ArabLit & ArabLit Quarterly

ArabLit & ArabLit Quarterly

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An online magazine & micropublisher. ALQ & Books: http://arablit.org/ * Reader-supported: http://patreon.com/arablit, http://arablit.gumroad.com * PACBI signatory

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ArabLit & ArabLit Quarterly
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Batool Abu Akleen’s ’48kg’ Makes Warwick Prize Shortlist Yesterday evening, organizers announced the six books translated from six languages that have been shortlisted for the 2026 Warwick Prize for Women in… https://arablit.org/2026/10/27/batool-abu-akleens-48kg-makes-warwick-prize-shortlist/

arablit.orgBatool Abu Akleen’s ’48kg’ Makes Warwick Prize ShortlistYesterday evening, organizers announced the six books translated from six languages that have been shortlisted for the 2026 Warwick Prize for Women in Translation.
ArabLit & ArabLit Quarterly
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The Compromises of Bread-Making "[Milad's] progressive ideas make the reader want to root for him, only to give up a page later because of his lack of conviction. The author keeps this back-and-forth rhythm up until the very last… https://arablit.org/2026/10/27/the-compromises-of-bread-making/

arablit.orgThe Compromises of Bread-Making"[Milad's] progressive ideas make the reader want to root for him, only to give up a page later because of his lack of conviction. The author keeps this back-and-forth rhythm up until the very last pages, exploring Milad’s individual liberation within and outside of traditional gender roles."
ArabLit & ArabLit Quarterly
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The Second Erasure: How Do We Speak of (and with) Political Prisoners?  How do we speak of political prisoners while they are still inside, and how do we speak with them once they're out? This is… https://arablit.org/2026/10/26/the-second-erasure-how-do-we-speak-of-and-with-political-prisoners/

arablit.orgThe Second Erasure: How Do We Speak of (and with) Political Prisoners? How do we speak of political prisoners while they are still inside, and how do we speak with them once they're out? This is not a question about representation, but rather about production; about what we manufacture when we speak or write about political prisoners.
ArabLit & ArabLit Quarterly
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Youngest winner of the International Prize for Arabic Fiction, Libyan writer Mohammed Alnaas... His BREAD ON UNCLE MILAD's TABLE is out now in Sawad Hussain's translation. (And I forgot we also have this playlist for Bread on Uncle Milad's Table: arablit.org/playlistmilad/)

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‘A Taste of Bitter Tea’, by Mohammed Alnaas The title here is borrowed from the French edition, Un goût de thé amer, which was translated by Sarah Rolfo, while the Arabic original is titled العراك في جهنم. This satirical… https://arablit.org/2026/10/22/a-taste-of-bitter-tea-by-mohammed-alnaas/

arablit.org‘A Taste of Bitter Tea’, by Mohammed AlnaasThe title here is borrowed from the French edition, Un goût de thé amer, which was translated by Sarah Rolfo, while the Arabic original is titled العراك في جهنم. This satirical novella is set in a Libyan village called Hell and is a retelling of events our narrator claims took place there in the 1990s.
ArabLit & ArabLit Quarterly
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‘A Taste of Bitter Tea’, by Mohammed Alnaas The title here is borrowed from the French edition, Un goût de thé amer, which was translated by Sarah Rolfo, while the Arabic original is titled العراك في جهنم. This satirical… https://arablit.org/2026/10/22/a-taste-of-bitter-tea-by-mohammed-alnaas/

arablit.org‘A Taste of Bitter Tea’, by Mohammed AlnaasThe title here is borrowed from the French edition, Un goût de thé amer, which was translated by Sarah Rolfo, while the Arabic original is titled العراك في جهنم. This satirical novella is set in a Libyan village called Hell and is a retelling of events our narrator claims took place there in the 1990s.
ArabLit & ArabLit Quarterly
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Shortlists Announced for 2026 International Award for Arabic Children’s Literature The winners are set to be announced at the Sharjah International Book Fair, on November 4, 2026.... https://arablit.org/2026/10/21/shortlists-announced-for-2026-international-award-for-arabic-childrens-literature/

arablit.orgShortlists Announced for 2026 International Award for Arabic Children’s LiteratureThe winners are set to be announced at the Sharjah International Book Fair, on November 4, 2026.
ArabLit & ArabLit Quarterly
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"What can a Kurd do but be angry? Indeed, what can any person in this contemptible, wounding, violent, and terrifying age do but be angry?" Today on ArabLit, a conversation with the (very) elusive Salim Barakat: arablit.org/2026/10/20/i...

