The book about Iraq most well-known to English readers is perhaps Chris Kyle's best-selling “American Sniper,” a memoir told from behind the barrel of a gun. Other popular English books set in Iraq have been written either by US soldiers (Kevin (...)
It was not Amir Tag Elsir's plan to write a novel within a novel. When he first sat down to pen “The Grub Hunter,” shortlisted for the 2011 International Prize for Arabic Fiction, it was because Elsir had been struck by an image.
“I suddenly (...)
Love is a subject that has animated great poetry, novels and memoirs for a thousand years and more. Hate has been explored comparatively little.
Khaled al-Khalifa's “In Praise of Hatred,” shortlisted for the 2009 International Prize for Arabic (...)
Maged Zaher's latest collection of poems, “The Revolution Happened and You Didn't Call Me,” is a slim, postcard-shaped volume of very short poems. The collection follows Zaher's travels between Cairo and Seattle between July 2011 and February (...)
Many have criticized the “hasty” Arabic literature that has emerged in the last 16 months, blossoming in both bookstores and online during the ongoing Arab revolutions.
Young Tunisian novelist Kamel Riahi has argued that literature should not be (...)
"Zahra's Paradise," a graphic novel released last September, was inspired by the energy and hope of the 2009 Iranian uprising. The project documents both Iran's mass protests and their aftermath; and although its characters are fictional, it pays (...)
Copyright, as first envisioned, was a way to balance the rights of authors with the rights of their audiences. The public has a right to read both creative and academic works, and authors have a right to control aspects of their work and, perhaps, (...)
Egypt was one of just 14 countries represented by submissions to this year's Caine Prize for African Writing, sometimes referred to as the "African Booker." The prestigious and lucrative short-story prize, which accepts work from African-rooted (...)
When Palestinian-American author Susan Abulhawa began writing her popular “Mornings in Jenin,” it was, she said, “to put a Palestinian voice in English literature.”
But although the novel was written in English, it took the long route to an (...)
At this year's Cairo International Book Fair, the most sought-after books were those about Arab revolutions. Titles about revolution, in Arabic and in English, have also dominated prime bookstore shelf space. And yet few revolutionary titles have (...)
The spark at the center of Hassouna Mosbahi's short novel, “A Tunisian Tale,” is a human immolation. As in the real Tunisia, this death by burning launches a thousand stories. The book also echoes revolutionary Tunisia in its reference to Abu (...)
There is an ad-hoc quality to this year's Cairo International Book Fair, as if it had been thrown together at the last possible moment. The fairgrounds' permanent buildings, which were torn down more than a year ago to make way for new ones, were (...)
Next week, the winners of the annual Banipal Prize for Arabic Literary Translation will be celebrated in London.
When the awards were announced in mid-January, it came as no surprise that Khaled Mattawa took the top award for his translation and (...)
"The most beautiful of the Nile's birds leaves the lake this evening,” Palestinian poet Mourid Barghouti wrote yesterday on Twitter. “Goodbye, Ibrahim Aslan."
Aslan, one of Egypt's greatest authors, entered the hospital yesterday with a heart (...)
“Reflections on Islamic Art,” edited by Ahdaf Soueif, appears at a time when Islamic art is surging back into fashion.
Soueif's collection, published in November 2011, pairs art from Doha's monumental Museum of Islamic Art (MIA) with creative (...)
There are good reasons why it is hard to assemble a credible anthology of African short stories. There are too many languages, too many histories and too many hardened, colonial-era divisions, which means that it is unlikely that any one editor will (...)
Khaled al-Berry's enjoyable and pioneering memoir, “Life is More Beautiful than Paradise,” translated by Humphrey Davies and published in 2009, is now set to be made into a feature-length film.
The film script will be written by Mohamed Rifai and (...)
Egyptian novelist Bahaa Taher made headlines last year when he filed a suit against the American University in Cairo (AUC) Press, citing both financial issues and infelicities in translation.
Taher, who is fluent in English, has generally been an (...)
Lamia Ziade's “Bye Bye Babylon: Beirut 1975-1979” opens with bright, pop-art representations of US and UK products. We see Bazooka bubble gum, Kraft's “rainbow flavor” marshmallows, Planter's cocktail peanuts, and a psychedelic Spinney's shopping (...)
At first glance, Gretchen McCullough and Mohamed Metwalli seem perfectly cast for their roles: she, the hard-working prose writer in a neatly pressed shirt, and he, the bohemian poet. But despite – or because of – their differences, they form an (...)
Yusuf al-Qa'id's acclaimed novel, “War in the Land of Egypt,” was set during the brief October 1973 war and published in Lebanon in 1978, just before the signing of the Camp David Accords.
Fellow Egyptian novelist Khairy Shalaby summed up these (...)
In January and February of this year, the eyes and ears of people around the world were fixed on Egypt.
Most of these Tahrir-watchers neither spoke nor understood Arabic. While the more avid among them probably got the hang of a few words, such as (...)
–
“Palestine,” said Lebanese novelist Elias Khoury, “is my country of choice.”
Under the banner of “Translating Palestine,” Khoury spoke on Monday night at the American University in Cairo's downtown campus with translator Humphrey Davies and (...)
When the UK-based Literature Across Frontiers (LAF) visited Cairo this month, it was with the aim of speeding and smoothing out the flow of translations into and from Arabic.
The visit made two things apparent. The first was that many young (...)
Since February, publishers and booksellers have been trying to fill the hole left behind by the cancellation of the 43rd annual Cairo International Book Fair, the region's single largest bookselling event.
In its place, several private and public (...)