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Banipal 43 – Celebrating Denys Johnson-Davies

Guest Literature: KOREA

Banipal 43 salutes the doyen of Arabic-English translation, Denys Johnson-Davies. Since his first translation in the 1940s, he has introduced an impressive list of classics of contemporary Arabic literature, prose as well as poetry. His lifelong work has been instrumental in placing modern Arabic literature on the international scene. Fellow translators, writers and publishers, including Roger Allen, Mark Linz, Humphrey Davies, Paul Starkey, William Hutchins, Peter Clark, Khaled Mattawa and more, write about the breadth and depth of his contribution to Arabic literary translation.

Banipal 43 brims with a cornucopia of fiction and poetry from across the Arab world, with fiction from Morocco (Hassan Najmi), Libya (Saleh Snoussi), Lebanon (Jad El Hage) and Egypt (Nael El Toukhy), and poems by Saadi Youssef (Iraq), Maram al-Massri (Syria), Youssef Rakha (Egypt) and opening with Kuwaiti poet Saadiah Mufarreh. Her powerful poem is followed by Tunisian author Khaled Najar, who embarks on a literary journey through Alexandria’s history, filled with nostalgia and melancholy. In an in-depth interview renowned Egyptian author Sonallah Ibrahim talks about his writing, his long career – and the future of Egypt after last year’s revolution and the recent elections.

With the winner of the 2012 International Prize for Arabic Fiction announced on 27 March, Banipal 43 publishes excerpts from each of the six shortlisted novels – a collaboration between Banipal and the Emirates Foundation.

Our Guest Literature in this issue is from Korea: four fiction writers and four poets bring readers some of the best of today’s Korean poetry and novellas over 111 pages (in print and at www.banipal.co.uk/selections), guest-edited by Kim Jaeyong.

For a full list of Banipal 43's contents, and links to selections,  reviews and information about all authors, translators, writers and reviewers, go to the current issue page.

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