arablit.orgIn Conversation with Salim Barakat“Barakat is forthright, crude, and uncensored in his writings, and he was the same in his responses to my questions. He paints a prophetic picture, neither for himself nor for anyone else.&#8…
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In Conversation with Salim Barakat "Barakat is forthright, crude, and uncensored in his writings, and he was the same in his responses to my questions. He paints a prophetic picture, neither for himself nor for anyone else."... https://arablit.org/2026/10/20/in-conversation-with-salim-barakat/

arablit.orgIn Conversation with Salim Barakat"Barakat is forthright, crude, and uncensored in his writings, and he was the same in his responses to my questions. He paints a prophetic picture, neither for himself nor for anyone else."
ArabLit & ArabLit Quarterly
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Alis al-Bustani’s ‘Sa’iba’ and the Arab Nahda Alis al-Bustani’s 'Sa’iba' and the Arab Nahda Women, Marriage, and Modernity in the Nineteenth-Century Nahda Reviewed by Ilham Essalih…... https://arablit.org/2026/10/19/alis-al-bustanis-saiba-and-the-arab-nahda/

arablit.orgAlis al-Bustani’s ‘Sa’iba’ and the Arab NahdaAlis al-Bustani’s 'Sa’iba' and the Arab Nahda Women, Marriage, and Modernity in the Nineteenth-Century Nahda Reviewed by Ilham Essalih A Victorian gothic novel and an Ottoman-Arabic context – could such a peculiar combination be the ultimate manifestation of early Nahda production? Sa’iba, Alis al-Bustani’s first and only novel, is a product of Arab modernity, born from the introduction of European literature to the Arab intellectual during the renaissance of the nineteenth century, a context very familiar to the author.

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Yung En Chee
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Replying to @yungenchee.bsky.social

Alaa Alqaisi, ‘In Praise of What Is No Longer Ours’

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New Poetry after Darwish: ‘In Praise of What Is No Longer Ours’ The great twentieth-century poet Mahmoud Darwish was born on this day in 1941. Today, author-translator Alaa Alqaisi shares a letter to Darwish and a poem, after Darwish's "In Praise of the High Shadow." In Praise of What Is No Longer…

arablit.orgNew Poetry after Darwish: ‘In Praise of What Is No Longer Ours’The great twentieth-century poet Mahmoud Darwish was born on this day in 1941. Today, author-translator Alaa Alqaisi shares a letter to Darwish and a poem, after Darwish's "In Praise of the High Shadow." In Praise of What Is No Longer Ours By Alaa Alqaisi   This poem is in response to Mahmoud Darwish’s "مديح الظل العالي," an excerpt of which has been translated as "
ArabLit & ArabLit Quarterly
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So much respect for the Coastal Lines Press project of creating zines with Palestinian writers in Gaza so that sales go to fully support the writers. A zine by Samah Yaqut: www.coastallinespress.com/p/a-diary-of...

coastallinespress.comA Diary of DarknessA follow-up to the award-winning zine, In the Depth of Gaza, this collection of poetry and narrative articles is a profound and unnerving portrait of a genocide administered through successive wars an...
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This week on ArabLit, two works from Gaza, Palestine (with one more coming tomorrow, a story by Ansam Abu Setta tr. Nada Hodali). Two Cat Stories from Gaza arablit.org/2026/10/13/t... Three New Poems by Taqwa Ahmed Alwawi arablit.org/2026/10/14/t...

arablit.orgTwo Cat Stories from GazaThese two stories both come from Palestinian writer and psychologist Dr. Hassan Al-Qatrawi. Hunger’s Siege on Gaza By Dr. Hassan Al-Qatrawi Translated by Munira El Najar Two hours of persistent eff…
ArabLit & ArabLit Quarterly
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The Seven Palestinian Nominees for the 2027 Astrid Lindgren Award As in previous years, there are a preponderance of European and North American nominees, with fourteen from the UK, twelve from the… https://arablit.org/2026/10/15/the-seven-palestinian-nominees-for-the-2027-astrid-lindgren-award/

arablit.orgThe Seven Palestinian Nominees for the 2027 Astrid Lindgren AwardAs in previous years, there are a preponderance of European and North American nominees, with fourteen from the UK, twelve from the US, ten from France, and nine from Italy. However, there are also a surprising seven nominees from Palestine.

