The Egyptian feminist writer and doctor Nawal El Saadawi always spoke her mind. Her early books were explosive testimonials, based on her medical practice and personal experience, about sexual double standards and the abuses women faced because of them. She went on to write many more books, including novels, plays and several memoirs. Over the course of her life she was jailed, censored, fired, admired, and attacked by Islamists as an unbeliever. She is still one of the best-known and most translated Arab women writers.  Some of the books discussed in this episode include: The Hidden Face of Eve, The Fall of the Imam, Memoirs from the Women’s Prison, Woman at Point Zero, Daughter of Isis and Walking Through Fire.  The Radical Books Collective and the Adabiyat Book Club are holding an online master class on El Saadawy’s famous novel Woman At Point Zero on November 20, with academic and translator Samah Selim.  Ursula wrote about El Saadawy recently for The New York Review of Books. 

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Walking Through Fire: A Look Back at Nawal El Saadawi

Sonallah Ibrahim’s Warda is the story of a female fighter in the 1960s and 70s Dhofar rebellion in Oman, and of the Egyptian intellectual who, decades later, tries to solve the mystery of what happened to her. We discuss the vibrant and mysterious female character at the heart of one of Ibrahim’s most ambitious literary projects with scholar, editor and translator Hosam Aboul-ela. As Aboul-ela writes in his introduction to his new translation, Warda is someone who “somehow manages to embody both the historical and the unimaginable.”  Warda is available, in Hosam Abou-ela’s translation, from Yale University Press. Hosam also writes about Warda in his Domestications: American Empire, Literary Culture, and the Postcolonial Lens. Hosam’s translation of Sonallah Ibrahim’s Stealthis available from New Directions. Sonallah Ibrahim’s Zaat, in Tony Calderbank’s translation,is, unfortunately, out of print. Hosam Aboul-ela is also the editor of the Arabic list at Seagull Books, an award-winning Kolkata-based publisher. One of the first books it published was The Stillborn by Arwa Salih. Forthcoming titles include Salim Barakat’s Come, Take a Gentle Stab, co-translated by Huda Fakhreddine and Jayson Iwen; Akram Musallam’s The Dance of the Deep-blue Scorpion, translated by Sawad Hussain, and Hussein Barghouthi’s Among the Almond Blossoms, translated by Ibrahim Muwahi.

Warda: Diary of a Revolutionary

Football and Arabic literature haven’t always had an easy relationship. Football has inspired famous authors like Mahmoud Darwish, and anonymous fans who have composed powerful stadium chants. But the sport is sometimes looked down on by writers. We celebrate the sport and its chroniclers, featured in the FOOTBALL-themed fall 2021 issue of ArabLit Quarterly. SHOW NOTES Today, we talk our way through the Fall 2021 issue of ArabLit Quarterly, which is all about literature and football. We open with a chant from the Casablanca team RAJA, “Fi bladi delmouni,” or “I Was Wronged in My Own Country,” in the original and then translated by Hicham Rafik. For more background, read Aida Alami’s “The Soccer Politics of Morocco,” in The New York Review of Books. We go out on the Ultras Ahlawy chant “Hekayetna,” or “Our Story,” translated by Mina Ibrahim. We also talk about Mina Ibrahim’s moving essay “Egyptian Football’s Missing Archives.” Mid-way, we read from Syrian author Luqman Derky’s “Knocking on Blue Freedom’s Door,” translated by Daniel Behar. You can find the issue at arablit.org/store

