhere’

On the New Platform, 'Palestine is Everywhere'

Editors of the anthology Palestine is Everywhere — Skye Arundhati Thomas, Edwin Nasr, and Gloria Habsburg — recently launched a new “Palestine is Everywhere” platform to host a series of monthly commissions, “creating an ongoing space to support and amplify the work of artists, writers, and practitioners from Palestine and the wider region.”

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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.”

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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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In Focus

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

From the archives

Another Road for Syrian Poetry

Another Road for Syrian Poetry

“The divide among poets has added a diaspora to the spatial diaspora, which scattered Syrians around the world.”

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In Conversation: The Possibilities for Doing ‘Right’ in 14th Century Morocco & Spain

In Conversation: The Possibilities for Doing ‘Right’ in 14th Century Morocco & Spain
OCTOBER 15, 2024 — Mohamed Seif El Nasr’s debut novel, Then He Sent Prophets, is out today from Daraja Press ...

‘Writing in Gaza’: by Yousef el-Qedra

'Writing in Gaza': by Yousef el-Qedra
Yousef el-Qedra is a poet and playwright in Gaza; you can read more of his work in translation in Hayden’s ...