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Bothayna Al-Essa (Buthaina al-Issa)
Bothayna Al-Essa (b. 1982) is a Kuwaiti author and founder of Takween, a platform for creative writing, a publishing house and a bookshop. She has a BA in Finance and Financial Institutions (2005) and an MA in Business Administration (2010), both from Kuwait University.
She has published eight novels: her first was Irtitam Lam Yusma’ Lahu Dawii (A Soundless Collision), published by Dar al-Mada, Damascus (2004) – an excerpt was published in Banipal 47 – Fiction from Kuwait (Summer 2013, pp25-43).
Her latest novel is Kul al-Ashya’ (All the Things), published by Arab Scientific Publishers in 2017. She also has two children’s books and has contributed to the translation of specialized books on writing, creative writing, and translation.
She won Kuwait’s State Appreciation and Encouragement Award twice, in 2005 for her novel Su’ar (Frenzy) and in 2013 for Kaburtu Wa Nasetu An Ansa. The latter's English translation by Michele Henjum, All That I Want to Forget, published by Hoopoe Fiction in 2018, was reviewed in Banipal 65 (Summer 2019).
Her novel Aicha Tanzil Ila al-Alam al-Sufli (Aisha descends to the Underworld) was longlisted for the 2012 Sheikh Zayed Book Award.
Contributor's Issues
Banipal 47 - Fiction from Kuwait (2013)
Banipal 65 - The Beautiful Creatures of Fadhil Al-Azzawi (Summer 2019)
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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