Football Writing: The Passion and the Provocation

We’re back! Catch up on everything you missed over the summer, including Women in Translation Month and a Fall reading list full of intriguing new titles.  Show Notes:  In our opening, Marcia reads "Four Years Without You" (For Mahmoud Darwish) by Samar Abdel Jabar, trans. Zeina Hashem Beck August was Women in Translation Month with ArabLit highlighting Arab women authors you may not have heard of yet.  The Female Voices in Arabic Literature webinar featured writer Iman Mersal, translator Sawad Hussain and scholar Dr. Marlé Hammond.  Melanie Magidow’s translation of a (small portion) of the epic poem of Dhat al-Himma is out from Penguin Press as The Tale of Princess Fatima, Warrior Woman.  Warda, by Sonallah Ibrahim, trans. Hosam Abul-Ela, is out from Yale University Press Slipping, by Mohamed Kheir, trans. Robin Moger, was published in June by Two Lines Press.  The Library of Arabic Literature is behind the bilingual edition of Hanna Diyab’s Books of Travels (trans. Elias Muhanna)and al-Baghdadi’s A Physician on the Nile (trans.. Tim Mackintosh-Smith). Diyab is the source of some of the stories Antoine Galland added to his version of the 1001 Nights, including the story Aladdin.  Samar Yazbek’s Planet of Clay (trans. Leri Price) is forthcoming from World Editions.  The Egyptian writer Basma Abdel Aziz’s 2016 novel The Queue (trans. Lissie Jacquette) was a widely praised work of dark political fantasy. Her follow-up, tr. Jonathan Wright, is Here Is A Body. Ursula’s article on Edward Said -- on his own account of his life and those of others, including a recent biography -- can be found at The Point.  

What You May Have Missed

Iman Mersal’s work spans poetry and scholarship, personal essay and biography. In 2021, Mersal received the Sheikh Zayed Book Award for her deeply insightful prose work In the Footsteps of Enayat al-Zayyat.  SHOW NOTES This podcast is produced in collaboration with the Sheikh Zayed Book Award. The Sheikh Zayed Book Award is one of the Arab world’s most prestigious literary prizes, showcasing the stimulating and ambitious work of writers, translators, researchers, academics and publishers advancing Arab literature and culture around the globe. Today, we talk with SZBA-winning Egyptian poet and writer Iman Mersal. In 1993, Mersal picked up an unknown novel by a forgotten writer from the 60s. And so began her long wanderings in search of Enayat El Zayat. El Zayat killed herself in 1963, four years before her book “Love and Silence” was finally published. Mersal’s portrait of El Zayat is a remarkable work of research, empathy and imagination.  Iman Mersal’s In the Footsteps of Enayat al-Zayyat (في أثر عنايات الزيات)was published by Kotob Khan Books in late 2019. We read excerpts from Robin Moger’s forthcoming English translation. You can also listen to our previous episode on this book, titled “Cold Trail.” Richard Jacquemond’s translation, Sur les traces d'Enayat Zayyat, was published in the spring of 2021. The only novel by Enayat al-Zayyat (1936-63), Love and Silence ‫(الحب و الصمت) ,‬ was recently republished and is available on Google Play. Other works in English translation by Iman Mersal include How to Mend: Motherhood And Its Ghosts, tr. Robin Moger and a forthcoming poetry collection, translated by Robyn Creswell. ArabLit has gathered links to poems by Mersal in English translation. Her co-translation of Waguih Ghali’s Beer in the Snooker Club (بيرة فى نادى البلياردو) is widely available. You can read “Qāl wa Qulnā: What the Letter Qāf means in Spoken Jordanian” on 7iber. Mersal’s “The Displaced Voice” is available via Scribd.

Iman Mersal: Books You Need To Read & Need to Write

The Maqamat of Al-Hariri is a story collection from 11th century Iraq that showcases the Arabic language’s dazzling, disorienting possibilities. Michael Cooperson received the 2021 Sheikh Zayed Book Award for his ground-breaking translation.  SHOW NOTES This podcast is produced in collaboration with the Sheikh Zayed Book Award. The Sheikh Zayed Book Award is one of the Arab world’s most prestigious literary prizes, showcasing the stimulating and ambitious work of writers, translators, researchers, academics and publishers advancing Arab literature and culture around the globe. Today’s guest, Michael Cooperson was awarded the SZBA in 2021 in the category of Translation, for the book Impostures: A Rogue’s Tale Translated Fifty Ways by Al-Hariri, translated from Arabic to English and published by the Library of Arabic Literature in 2020. The Sheikh Zayed Book Award Translation Grant is open all year round, with funding available for titles that have won or been shortlisted for an award in the Children’s Literature and Literature categories. Publishers outside the Arab world are eligible to apply - find out more on the Sheikh Zayed Book Award website: https://www.zayedaward.ae/en/translation.grant.aspx.

