Our Women on the Ground

We spend most of today’s episode talking about a forthcoming collection of essays by female journalists from the region. Guilt, anger, recklessness, determination. There are many different and movingly honest takes on reporting while Arab and female.

SHOW NOTES

• Omani novelist Jokha al-Harthi and translator Marilyn Hacker won the 2019 Man Booker International with Celestial Bodies (Sayyidat al-Qamr). We talked about the book on Episode 29 and MLQ spoke to al-Harthi and Booth the morning after their win, and an edited Q&A was published on Qantara. Also: more on the Omani writers al-Harthi recommends you read.

•  Ursula’s piece about Sa’adallah Wannous, “Coup de Théâtre,” is in the NYRB. The great playwright’s daughter, Dima Wannous, is also an acclaimed novelist and will be appearing at this year’s Shubbak Festival. Her novel The Frightened is expected in 2020 in Elisabeth Jaquette’s English translation.

• Our Women on the Ground: Essays by Arab Women Reporting from the Arab World, ed. Zahra Hankir, will be published August 6, 2019, when an audiobook version, read by Soneela Nankani, will also be available. Among the many brilliant contributors is Lina Attallah, who both MLQ and Ursula have worked with variously at Al-Masry al-Youm, the Egypt Independent, and her current iconic, fearless, and relentlessly experimental project, Mada Masr.

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