


Founded in 1998 Banipal is an independent literary magazine publishing contemporary authors and poets from all over the Arab world in English translation.
Banipal 36 –
Literature in Yemen today
Banipal 36 – Literature in Yemen today is published just as this year’s
Frankfurt Book Fair begins, and not long after the Berlin International
Literature Festival, which had its international focus on the Arab
world – an ideal time to introduce the rich and diverse fiction and
poetry that is being written in Yemen.
• The 160-page feature presents a rich selection of novel excerpts,
short stories and poetry from 17 of today’s Yemeni authors, most of
whose work has never before been translated into English.
Many are well-known in Yemen and the Arab world, and some are now
regularly invited to European festivals; they include: Huda Ablan, who
is currently the secretary-general of the Union of Yemeni writers. The
controversial Ali al-Muqri, whose first novel Taste Black . . . Smell
Black (excerpted) was published in 2008 to high acclaim. Wajdi
al-Ahdal, the winner of numerous Yemeni literary prizes, allso, the poet and literary critic
Abdel Aziz al-Maqalih, whose modernist voice and
pioneering efforts have made the cultural movements in Yemen what they
are today.
Also included in the issue are Nadia Alkowkobani, Shawqi Shafiq,
Bassam Shamseldin, Habib Abdulrab Sarori, Samir Albufattah, Yasser
Abdel Baqi, Ahmad Zein, Fathi Abul Nasr, Mohammad al-Shaibani, Mohammad
al-Qaood, Sawsan al-Areeqi and Nabila al-Subair.
There is no holding back on any subject matter in either fiction or
poetry – the family, love, taboos, customs and superstitions, being a
woman, coming to terms with the country’s history, life in Yemen today,
the sky and the sea, myths and legends, dreams and nightmares,
individual guilt, responsibility and atonement – a full and fascinating
panorama of human life and society. Produced in collaboration with the
Yemen Book Shop and its managing director Nashwan Ali Al-Maghafi, the
2008 Young Publishing Entrepreneur of the Year.
• “Europe is no longer a place of exile or refuge for the Arab intellectual and writer. It is his publishing house, his reader, his pavement or sidewalk, his pulpit, his bookstore, and his city”, writes Lebanese writer and journalist Youssef Bazzi in the Editorial, as he explains the new and “extraordinary relationship between Arab literature and the European reader”.
• Excerpts from Lebanese author Alawiyya Sobh’s acclaimed new novel in which a middle-age woman takes a hard, but sensuous look at the realities of her love life.
• Short stories from renowned Egyptian author Yayha Taher Abdullah.
• Photos and report from the Berlin international literature festival
and its magnificent Focus Arab World in which more than 30 Arab authors
participated.
• Beirut39 – judges meet to decide on the final list of the 39 best
Arab authors aged 39 and under, out of an initial list of over 400.
Do check out the index of contributors for details of anything published in Banipal's issues. It is updated after each issue's publication.
Latest News
11/01/2010The winner of the 2009 Saif Ghobash–Banipal Prize for Arabic Literary Translation is Samah Selim for her translation of The Collar and the Bracelet by the late Yahya Taher Abdullah.
[read more]16/11/2009
The 16 titles and authors on the Long List of the 2009-2010 International Prize for Arabic Fiction were announced in Cairo today . . .
[read more]18/10/2009
Frankfurt Book Fair panel with authors from Banipal 35 – Writing in Dutch and guest editor
[read more]17/10/2009
The 39 authors selected for Beirut39 are announced simultaneously in Beirut and at the Frankfurt Book Fair
[read more]30/09/2009
An evening of readings from
the new Mahmoud Darwish collection
A River Dies of Thirst
23/09/2009
The Children of Shatila presents:
Croak, the King and a Change in the Weather
A Fable by Peter Mortimer
Theatre from a Palestinian Refugee Camp
[read all news stories]