Impostures: A Rogue’s Many Tales

This episode focuses on Driss Chraibi’s The Simple Past (Le Passé Simple), a Moroccan novel about a very angry young man in revolt against his father’s tyranny and the hypocrisies of his colonial education. Back in 1954, it was compared to an explosion – and it still packs a punch today.  Show Notes: The Simple Past was newly re-issued from NYRB Classics in Hugh A. Harter’s 1990 translation, with a new introduction from Adam Shatz. Shatz’s introduction is available online at the NYR Daily. Excerpts from Chraibi’s interview with Federico Arbós can be found at Fragmentos de la entrevista con Federico Arbós, El Mundo/La Esfera, 28/3/92. This episode also references Naguib Mahfouz’s Cairo Trilogy and the father figure of Si Sayyed; Waguih Ghali’s Beer in the Snooker Club; and Tayib Saleh’s Season of Migration to the North.

Driss Chraibi’s Portrait of an Angry Young Man

We recorded this episode in Cairo with author, translator, and Mada Masr culture editor Yasmine Zohdi. We talked about making art in difficult and precarious times; how to acknowledge the political context; censorship and self-censorship.  “What we talk about when we talk about trees,” by Yasmine Zohdi, ran in Mada Masr in December of last year. We also spoke about the shrinking of cultural spaces in Cairo. Zohdi also translates, including her husband Muhammad al-Hajj’s beautiful Nobody Mourns the City’s Cats. MLQ was in Cairo for the ARCE symposium on popular culture. Essays from and inspired by the symposium will be appearing at The Maydan. An excerpt of the Egyptian novel Prizes for Heroes was translated as part of Mada Masr’s translation series. The Egyptian film Yomeddine (“Judgement Day”) was part of the official selection at the Cannes Film Festival.

A Conversation in Cairo About Making Art Under Pressure

This week we talk about how MLQ’s latest passion project, the Arab Lit Quarterly, and the ups and downs of making a living (sort of) writing about books.

Work-Lit Balance

We talk to humorist Karl Sharro about the origins story of his Twitter alter-ego Karl ReMarks and about finding the ideal online nemesis. Marcia takes issue with a new book listing the “hundred best novels in translation.”  Show notes Karl Sharro spoke about Karl ReMarks’ new book, And then God Created the Middle East and Said ‘Let There Be Breaking News’ (and Analysis). The book is forthcoming July 9. Boyd Tonkin’s The 100 Best Novels in Translation was released June 21. The two Arabic novels that made the list were Tayeb Salih’s Season of Migration to the North, translated by Denys Johnson-Davies, and Naguib Mahfouz’s Cairo Trilogy, translated by William Maynard Hutchins, Olive E. Kenny, Lorne M. Kenny, and Angele Botros Samaan. The translation was overseen by Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis, along with Martha Levin, and their notes on the manuscript can be found at the Lilly Library Manuscript Collections. You can read the Amazon press release online about how the mega-corporation has (finally) launched some 12,000 Arabic ebooks into the Kindle system. You can find and purchase them on Amazon.com.

Karl Sharro Only Takes Soccer Seriously

In Aziz Muhammad’s The Critical Case of a Man Named K, an unnamed narrator is diagnosed with leukemia. His 40-week journal, shaped by his readings of Kafka, Thomas Mann, Ernest Hemingway and Jun'ichirō Tanizaki, sarcastically and movingly documents his alienation from his body, his surroundings and even, eventually, from books. Show Notes:  An interview with translator Humphrey Davies. We also talked about a few other works where protagonists are diagnosed with cancer:Shahla Ujayli’s A Sky So Close to Us, translated by Michelle Hartman (Interlink Books); Radwa Ashour’s Heavier than Radwa (Dar Al Shorouk), although this is a memoir; Haifa al-Bitar’s A Woman of This Modern Age (Dar Saqi); Hassan Daoud’s No Road to Paradise, translated by Marilyn Booth (Hoopoe Fiction). We also mention some Saudi books that have won awards or attracted international attention, such as Girls of Riyadh by Rajaa Alsanea and The Dove’s Necklace by Raja Alem.

