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Hartmut Fähndrich
was born in Tübingen, Germany, in 1944, and in 1972 moved to Switzerland, where he still lives.
Since the mid-’80s he has been translating contemporary Arabic literature and in 2008 achieved the publication of his fiftieth literary translation – novels and short stories – mainly from Palestine, Lebanon, Egypt and Libya. By 2022 his published translations number about 70, mostly novels, and include works by Palestinian authors Emile Habiby, Ghassan Kanafani and Sahar Khalifeh; many major authors from Egypt including Naguib Mahfouz, Sonallah Ibrahim, Gamal al-Ghitani, Salwa Bakr, Edwar al-Kharrat, Mansoura Ez Eldin and Alaa al-Aswany; from Libya Ibrahim al-Koni; from Lebanon Emily Nasrallah; from Saudi Arabia Raja Alem; from Iraq Hassan Blasim, Inaam Kachachi and Ahmed Saadawi; and Khaled Khalifa from Syria.
Banipal 32 (Summer 2008) includes an interview with Harmut Fähndrich on being a literary translator of contemporary Arabic literature. For full details of his translations, and the dozens of articles he has written and other works he has translated (books listed in bold) from Arabic into German, click here.
From 1984 to 2010 he was the editor of the series “Arabic Literature in German Translation“ for Lenos Verlag in Basel, Switzerland. He has received several awards for his translation activities, most recently, in March 2016 Switzerland's special Grand Prix de Littérature for Translation, the first time awarded for translation from Arabic. For more on that award, click here. In 2018, he was awarded the Sheikh Hamad Award for Translation and International Understanding (Qatar).
He studied studied Semitic Philology, Islamic Studies, Arabic and Comparative Literature at the Universities of Tübingen and Münster in Germany, and received his PhD from the University of California, Los Angeles. From 1978 till 2014 he taught Arabic language, literature and civilization at the Swiss Federal University of Technology in Zurich, and was guest lecturer at the universities of Lyon, Freiburg, Naples, Basel and Amsterdam.
In 2022, on 10 November, Hartmut Fähndrich will deliver the Saif Ghobash Banipal Prize Lecture at the British Library.
For more information, please go to Hartmut's own website http://www.hartmutfaehndrich.ch/
Contributor's Issues
The Tent Generations
Things I Left Behind by Shada Mustafa, translated by Nancy Roberts
Shadow of the Sun by Taleb Alrefai
Birds of Nabaa, A Mauritanian Tale by Abdallah Uld Mohamadi Bah
The Stone Serpent, Barates of Palmyra’s Elegy for Regina his Beloved by Nouri Al-Jarrah
Mansi A Rare Man in His Own Way by Tayeb Saleh (Banipal Books, 2020)
Tayeb Salih
Goat Mountain by Habib Selmi
Habib Selmi, author of Goat Mountain and 3 times shortlisted for the IPAF
The Mariner by Taleb Alrefai (Banipal Books, 2020)
Taleb Alrefai, author of Shadow of the Sun and The Mariner
Digital images
Fadhil Al-Azzawi's Beautiful Creatures by Fadhil al-Azzawi (Banipal Books, 2021)
Fadhil al-Azzawi
Poems of Alexandria and New York by Ahmed Morsi (Banipal Books, 2021)
Digital Banipal promotion B67
Saïd Khatibi
Amjad Nasser (1955–2019)
Digital Banipal the full archive
Denys Johnson-Davies (1922–2017) 70 years translating Arabic literature
Ahmed Morsi, author of Poems of Alexandria and New York
Sarajevo Firewood
The Madness of Despair
Mahmoud Shukair – see special feature of Banipal 70 (Spring 2021)
LATEST NEWS
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Link to poems by Mosab Abu Toha, published in Banipal 71 (Summer 2021), available to read online
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Link to poem by Liana Badr published in Banipal 74, now available as an online selection
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GRIFFIN PRIZE SHORTLIST 2023
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Banipal's first audiobook* * *
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Banipal Book Club
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