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Selections
Rabia'a al-Ossaimi
Fmaily Photo
Fmaily Photo
is my father
He wanted to create a family
to carry his name and hang its photo on the wall
My elder sister
is sitting on the far right
because she cannot carry his name very far
And because I cannot either
I am standing on the far left of the photo
My brothers are five,
packed tight round my father
All of them will carry his name
but not far enough,
although his name is not heavy
to beget a band of boys to carry it
And about the one who’s sitting beside my sister –
she’s my mother
Poor lady . . . she married my father
because he wanted to create a family
to carry his name and hang its photo on the wall
July 2003
Translated by Samuel Shimon
Translated by Samuel Shimon
The Cinderellas of Muscat by Huda Hamed (Banipal Books, 2025)
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
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)
Saïd Khatibi
Amjad Nasser (1955–2019)
Digital Banipal the full archive
Ahmed Morsi, author of Poems of Alexandria and New York
Sarajevo Firewood
The Madness of Despair
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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 Book Club
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