The Interesting Case of a Saudi Novel

An earthquake inspired Mohammed Khaïr-Eddine’s Agadir, published in French in 1967 and translated to English by Jake Syersack and Pierre Joris. Part playtext, part novel, part political essay, part poem, this insurrection of a book takes as its starting point the devastating 1960 earthquake that struck the Moroccan city.  Show Notes:  We also talked about a few recently published and forthcoming poetry collections. Mohamed Stitou’s Two Half Faces, translated by David Colmer (Phoneme Media) Ra’ad Abdulqadir’s Except for This Unseen Thread, translated by Mona Kareem (Ugly Duckling Presse) Ibn Arabi’s The Translator of Desires, translated by Michael Sells (Princeton University Press) Yasmine Seale and Robin Moger’s Agitated Air: Poems After Ibn Arabi (Tenement Press).

Aftershocks

We Wrote in Symbols: Love and Lust by Arab Women Writers brings together fiction and poetry by more than 70 women over a span of more than 1500 years. Editor Selma Dabbagh talks about why it’s hard to write about sex, and the difficult balance of reaching readers. Show Notes:  The digital launch of We Wrote in Symbols, published by Saqi Books, is scheduled for April 29, hosted by the Arab British Centre. Hanan al-Shaykh, Yasmine Seale, Saida Rouass, lisa luxx, and collection editor Selma Dabbagh will be there. There will also be a workshop launch with Marina Warner, Wen-chin Ouyang, and Emily Selove at Birbeck in June, as part of their Arabic in Translation series. The collection drew classic works from, among other places, two anthologies: Classical Poems by Arab Women: A Bilingual Anthology, edited and translated by Abdullah al Udhari, and The Poetry of Arab Women from the Pre-Islamic Age to Andalusia, edited and translated by Wessam Elmeligi. Shereen El Feki’s Sex and the Citadel: Intimate Life in a Changing Arab World was published in 2013. Leila Slimani’s Sex and Lies: True Stories of Women’s Intimate Lives in the Arab World was translated by Sophie Lewis and came out last year. Lina Mounzer’s “Going Beyond the Veil” talks about navigating the rocky territory of writing about sex as an Arab woman.

Women In Love and In Lust

The Book of Ramallah collects stories set in and around Palestine’s administrative capital, which, Maya Abu Al-Hayat writes in her introduction, “represents this mirage, this glimmer of hope that isn’t real, to many writers.” Show Notes:  Book of Ramallah, edited by Maya Abu Al-Hayat, is available from Comma Press. You can read “Love in Ramallah” by Ibrahim Nasrallah, translated by Mohammed Ghalaieny, at Bookanista. An excerpt from the introduction is available at The Irish Times. An excerpt of Mourid Barghouti’s I Saw Ramallah, in Ahdaf Soueif’s translation, is available at Penguin Random. An except of Raja Shehaheh’s Palestinian Walks is available through PBS. “A Day in the Life of Abed Salama,” by Nathan Thrall, is at the New York Review. The Present, directed by Farah Nabulsi and co-written by Nabulsi and Hind Shoufani, is streaming on Netflix.

We Read Ramallah

“Writer, criminal, and ex-journalist” Ahmed Naji released two books in 2020: the speculative fiction novel (والنمور لحجرتي) AndtheTigers to My Room (2020) and the nonfiction work (حرز مكمكم) Rotten Evidence: Reading and Writing in Prison (2020). Show Notes:  Find more about Ahmed’s books, short stories, and essays in Arabic and in English translation at ahmednaji.net/ An excerpt of Rotten Evidence appeared in The Believer in Katharine Halls’ excellent translation. Another excerpt appeared in The Michigan Quarterly Review. He spoke about the book in July 2019 at an event in New York City. Read a brief history of the court case against Ahmed at the Tahrir Institute for Middle East Policy (TIMEP). Ahmed’s “Re-Writing the Future: The Tanta Museum of White History” appears in Arts of the Working Class. It too was translated by Katharine Halls.

Reading and Writing Behind Bars

BULAQ is a podcast about contemporary writing from and about the Middle East and North Africa. We talk about books written in Aleppo, Cairo, Marrakech and beyond. We look at the Arab region through the lens of literature, and we look at literature -- what it does, why it matters, how it relates to society and history and politics -- from the point of view of this part of the world. BULAQ is co-produced by ArabLit and The Arabist and is hosted by Ursula Lindsey and M Lynx Qualey.

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