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The Guardian
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Sally Rooney says she can no longer sell books in the UK because of Palestine Action support

theguardian.comSally Rooney says she can no longer sell books in the UK because of Palestine Action supportIrish writer of Normal People says she can no longer receive royalties from British sales because of her support for group Sally Rooney has said she is being forced to withdraw her books from sale in the UK because of her support for the banned organisation Palestine Action. The Irish novelist, whose books include Normal People and Conversations With Friends, said her public support for the direct action group meant she could no longer receive royalties from UK sales. Continue reading...

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Palestine Festival of Literature
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Our book of the week this week is May Ziadeh's MUSINGS OF A YOUNG WOMAN, a genre-defying book that combines essays, reflections, poems, even a microplay. MUSINGS OF A YOUNG WOMAN is out now from our friends at @arablit.bsky.social. Order your copy now, directly from their shop!

ArabLit & ArabLit Quarterly
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In this week's @palfest.bsky.social newsletter, "A Poem to Barbed Wire" by Muin Bseiso tr. MWB Hammed. It opens: If it is decreed that no snake bite my words that my papers would not burst into a river of ash that my words climb the mountain of shackles www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....

tandfonline.comThe world against Gaza: Muin Bseiso and the poetics of remonstrationThis article thinks about Gaza, catastrophe, and poetry through reflections on the poetics of the Gaza-born Palestinian writer Muin Tawfiq Bseiso. Bseiso's verse regularly figures in anthologies on...
ArabLit & ArabLit Quarterly
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Two Cat Stories from Gaza These two stories both come from Palestinian writer and psychologist Dr. Hassan Al-Qatrawi. Hunger’s Siege on Gaza…... https://arablit.org/2026/10/13/two-cat-stories-from-gaza/

arablit.orgTwo Cat Stories from GazaThese two stories both come from Palestinian writer and psychologist Dr. Hassan Al-Qatrawi. Hunger’s Siege on Gaza By Dr. Hassan Al-Qatrawi Translated by Munira El Najar Two hours of persistent efforts, all to convince the swarm of cats that had gathered around me—while I was cooking our single meal of the day—that today’s food was not to their liking. I told them, more than once, that it was molokhia.
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It’s Publication Day: May Ziadeh’s ‘Musings’ It's publication day for May Ziadeh's Musings of a Young Woman, the second title in our ERASED NOT FORGOTTEN series, ed. Ibtihal Rida Mahmood. In honor of the release, we share… https://arablit.org/2026/10/12/its-publication-day-may-ziadehs-musings/

arablit.orgIt’s Publication Day: May Ziadeh’s ‘Musings’It's publication day for May Ziadeh's Musings of a Young Woman, the second title in our ERASED NOT FORGOTTEN series, ed. Ibtihal Rida Mahmood. In honor of the release, we share scholar-translator Dana Al Shahbari's introduction to the volume, which you can find in our store and in select bookshops worldwide.

ArabLit & ArabLit Quarterly reposted

Yung En Chee
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Still thinking about Alaa Alqaisi's extraordinary "Translating the Unseen: Gaza’s Sky and Anne Carson’s Vision"

ArabLit & ArabLit Quarterly@arablit.bsky.social

This year's Nobel Prize toAnne Carson. Read Alaa Alqaisi's essay "Translating the Unseen: Gaza’s Sky and Anne Carson’s Vision": arablit.org/2025/02/10/t...

