Month: April 2014

‘Baghdad Writes!

via Arabic Literature (in English) by mlynxqualey A cheer went up in the conference hall when the winner to the 2014 International Prize for Arabic Fiction was announced: It was Iraqi novelist Ahmed Saadawi for his novel, Frankenstein in Baghdad. The cheers were echoed across social media. Photo credit: Chip Rossetti. Iraqi poet, novelist, and scholar Sinan Antoon wrote: “Congrats! Ahmad Saadawi wins the 2014 Arabic Booker. It’s about time. Baghdad writes!” … Read more ‘Baghdad Writes!

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Should You Travel Through Luxembourg This Summer or Fall…

Madame Maggy Nagel, Ministre de la Culture et Monsieur Claude D. Conter, Directeur du Centre national de littérature ont le plaisir de vous inviter au vernissage de l’exposition PRENDRE le LARGE qui aura lieu le mercredi 14 mai 2014 à 19h30 au Centre national de littérature à Mersch. L’exposition est ouverte au public du jeudi 15 mai au samedi 25 octobre 2014 du lundi au vendredi de 10 à 17 … Read more Should You Travel Through Luxembourg This Summer or Fall…

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Rachida Madani’s New York Reading

Here’s a short video by Antonia Massa of Rachida Madani’s 16 April reading at Silvana in Harlem. (I hope to have a longer version of the reading up next week). Below the compte-rendu of the reading by Anonia Massa that just appeared in Voices of New York. The legend of One Thousand and One Nights has captured the imaginations of poets and authors for centuries, inspiring countless revisions, retellings … Read more Rachida Madani’s New York Reading

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New Palestinian poetry flourishes online

via Electronic Intifada: Submitted by Sarah Irving on Tue, 04/22/2014 – 21:52 Najwan Darwish’s new volume of poetry, out soon from NYRB Classics The last few weeks have seen a generous selection of Palestinian poetry appear in online publications. As well as reflecting the role of the Internet in making translated literature available across the globe, the diversity of the poems themselves shows the many ways in which writers in occupied … Read more New Palestinian poetry flourishes online

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Gabo Lives!

I heartily agree with the following extract from Salman Rushdie’s article on Gabriel García Marquez’s in the NYT Sunday Book Review, here: We live in an age of invented, alternate worlds. Tolkien’s Middle-earth, Rowling’s Hogwarts, the dystopic universe of “The Hunger Games,” the places where vampires and zombies prowl: These places are having their day. Yet in spite of the vogue for fantasy fiction, in the finest of literature’s fictional … Read more Gabo Lives!

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Contemporary French Poetry in the U.S. Conference

Friday, April 25 Contemporary French Poetry in the U.S.: Translating, Publishing, Adapting Location: Afternoon sessions: La Maison Française, NYU, 16 Washington Mews (corner of University Place) Evening session: McNally Jackson Books, 52 Prince St. There have been strong transatlantic poetic ties between France and the United States since the 19th century. Dialogues continue through the translation, publication, and adaptation of contemporary French poetry in the U.S.  Organized by Vincent Broqua (UPEC) and … Read more Contemporary French Poetry in the U.S. Conference

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The NYT & Israel’s Gag Order

via The Electronic Intifada: The New York Times agrees to be gagged by Israel Submitted by Ali Abunimah on Fri, 04/18/2014 – 15:17 Majd Kayyal was arrested and held incommunicado by Israel’s Shin Bet. Margaret Sullivan, The New York Times’ public editor, has written a thoughtful and important piece criticizing the way the newspaper complied with an Israeli-imposed gag order on the case of Majd Kayyal. But it leaves some important questions unanswered about … Read more The NYT & Israel’s Gag Order

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Nina Cassian (1924-2014)

Saddened to hear of Nina Cassian’s passing.  She was a Romanian poet, journalist, film critic and who also translated works of William Shakespeare, Bertolt Brecht, Christian Morgenstern, Yiannis Ritsos, and Paul Celan into Romanian. She published more than fifty books of her own poetry. The New York Times’ obit can be read here. Born into a Jewish family in Galaţi, they lived in Brașov between 1926 and 1935, when the family … Read more Nina Cassian (1924-2014)

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Rachida Madani: “Walk through the Ruins”

In preview of Rachida Madani‘s reading tonight at 6:30 at Silvana 300 W 116th street in New York, here is a poem I just translated for the event from her collection Femme je suis / Woman I am. Walk through the ruins that wreck us and tell yourself that we’re camping in a crumbling of stones even if no denunciation transfers from the sand to accumulate dune upon dune      storm … Read more Rachida Madani: “Walk through the Ruins”

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A New Arab Magazine of Experimental Writing

Via the incomparable Arab Literature (in English) website: ‘Makhzin’ and the Link Between Multilingualism and Experimental Writing by mlynxqualey At 6 p.m. tomorrow, the new experimental, trilingual Makhzin will launch its first issue in Beirut. Editor Mirene Arsanios answered a few questions about the project: ArabLit: Why experimental works? What role do you think experimental and avant garde works play in the literary arts? Locally, regionally, globally? Mirene Arsanios: Experimental work is a broad term. I … Read more A New Arab Magazine of Experimental Writing

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