What You May Have Missed

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.