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Editorial:

The Last Issue – Banipal reaches 25 Years

This is the last issue of Banipal, the independent literary magazine, marking 25 years of translating and publishing contemporary literature by Arab authors. Arabic literature will always need a magazine like Banipal. In fact, more than one. We're closing at No 75, not because the magazine is no longer necessary but because we, as central producers, can no longer continue.  

We no longer have the physical energy necessary, and believe that for such a magazine to continue, there must be new blood, a young staff, with the same enthusiasm and conviction that we have had all these years. We leave behind a massive archive of diverse literature by umpteen different authors that will continue to give readers an endlessly enthralling world of modern Arabic literary works.

Margaret Obank, Publisher

REMEMBERING ARDASH KAKAFIAN

Farouk Yousif

Ardash Kakafian, a painter who looked to the past with a strong nostalgia for Baghdad

Sherine Ahmed Morsi

Ardash Kakafian, a big man with a huge heart

 

LITERARY INFLUENCES

Najwa Barakat

Writing is a Test and an Ordeal

 

TRANSLATOR’S NOTEBOOK   

Anton Shammas
on Emile Habiby: Writing Inside yet Outside the Box

 

Abdelfattah Kilito

On Averroes’s Balcony, translated from the French by Nadia Naami and Christina Civantos from Le Cheval de Nietzsche

 

Jamila Omairah

My Name is Suleiman

A short story, translated by Samira Kawar

(online only) CLICK TO READ NOW

 

Rawi Hage

A short story

The Shepherd

 

Katia Al-Tawil

An excerpt from her novel Heaven is More Beautiful from a Distance, translated by Nancy Roberts             

Ammar Al-Mamoun
reviews Heaven is More Beautiful from a Distance

 

Menna Abo Zahra

He Looked Like Cairo and other poems, translated by Raphael Cohen

 

Walid Hermiz

Poems from

Bells of the Chaldeans

translated by Raphael Cohen

(online only) CLICK TO READ NOW

 

Nizar Aghri

Excerpts from the novel

In Search of Aazar

translated by Paul Starkey

 

Amir Sommer

Two short stories – Afro-Palestinian Disco and One Fine Day You Find Out You’re An Arab, translated by Jessica Cohen

 

Ann El Safi

A short story Al-Qama’ir

translated by Becki Maddock

 

Maisoon Saqer

Excerpts from

The Café Riche – An Eye on Egypt

translated by Jonathan Wright

 Winner of the 2022 Sheikh Zayed Book Award, Literature. category

     *

PRISON WRITING

Thaer Deeb

Reading on the Fat of One’s Heart

translated by Jonathan Wright

 

Jamal Fayez

A Short story

Human Clusters

translated by Jonas Elbousty

(online only) CLICK TO READ NOW

 

       *

Ghalib Halasa

A Letter to Denys Johnson-Davies

         *

BOOK REVIEWS

.          

Trino Cruz reviews The Stone Serpent, Barates of Palmyra’s Elegy for Regina his Beloved, by Nouri Al-Jarrah

Jaafar Al-Aluni introduces the Spanish edition of Adoniada by Adonis

Susannah Tarbush reviews The Night Will Have Its Say by Ibrahim Al-Koni

.   .   

Joselyn Michelle Almeida reviews The Water People by Vénus Khoury-Ghata

Stephanie Petit reviews Mister N by Najwa Barakat

Fayez Ghazi reviews Nihayat al-Sahra’ (The End of the Desert) by Saïd Khatibi

.   .   

Hannah Somerville reviews No Windmills in Basra by Diaa Jubaili

Stephen Watts reviews Stigma by Yaseen Ghaleb

Sara Slim reviews Villa al-Fusul al-Arb‘a (Four Seasons Villa) by Ibrahim Saadi

 

BOOKS IN BRIEF

.   .   .   

The Threshold by Iman Mersal, translated and introduced by Robyn Creswell. • Warda by Sonallah Ibrahim, translated by Hosam Aboul-Ela • The Drowning by Hammour Ziada, translated by Paul Starkey

    .   .   

Birth by Abdelaziz Baraka Sakin, translated by Adil Babiki • Fountain of the Drowning by Reem Bassiouney, translated by Roger Allen • Among the Almond Trees, a Palestinian Memoir by Hussain Barghouthi, translated and introduced by Ibrahim Muhawi

 

BOOKS EVEN BRIEFER

 .   .   

The Turban and the Hat by Sonallah Ibrahim • Bitter Orange Tree by Jokha Alharthi • The Lady of Zamalek by Ashraf El-Ashmawi

.   .   

Come, Take a Gentle Stab: Selected Poems by Salim Barakat • Roundabout of Death by Faysal Khartash • Planet of Clay by Samar Yazbek

The translators of this issue

Christina Civantos, Jessica Cohen, Raphael Cohen, Trino Cruz, Jonas Elbousty, Samira Kawar, Becki Maddock, Nadia Naami, Nancy Roberts, Paul Starkey, Jonathan Wright

For information about all contributors – authors, translators, reviewers, editors – to this issue and others, go to https://www.banipal.co.uk/contributors/

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