Banipal 30 – Celebrating Ten Years

Banipal celebrates ten years of publishing – of translating and showcasing hundreds of authors who have never had their works published in English before, presenting newly emerging writers as well as those well-established in the Arab world and beyond. ones. Banipal has brought together authors, translators, writers and reviewers in 30 issues which make up an incomparable archive of contemporary literature from the Arab world. And, not to leave out the wide-ranging exhibition of artists whose works have made our front covers. A special display of the artists and covers will be made available soon on this site.This issue opens with tributes from well-known authors to the Iraqi poet, poetry translator and founding editor of Banipal Sargon Boulus, who died unexpectedly on 22 October. His death “has left a gaping wound in the heart of modern Arabic poetry”.Keeping a finger on the pulse of the Arab literary scene, the authors in the issue are from Jordan, Libya, Sudan, Morocco, Egypt, Palestine, Saudi Arabia, Iraq, Lebanon, United Arab Emirates and Tunisia. They include the well-known poets Amjad Nasser and Khaled Mattawa, both of whom are founding contributing editors of Banipal, both settled outside their mother countries, the former in the UK, the latter in the USA and both writing intriguing poems of vision and changing heritages. Elias Khoury needs no introduction, and we are pleased to present an excerpt from his novel Yalo, forthcoming in English translation in the USA and the UK.

Cover artist is Jaber Alwan from Iraq

What's in the new issue?

Farewell, Naguib Mahfouz! The issue opens with tributes to the “writer of the world”, the late Nobel Laureate Naguib Mahfouz, by Banipal’s editor and contributing editors Roger Allen and Peter Clark. Further on in the issue, the well-known Iraqi author Jalil al-Qaisi is remembered by Fadhil al-Azzawi.

Fourteen fiction writers dominate this issue, among them ten women authors. Basra is the setting for two disturbing but gripping stories by Iraqi author Luay Hamza Abbas. From Syria, three novelists writing completely different genres of novels: Salim Barakat with mysterious, highly inventive place-names and characters that take the reader to another world, Nabil Sulaiman with a modern setting and topical references, for instance to Michael Moore and George in a novel designed to make the reader think; and Nihad Sirees’s A State of Passion – an enthralling saga of life among the marginalised in 1930s Syria.

Read more . . .

This issue was designed especialy for Summer reading and includes much thought-provoking and captivating fiction. There's a short story by Jamal Mahjoub, an excerpt “Earthquake Nightmare” from a novel by Tunisian author Hassan Nasr which, in view of the devastating current events in Lebanon, is particularly chilling, recounting as it does the experience of the hero Murtada when his house collapses on top of him. There's a feature on Six Iraq Novelists – Saadi Yousef, Mohammed Khudayyir, Lutfiya Dulaimi, Fadhil al-Azzawi, Kadhim al-Hallaq and Inaam Kachachi – whose works all open up onto vivid and often painful episodes of life in Iraq.

The feature on NEW WRITING IN EGYPT continues with works by five young authors, and the LITERARY INFLUENCES feature is provided by the late renowned and respected Jordanian writer Ghalib Halasa from a collection of his articles on writing.

Read more . . .

Includes excerpts from novels by Hanan al-Shaykh and Vénus Khoury-Ghata plus an extract from The World of Saddam Hussein and from Samar Yazbek. There are short stories by Ahmed Bouzfour, the late Samir Naqqash, and Ali al-Kasimi, and others by Huzamah Habayeb, Haifa Bitar, Jamila Omairah, Aroussia Naluti and Salwa al-Neimi. THE TRAVELLING TALE is an extract from Mohamed al-Makhzangi’s Memories of a Meltdown. THE INTERVIEW WITH AN EDITOR is with Stefan Weidner of the Goethe Institute’s Fikrun wa Fann magazine. Reviews include Mouloud Feraoun’s The Poor Man’s Son, The Yacoubian Building, A Wall Between Two Darknesses, Abdullah’s Secrets, The Land Border and Damascus: Taste of a City. Full details of the Banipal Prize for Arabic Literary Translation (HL to Prize Page on Trust site), the first prize specifically for Arabic literary translation into English, are given in this issue.

Cover by Moroccan artist Mohamed Melehi

Opening authors are Palestinians Ala Hlehel and Mahmoud Darwish. There are two major features – on Omani poet Saif al-Rahbi and on the late Syrian poet Saniya Salih. Two powerful figures from North Africa, both writing in French, are Abdellatif Laâbi from Morocco and Abdelwahab Meddeb from Tunisia. Lebanese poet and journalist Joumana Haddad writes about her interviews with international authors such as Paul Auster, Umberto Eco and José Saramago. Peter Ripken, of Literatur Nachrichten, is this issue’s magazine editor in the INTERVIEW WITH AN EDITOR. And Samuel Shimon kicks off a new series of illustrated TRAVELLING TALES with his own Steppenwolf Goes to San Francisco – by train from New York! LITERARY INFLUENCES features Iraqi poet Fadhil al-Azzawi.

Cover by Lebanese painter Dima Hajjar

Includes excerpts from novels by Najwa Barakat, Ali al-Domaini, Baha Eddine Taoud and Aziz Chouaki, poems by established poets Abbas Beydhoun, Ibrahim Nasrallah, Salah Hassan, Nazih Abu Afash, Inaya Jaber and Rasha Omran and from Palestinian-Americans writing in English Lisa Suher Majaj and Fady Joudeh. There are short stories by Tayeb Salih, Ali Mosbah, Issa Boullata, Mohamed Choukri, Rabia Raihane, Mansoura Ez-Eldin and Hussain al-Mozany. LITERARY INFLUENCES is by Rafik Schami, Interview with Birgitta Wallin, editor of Swedish magazine Karavan. Reviews of Zayni Barakat (re-issue), Die Reise nach Tell al-Lahm and An Iraqi in Paris.

Cover by Iraqi Kurdish painter Sadradeen

c. Fiction of Gamal el-Ghitani, Mahmood Abdel Wahab, Jalil al-Qaisi and others. LITERARY INFLUENCES file is by Lebanese poet Abbas Beydhoun – The Stranger, The Outsider and the Foreigner

Cover by Iraqi painter Azzawi

“Barakat has established herself as one of the most intriguing voice among modern Arab novelists” Anton Shammas

“Shimon plunges into the pulsing essence of life to create an intimate and enthralling world that touches our hearts and souls”
Fadhil al-Azzawi

A4 – 80 pages illustrated. Interview with novelist and critic Elias
Khoury. Tribute to Mohammed Zefzaf (1945-2001) and works. Works by poets Sargon Boulus, Saadi Youssef, Mohammed Bennis, Fadhil al-Azzawi, Inaya Jaber, Ghassan Zaqtan, Kadhim Jihad, Mouayed al-Rawi and Mohja Kahf. Works by Bensalim Himmich, Rashad Abu Shawar, Samuel Shimon, Mohammed Mustagab and Issa J Boullata. Plus Book Reviews and Events.