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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.

Read more . . .

Do check out the index of contributors for details of anything published in Banipal's issues. It is updated after each issue's publication.