{"id":12374,"date":"2014-09-29T01:13:48","date_gmt":"2014-09-29T05:13:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/pierrejoris.com\/blog\/?p=12374"},"modified":"2014-09-29T01:20:59","modified_gmt":"2014-09-29T05:20:59","slug":"new-releases-14-arabic-translations-to-watch-for-this-fall","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/pierrejoris.com\/blog\/new-releases-14-arabic-translations-to-watch-for-this-fall\/","title":{"rendered":"New Releases: 14 Arabic Translations to Watch for this\u00a0Fall"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\n\n
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via the always excellent Arab Literature (in English):
\n<\/strong><\/em>by mlynxqualey<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

Fourteen\u00a0books that give you something to curl up with as the nights grow shorter. The best and most interesting of what\u2019s coming out this fall:<\/i><\/p>\n

September<\/b><\/p>\n

Women of Karantina<\/i><\/b><\/a><\/span>, Nael Eltoukhy, trans. Robin Moger (AUC Press)<\/b><\/p>\n

A favorite of several prize-winning Egyptian authors, novelist and short-story writer\u00a0Mohammad Abdelnaby\u00a0says the book\u00a0has \u201can epic tone that laughs at everything, an unusual lightness of spirit, and a surprisingly fresh treatment of old motifs such as violence or succession, al-Toukhy creates something unprecedented in the history of the Arabic novel, and in a language that does a very special dance between simple Modern Standard Arabic and an Egyptian Arabic that is colorful and perhaps obscene.\u201d<\/p>\n

Beirut, Beirut,<\/i><\/b><\/a><\/span>\u00a0<\/i>Sonallah Ibrahim, trans. Chip Rossetti (BQFP)<\/b><\/p>\n

Set during Lebanon\u2019s civil war,\u00a0the novel follows\u00a0the misadventures of an Egyptian writer who goes to Beirut in an attempt to find a publisher for his work.<\/p>\n

Revolution is My Name<\/i><\/b><\/a><\/span>, Mona Prince, trans. Samia Mehrez (AUC Press)<\/b><\/p>\n

You can read an excerpt on the AUC website<\/span><\/a>, and\u00a0more about the book on\u00a0<\/span>Jadaliyya.\u00a0<\/i><\/span><\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

Chronicles of Majnun Layla and Selected Poems<\/i><\/b><\/a><\/span>,\u00a0Qassim Haddad, trans. Ferial Ghazoul and John Verlenden\u00a0(Syracuse University Press)<\/b><\/p>\n

Ghazoul and Verlenden won the University of Arkansas Arabic Translation Award<\/span><\/a> for this book\u00a0in addition to\u00a0the $100,000 translation grant<\/span><\/a> the pair received from the National Endowment for the Humanities to \u201ccreate a comprehensive edition of Haddad\u2019s work in English.\u201d Read some of Haddad\u2019s poems. Read an excerpt here.<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n

October<\/b><\/p>\n

\"OhSalaam\"Oh, Salaam!<\/i><\/b><\/a><\/span>, Najwa Barakat, trans. Luke Leafgren (Interlink Books)<\/b><\/p>\n

Luqman, the novel\u2019s protagonist, is a young former militiaman, trying to make a living in a post-war Lebanon. While you\u2019re waiting on\u00a0Oh, Salaam!,\u00a0<\/i>read an excerpt from another of Barakat\u2019s novels, also trans. Leafgren: \u201cThe Bus.\u201d<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n

Arabs and the Art of Storytelling: A Strange Familiarity<\/i><\/b><\/a><\/span>, by Abdelfattah Kilito, trans. Eric Sellin and Mbarek Sryfi (Syracuse University Press)<\/b><\/p>\n

Read a charming recent interview with Kilito<\/span><\/a>. Note: This is actually a translation from the French, but about Arabic literature, so. [And Kilito is, for my money, the best Maghrebian literary essayist working today \u2014 P.J.]<\/p>\n

Monarch of the Square An Anthology of Muhammad Zafzaf\u2019s Short Stories<\/i><\/b><\/a><\/span>,\u00a0<\/i>trans. Mbarek Sryfi and Roger Allen (Syracuse University Press)<\/b><\/span><\/p>\n

A wide-ranging collection that looks at Zafzaf\u2019s stories from all eras of his long writing career. Many wonderful, visceral shorts examining the lives of Moroccans. Interview with Sryfi forthcoming on ArabLit, insha\u2019allah.<\/p>\n

November<\/b><\/p>\n

\"sultans-seal\"The Book of the Sultan\u2019s Seal<\/i><\/b><\/a><\/span>,<\/i> Youssef Rakha, trans. Paul Starkey (Clockroot Books)<\/b><\/p>\n

A game-changing novel for Egyptian literature, you can read about the novel here<\/span><\/a>.<\/p>\n

Crocodiles<\/i><\/b><\/a><\/span>, Youssef Rakha, trans. Robin Moger (Seven Stories Press)<\/b><\/p>\n

You can read two excerpts on Moger\u2019s website: \u201cIn the Evening I Think on the Moon<\/span><\/a>\u201d and \u201cThe Oblivious Body<\/span><\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\n

