Back Issues

"These young writers", says Marie-Thérèse Abdel-Massih in her introduction, "have abandoned closed plots with structured elements to capture the dispersed, the elusive and the contingent that constitute the every day." PLUS the Libyan authors Ibrahim al-Koni and Khaled Mattawa

CONTENTS

Cover artist: Mai Refky

EDITORIAL
Tribute to Mohammad al-Maghut (1934-2006)

Ibrahim al-Koni "The Visitor"
Excerpt from the novel Al-Bahth An al-Makan al-Da’i
[The Seven Veils of Seth]
Hartmut Fähndrich on al-Koni The Desert – our Life

LITERARY INFLUENCES
Khaled Mattawa The Relation of my Influences

FEATURE ON NEW WRITING IN EGYPT
Introduced by Marie-Thérèse Abdel-Messih Debunking the Heroic Self
Hamdy Abowgliel Excerpts from Thieves in Retirement
Iman Mersal Poems
Alaa al-Aswany Two short stories
Mansoura Ez-Eldin Excerpt from Maryam’s Maze
Ibrahim Farghali A short story
Independent Egyptian publisher wins International Award
Fatima Naoot Two Poems
Montasser El-Qaffash Excerpt from the novel To See Now
Zahra Yusri A Poem It’s Night
Nagat Ali Two Poems
Ahmed Alaidy Excerpt from Being Abbas el Abd
Emad Abu Saleh Two poems
Haytham al-Wardany Two short stories
Rana al-Tonsi Poems from A Rose for the Last Days
Safaa Ennagar A short story Amoeba
Tamer Fathy Three Poems
Ashraf Abdelshafy Two short stories
Emad Fouad A Poem
Yasser Abd el-Hafez Excerpt from On the Occasion of Life
Sawiris Fiction Prizes for Egyptian Literature

A TRAVELLING TALE
Waiel Ashry Going to Williamsburg

Mohammed Mustagab (d. 2005)
A story The Hired Killer and a true account Ola the Hit Man
with introduction by Mona Zaki

INTERVIEW WITH AN EDITOR
Jane Spender, PEN International

BOOK REVIEWS
Peter Clark Memories in Translation by Denys Johnson-Davies
Sophie Richter-Devroe Die Reise des Granadiniers by Rabee Jaber
Tarek al-Ariss Gate of the Sun by Elias Khoury
Stephen Watts Here and There: a Selection of Poems by Basim Furat
Mona Zaki I Loved You for your Voice by Sélim Nassib
Chawki Bazih Cabaret Su’ad by Mohammed Suwaid
Lulu Norman Le Diamantaire by Yasmine Khlat
Margaret Obank Yasser Arafat Looked at Me and Smiled by Yussef Bazzi

EVENTS
London: British Council Seminars on Arabic-English Translation
Berlin: The Iraqi Equation – Iraqi Culture and Literature
Cairo: Celebrating 1000 translations into Arabic