New Poetry in Translation: Sayed Abolela’s ‘Cinema’
New on Bulaq: Episode 120
Classic Short Fiction: ‘A Criminal Against His Will’
Fiction
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.”
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.
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.
Poetry
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.
Interviews
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.
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.
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.
In Focus
From the archives
Samer Abu Hawwash’s ‘It No Longer Matters If Anyone Loves Us’
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.”
‘Resistance and the Palestinian Folk Song’





