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Front cover painting: Portrait of Saadi Youssef by Mansour Mansour

CONTENTS

EDITORIAL - Saadi, the Internationalist

Mohammed Khaïr-Eddine – Selected Poems, translated by Ghada Mourad
Youssef Rakha: An except from the novel The Book of the Sultan’s Seal, translated by Paul Starkey
Ghalya Al Said: An excerpt from the novel Days in Heaven, translated by Charis Bredin

CELEBRATING
SAADI YOUSSEF

Saadi Youssef: Poems from two collections: The Flights of Buzzards and Poems of Harefield on the Hill, translated by Khaled Mattawa

Khaled Mattawa: Skyping with Saadi, Channeling Li Po

Hussein Bin Hamza: Young Poet Turns Eighty
Mona Anis: One of the most valuable friendships
Saadi Youssef: Four poems, translated by Mona Anis
Peter Money: From Where I Sit
Jack Hirschman: A Poem for Saadi THE WAY TO END WAR
Stephen Watts, with Cristina Viti, interviews Saadi Youssef
Salih J Altoma: Recollections about Sa’di Yusuf’s College Experience
Rawi Hage: A Poem for Saadi – BIOGRAPHY
Khalil Suwailih: The Eternal Exile
Yair Huri: Exile and Imagination in Sa‘di’s Poetry
Hassan Najmi: A Poem – With Saadi Youssef at the foot of a mural in Tangier, translated by Camilo Gómez-Rivas
Salah Awwad: What do you see, Saadi?
Cristina Viti reviews I giardini dell’oblio (The Gardens of Oblivion) by Saadi Yousef

GUEST LITERATURE

Victor Schiferli:  IN THE DUTCH MOUNTAINS
                       A Brief Excursion into Fiction from The Netherlands
Franca Treur: From the novel Confetti on the Threshing Floor, translated by Laura Watkinson
Robbert Welagen: The Disappearance of Robbert, an excerpt from the novel, translated by David Doherty
Stephan Enter: GRIP, an excerpt from the novel, translated by Michele Hutchison
Jan-Willem Anker: An excerpt from A Civilized Man, translated by Brian Doyle
Hanna Bervoets: Everything There Was, an excerpt from the novel, translated by Michele Hutchison
Benjamin Burg: Restaurant Des Arènes – a short story translated by Hester Velmans

This feature on Dutch writers is supported by

BOOK REVIEWS
Paul Starkey: Beirut, Beirut by Sonallah Ibrahim

Susannah Tarbush: Gertrude by Hassan Najmi
Margaret Obank: Tales of the Marvellous and News of the Strange
Robin Ostle: Warfare and Poetry in the Middle East
Margaret Obank: Land of No Rain by Amjad Nasser
Stephen Watts: Nothing More to Lose by Najwan Darwish
Norbert Hirschhorn: Willow Trees Don’t Weep by Fadia Faqir
Susannah Tarbush: Rain over Baghdad by Hala El Badry
Peter Clark: The Bridges of Constantine by Ahlem Mosteghanemi
Susannah Tarbush: Days of Ignorance by Laila Aljohani

BOOKS IN BRIEF
Fiction 
Blue Lorries by Radwa Ashour,
The Woman from Tantoura by Radwa Ashour,
Maps of the Soul by Ahmed Fagih,
Butterfly Wings by Mohamed Salmawy,
Dates on my Fingers by Muhsin Al-Ramli,
Diary of a Jewish Muslim by Kamal Ruhayyim,
Ishmael's Oranges by Claire Hajaj.

Poetry 
Love Letters in the Sand: The Love Poems of Khalil Gibran, Diaspo/Renga: A collaboration in the alternating Renga created by Marilyn HAcker and Deema K Shehabi.

Memoir
A Muslim on the Bridge: On Being an Iraq-Arab in the Twenty-First Century by Ali Shakir.

Non-Fiction
A Sleepless Eye: Aphorisms by Ibrahim al-Koni,
Contemporary Arab-American Literature: Transnational Reconfigurations of Citizenship and Belonging by Carol Fadda-Conrey,
Libya's Hidden Pages of History: A Memoir by Mustafa Ben-Halim,
My House in Damascus by Diana Darke,
A Cairo Anthology: Two Hundred Years of Travel Writing edited by Deborah Manley,
Women Travelers in Egypt: From the Eighteenth to the Twenty-First Century edited by Deborah Manley,
Authentic Egyptian Cooking: From the Table of Abou El Sid by Nehal Lehata.

EVENTS
Aoe Tanami: A Dialogue with Arab Literature in Japan

CONTRIBUTORS
The translators in Banipal 50 are:
Ghada Mourad, Paul Starkey, Charis Bredin, Khaled Mattawa, Camilo Gómez-Rivas, Laura Watkinson, David Doherty, Michele Hutchison, Brian Doyle, Hester Velmans

The writers, artists and book reviewers are:
Peter Clark, Norbert Hirschhorn, Margaret Obank, Robin Ostle, Susannah Tarbush, Cristina Viti, Stephen Watts

For more information on all the authors in Banipal 51 and all the translators, writers, book reviewers and artists, please go to:
www.banipal.co.uk/contributors/