arablit.orgTranslating the Unseen: Gaza’s Sky and Anne Carson’s VisionTranslating the Unseen: Gaza’s Sky and Anne Carson’s Vision By Alaa Alqaisi It began with an email from Dr. James Heaney, a professor of English and Irish studies at Carlow University, …
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 ‘Writing Is Rediscovering the Tangible’ Born in the mid-1980s, Ahmed Alhokail is among the most distinctive Saudi writers of his generation. In this exchange, he talks about placing the ordinary at the center of the story,… https://arablit.org/2026/10/08/writing-is-rediscovering-the-tangible/

arablit.org ‘Writing Is Rediscovering the Tangible’Born in the mid-1980s, Ahmed Alhokail is among the most distinctive Saudi writers of his generation. In this exchange, he talks about placing the ordinary at the center of the story, classical Arabic narratives as a living model, Najdi oral storytelling and the uncanny, and the “global reader.”
ArabLit & ArabLit Quarterly
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No, I'm wrong. Promoting Indra's book has everything to do with ArabLit's core mission, which includes creating networks of multi-directional support for writers outside the channels of big-business publishing, book fairs, platforms, etc., esp. if those writers show concrete support for Palestine.

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This has nothing to do with ArabLit but 1) I personally love this novel, and 2) you can see Indra here every day supporting Palestinians in Gaza in concrete ways. Buy this book. (Or get it from the library, because you should read it in any event.)

ArabLit & ArabLit Quarterly
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This has nothing to do with ArabLit but 1) I personally love this novel, and 2) you can see Indra here every day supporting Palestinians in Gaza in concrete ways. Buy this book. (Or get it from the library, because you should read it in any event.)

Indrapramit Das@indrapramitdas.bsky.social

Bookshop.org is having an anti-amazon-prime sale, & you can get THE DEVOURERS slightly discounted there. A mythic realist, queer dark fantasy about love, sex, violence, & shapeshifting set in contemporary India & the Mughal Empire. It won a Lambda Award.

bookshop.orgThe Devourers: A NovelFor readers of Margaret Atwood, China Miéville, and David Mitchell comes a striking debut novel by a storyteller of keen insight and captivating imagination.LAMBDA LITERARY AWARD WINNER • NAMED ONE OF...
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Leri Price and Samar Yazbek Finalists for National Book Award Author Samar Yazbek and translator Leri Price made the five-book shortlist for the 2026 National Book Awards for Your Presence Is a Danger to… https://arablit.org/2026/10/06/leri-price-and-samar-yazbek-finalists-for-national-book-award/

arablit.orgLeri Price and Samar Yazbek Finalists for National Book AwardAuthor Samar Yazbek and translator Leri Price made the five-book shortlist for the 2026 National Book Awards for Your Presence Is a Danger to Your Life: Voices of Survival and Witness in Gaza.
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Literature cannot single-handedly rebuild a state, Alatrash notes, but “it can cultivate the imaginative space in which the vital questions of nationhood, equality, and restoring humanity can finally be asked.” guq.qatar.georgetown.edu/news/why-tra...

guq.qatar.georgetown.eduWhy translation matters in Syrian storytelling after Assad - Georgetown - QatarOn Dec. 8, 2024, news of the fall of the Assad regime rippled through the vast Syrian diaspora.  There was laughter, there were tears and there was euphoria. But amid...
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‘Romeo and Juliet,’ by Fawwaz Haddad At the recent Doha launch of ArabLit Quarterly's Spring 2026 The Fall of Eternity, co-editors Ghada Alatrash and Fadi Azzam spoke with Georgetown University-Qatar professor Youssef Haddad about… https://arablit.org/2026/10/06/romeo-and-juliet-by-fawwaz-haddad/

arablit.org‘Romeo and Juliet,’ by Fawwaz HaddadAt the recent Doha launch of ArabLit Quarterly's Spring 2026 The Fall of Eternity, co-editors Ghada Alatrash and Fadi Azzam spoke with Georgetown University-Qatar professor Youssef Haddad about literature, Syria, and the work of imagining a path forward. Today, we share a short fiction from the issue that attempts part of that re-imagination.
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ERASED NOT FORGOTTEN series editor Ibtihal Rida Mahmood with copies of May Ziadeh's MUSINGS OF A YOUNG WOMAN, which is coming October 12 2026. From May Ziadeh (1886-1941), one of our great thinkers & writers, now in English. Thanks to the whole collective! Your copy: arablit.org/shop/