7pm, Wednesday 18 January

at

the Irish Cultural Centre
5 Black's Road, Hammersmith, London, W6 9DT

*

A Grand Literary Party 

Celebrating 25 Years of Banipal Magazine

Banipal's publisher Margaret Obank invites

all friends, editors, translators, and readers to participate

in this celebration of

translating and publishing modern Arab literature in English

with poetry and fiction, videos, translations, discussions and questions,

and two very special guests,

Egyptian poet IMAN MERSAL and Syrian poet NOURI AL-JARRAH,

both reading from their latest works with English editions

ALL WELCOME

at this free event, but please register to attend by emailing your RSVP HERE

     Iman Mersal     •     Nouri Al-Jarrah    

From the editorial of Banipal 75, the last issue

"Banipal magazine was created in response to the massive lack of translation of Arabic literature into English. Since it started it has always been a completely independent magazine that relied for its continued publication on the individual efforts of two people who set out to fill this void, to bridge the gap between Arabic literature and world literature and establish a base of readers who would love and value Arabic literature.

"With no commercial considerations to restrict our choice we were free to consider only literary questions. Undoubtedly, over the past twenty-five years, Banipal has made many achievements in relation to Arabic literature through translation into English – and also from English into other languages. Hence, there seems to be a “before and after Banipal” when it comes to the translation of contemporary Arabic literature."