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Selections
Mohja Kahf
The Body's Aramaic
The Body's Aramaic
She said, I miss the mountains of Persia
He said, I will build a mountain of love for you
Here, in our new country. Be with me.
Live in the temple of now
She said, Listen to the body’s Aramaic
The flesh groans with memory
Ninevah, Babylon, and the birth of the world
between the banks of the Tigris and Euphrates
back when sex was a sacred act
And our bodies, carrying the jug
from exile to exile, keep something of the imprint
of the great goddess with the lion at her side
The body lowers gracefully
its fat clusters of grape, anklets jangling
Beads of sweat lace the hips, the navel
trembling with what is being born
in the flesh of this moment:
The first kiss, new knowledge, absolution
Travel, and the earth will speak to you
Dance, and the belly will remember
the body’s Aramaic,
its ancient ways of love
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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