Lanterns of the King of Gallilee<\/i><\/b><\/a><\/span>,\u00a0<\/i>Ibrahim Nasrallah, trans. Nancy Roberts (AUC Press)<\/b><\/p>\n

Another in the series that includes\u00a0The Time of White Horses,\u00a0<\/i>this is a book of eighteenth-century Palestine.<\/p>\n

December<\/b><\/p>\n

\"frenchperfumecover_press\"French Perfume<\/i><\/b>, <\/b><\/a><\/span>Amir Tag El Sir, trans. William Hutchins (ANTIBOOKCLUB)<\/b><\/p>\n

A hilarious, fast-paced novel that is very different from the East-West novel by El Sir\u2019s famous uncle, Tayeb Salih, but nonetheless interrogates the same relationship.<\/p>\n

\u00a0T<\/a><\/i><\/b><\/span>he Penguin\u2019s Song<\/i><\/b><\/a><\/span>,\u00a0<\/i>Hassan Daoud, trans. Marilyn Booth (City Lights)<\/b><\/p>\n

This was a labor of love for translator Marilyn Booth<\/span><\/a>, and you can read excerpts here<\/span><\/a> and here<\/span><\/a>.<\/span><\/p>\n

Iraq + 100<\/i><\/b><\/a><\/span>,\u00a0<\/i>ed. Hassan Blasim, various translators (Comma Press)<\/b><\/p>\n

Stories set in Iraq 100 years into the future, including work by celebrated Iraqi novelist Ali Bader.<\/p>\n

Unspecified<\/b><\/p>\n

The Revolt of the Young: Essays by Tawfiq al-Hakim<\/i><\/b><\/a><\/span>,\u00a0<\/i>trans. Mona Radwan<\/b><\/span><\/p>\n

Essays by one of Arabic literature\u2019s all-time leading lights.<\/p>\n

Also, as to the question of \u201c<\/b>where are the women in translated books?<\/b><\/span><\/a>\u201c<\/b><\/span><\/p>\n

Yes, only two of these authors are women: Mona Prince and Najwa Barakat. Earlier this year, two of Radwa Ashour\u2019s excellent\u00a0novels came out in translation (Blue Lorries<\/i>\u00a0and\u00a0The Woman of\u00a0Tantoura<\/i>), Iman Humaydan Younes\u2019s\u00a0wonderful Other Lives<\/i>, Hala el Badry\u2019s\u00a0Rain over Baghdad,\u00a0<\/i>and Dunya Mikhail\u2019s latest poetry collection,\u00a0The Iraqi Nights<\/i>.<\/p>\n

This makes for seven out of between 35-40 titles; let\u2019s say around 18-20 percent, in line with literature translated from other languages. Over at love german books<\/span><\/a>, Katy Derbyshire suggests moving in a different direction in, \u201cA Woman\u2019s Prize for Translated Books<\/span><\/a>.\u201d She writes:<\/p>\n

What I want is a women\u2019s prize for translated fiction; a little sister to the Bailey\u2019s Prize, for instance. It would raise awareness for great women\u2019s writing from the non-Anglophone world rather than for great non-Anglophone writing by women. I know that\u2019s a subtle distinction but I think it\u2019s an important one.<\/p>\n

Yes, this is an issue we\u2019ve discussed before<\/span><\/a>. However, the \u201ctwenty percent\u201d figure may only be part of it. As Derbyshire notes, a woman has never yet won the Independent\u00a0Foreign Fiction Prize (IFFP), and many women\u2019s\u00a0titles appear on the scene without getting much public traction. Even Blue Lorries\u00a0<\/i>and\u00a0Woman from Tantoura,\u00a0<\/i>which really AUCP and BQFP should\u2019ve pushed together.<\/p>\n

Gender breakdown\u00a0is also a\u00a0recurring\u00a0issue\/debate on the International Prize for Arabic Fiction (IPAF) shortlist, to an extent that the new, competing Qatari Katara prize has repeataedly announced the percentage of submissions they\u2019ve been getting of work by women. Without women on the key Arabic book prize shortlists, well, it doesn\u2019t really help get out more women\u2019s works in translation.<\/p>\n

If there was a concerted effort to publish more great women\u2019s books in translation?<\/p>\n

mlynxqualey<\/b><\/a><\/span> | September 29, 2014 at 6:29 am | Categories: forthcoming<\/span><\/a> | URL: http:\/\/wp.me\/pHopc-4Y5<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

via the always excellent Arab Literature (in English): by mlynxqualey Fourteen\u00a0books that give you something to curl up with as the nights grow shorter. The best and most interesting of what\u2019s coming out this...<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11,103],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-12374","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-arab-culture","category-translation"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/pierrejoris.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12374","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/pierrejoris.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/pierrejoris.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pierrejoris.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pierrejoris.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12374"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/pierrejoris.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12374\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12385,"href":"https:\/\/pierrejoris.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12374\/revisions\/12385"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/pierrejoris.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12374"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pierrejoris.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12374"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pierrejoris.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12374"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}