Back Issues

Salih Altoma introduces a major feature on the pioneer Iraqi novelist Ghaib Tu‘ma Farman, with excerpts from two of his novels – the first time his work has been translated into English. The Literary Influences column charts the journey of Palestinian writer, scholar and translator Issa J Boullata, while Moroccan poet and literator Mohammed Bennis is featured in an in-depth interview and poetry in translation by Camilo Gomez-Rivas.

Novelists include Saudi Arabian Yousef al-Mohaimeed with an excerpt from his novel The Bottle; Lebanese-Palestinian Nabil Abu Hamad with an excerpt from The Cripple, Lebanese Abbas Beydoun with an excerpt from Blood Test and Iraqi Duna Ghali with an excerpt from her novel When the Scent Awakens.

Poems in translation are from Sargon Boulus, Issa Makhlouf, D H Melhem, Amira Abul Husn, Salah al-Hamdani and Sinan Antoon. Just one short story in this issue from Wafa Malih, entitled NO!

Cover artist is Syrian painter Ahmed Moualla

CONTENTS

Editorial

Nazik al-Malaika (23 August 1923 – 20 June 2007) – A Tribute
Hassan Daoud – Excerpt from the novel Year of the Revolutionary New Bread-Making Machine
Sargon Boulus – Eight Poems
Yousef al-Mohaimeed – Excerpt from a new novel The Bottle
Issa Makhlouf – Selected Poems
D H Melhem – Two Poems

Literary Influences
Issa J Boullata – Books and I

Feature on pioneer Iraqi novelist Ghaib Tu‘ma Farman
Salih Altoma – Introduction
Excerpt from the novel Five Voices [Khamsat Aswat]
Excerpt from Mr Ma‘ruf’s Woes [Alaam al-Sayyid Ma‘ruf]
William M Hutchins Introduction to Mr Ma‘ruf’s Woes

Nabil Abu Hamad – Excerpt from the novel The Cripple
Abbas Beydoun – Excerpt from the novel Blood Test
Duna Ghali – Excerpt from the novel When the Scent Awakens
Amira Abul Husn – Fifteen Poems
Salah al-Hamdani – Six Poems
Sinan Antoon – A Poem Necropolis
Wafa Malih – A short story NO!

Feature on Mohammed Bennis
Introduction and interview by Camilo Gomez-Rivas
Poems from the collections Gift of the Void and Over There You Stay

Driss Chraïbi (1926 – 1 April 2007) – A Tribute

Book Reviews
Mona Zaki Thieves in Retirement by Hamdi Abu Golayyel
Peter Clark My Name is Salma by Fadia Faqir
Judith Kazantzis I‘jaam – An Iraqi Rhapsody by Sinan Antoon
Tarek el-Ariss The Illusion of Return by Samir el-Youssef
Zuzana Kratka Cairo Stories by Anne-Marie Drosso

Books in Brief
New editions of Nawal el Saadawi’s The Hidden Face of Eve, God Dies by the Nile and Woman at Point Zero; Tales of Juha: Classic Arab Folk Humour; Distant Train by Ibrahim Abdel Megid; The Anchor Book of Modern Arabic Fiction, edited by Denys Johnson-Davies; Learning English by Rachid al-Daif translated by Paula and Adnan Haydar; The Journals of Sarab Affan by Jabra Ibrahim Jabra translated by Ghassan Nasr; Streetwise by Mohamed Choukri; Pyramid Texts by Gamal al-Ghitani translated by Humphrey Davies; The Last of the Angels by Fadhil al-Azzawi translated by William M Hutchins; Maryam’s Maze by Mansoura Ez-Eldin trans. Paul Starkey; Wolves of the Crescent Moon by Yousef el-Mohaimed, trans Anthony Calderbank; Women on a Journey between Baghdad and London by Haifa Zangana, translated by Judy Cumberbatch; Being Abbas el Abd by Ahmed Alaidy trans. Humphrey Davies; The Essential Gibran and A Little Book of Love both compiled by Professor Suheil Bushrui; Swimming Toward the Light by Angela Tehaan Leone; Does the Land Remember Me? by Aziz Shihab; Arab Culture and the Novel – Genre, Identity and Agency in Egyptian Fiction, by Muhammad Siddiq; La Part de L’étranger by Kadhim Jihad Hassan; Voices of Exiles : A Study of al-Tayyib Salih and his Work by Ami Elad-Bouskila; Letters from Cairo by Pauline Kaldas; Rituals of Memory in Contemporary Arab Women’s Writing by Brinda Mehta

Events
Dearborn, USA, 17–20 May 2007: RAWI Arab-American Writers Conference
New York, 23 May 2007: Celebrating Lebanese Poets with Banipal
Amman, 27–28 April 2007: Next Page Foundation at Arab Thought Conference
Abu Dhabi, 31 March–7 April 2007: International Book Fair

Contributors and Translators