Thanks to Meriem for conducting these interviews with leading women writers across the Maghreb and Mashreq and putting together this month’s recommendations, where women recommend their favorite books by women (contemporary and classic), their favorite women in publishing, and their favorite women-run book spaces.

For more on Arabic literature by women writers (in and for translation) visit arablit.org. If you’re interested in translated excerpts of any of these works for possible publication, reach out at info@arablit.org.

Also: This is a long one! It probably won’t all come in your email, so click to continue.

-M Lynx Qualey

*

I first realized that Arab women’s writing was overlooked when I was in middle school in Settat, Morocco. We had an Arabic workbook, and the texts inside were all by men, which led me to ask: weren’t there any women writers? I soon discovered that there were indeed women writers—they simply had not received the same critical recognition or canonization.

Women have always been a part of the Arabic literary story, from the elegies of al-Khansa (575–646 CE) to the women writers of the nineteenth century to today. Yet even as they contribute significantly to the writing of a period—say, the Nahda—their work often disappears from the canon soon after.

There are thus many women writers—classical and contemporary—whose urgent works have not yet been translated to English and other languages. For that reason, for this Women in Translation Month (#WiTMonth) the ArabLit Publishers’ Newsletter invited women who write in Arabic to recommend books by women, highlight women in the publishing industry they admire, and share women-run bookshops and reading spaces that bring readers and books together. -Meriem Essaoudy

Recommended Books by Women (Recent Reads)

~NOVELS~

Fourteen Sad Faces by Baraa Al-Tarn (2022)

A delicate and quietly devastating novel, Fourteen Sad Faces turns a routine minibus ride through Damascus into a series of intimate portraits of life during the Syrian war, capturing the ways war alters a city, and forever reshapes people, relationships, and the fabrics of everyday life.

Editor’s note: Baraa Al-Tarn (@baraaaaltrn) is a young Syrian lawyer, journalist, and writer. This novel was published by the Milan-based publishing house Al-Mutawassit. More about how to reach Al-Mutawassit here.

Recommended by Badar Salem

*

Out of Gheit El-Enab, by Mai El-Maghraby (2025)

Using a confrontational voice and sensory richness, Out of Gheit El-Enab questions belonging, class, and womanhood with striking honesty and rawness.

Editor’s note: Mai El Maghraby is a writer and journalist from Egypt. She graduated from the Faculty of Arts, Alexandria University, Department of Psychology. She has published a number of poems, texts, critical articles, and dialogues in various websites and newspapers, including Mada Masr, The Markaz Review, Maazef, and ArabPop. She received the Al-Mawred Al-Thaqafy grant to produce her first novel, الخروج من غيط العنب (Leaving Ghait Al Enab), in 2023. You can read some of her short fiction on ArabLit. Rights to this novel are with Diwan Publishing.

Recommended by Badar Salem

*

The Days of the Rising Sun, by Miral Al-Tahawy (2022)

The Days of the Rising Sun by Egyptian writer Miral Al-Tahawy presents a vivid portrait of a diverse community of marginalized immigrants living in the fictional U.S. coastal valley town “The Rising Sun. Through sharp, sarcastic prose, Tahawy’s novel captures both the resilience and despair of BIPOC, Arab, and other immigrant communities. Yassmine Hanoosh describes the narrative’s most striking feature as the way it exposes how the pursuit of the American dream can ultimately reduce struggling people to mere consumers within an unforgiving capitalist system.

Editor’s note: You can read more about Miral at her website, https://miral-altahawy.com/. The Days of the Rising Sun was shortlisted for the 2023 International Prize for Arabic Fiction and was published by Dar al-Ain (a woman-run publishing house). Three of Miral’s novels are available in English translation from AUC Press.

Recommended by Yasmine Hanoosh

*

Keys to a City, by Haifa Zangana (2000)

Keys to a City by Iraqi author Haifa Zangana is set primarily in the 1960s Baghdad before many of the upheavals transformed Iraq. Through the lives of an extended family and their neighbors, the novel builds a portrait of the city, recreating the city’s neighborhoods, family houses, courtyards, cafés, markets, and rhythms of daily life, capturing a Baghdad that has largely disappeared. It also offers an intimate view of women’s lives and the ways in which they construct domestic space and negotiate authority within the family.

Editor’s note: Haifa Zangana was just eight years old in 1958 when Iraqis flooded the streets in celebration of their newfound freedom from British colonial rule, which had begun in 1917. Zangana then came of age in one of the most open societies in the Middle East—until it was shut down in the 1970s by the tyrannical Ba’ath Party. Joining in armed struggle against Saddam Hussein, Zangana was captured, imprisoned, and tortured as a young woman. She was released from Abu Ghraib after six months of detention, and has lived in exile ever since. Today, Haifa Zangana is a novelist, a weekly contributor for al-Quds newspaper, and a commentator for the Guardian, Red Pepper, and al-Ahram Weekly. She lives in London. More about Keys to a City on Goodreads.

Recommended by Yasmine Hanoosh

*

Longa, by Maryam Abdel Aziz (2024)

Longa is a literary crime novel that breaks through the boundaries of its genre. Starting with a murder in an apartment building in Cairo’s Abdeen district, Maryam Abdel Aziz creates memorable characters who represent different layers of Egyptian society, while vividly capturing the Abdeen district, transforming it from a mere setting into a living, breathing protagonist. What makes the novel even more compelling is its formal design: inspired by the structure of the Arabic musical form longa, Abdel Aziz adapts the musical form with remarkable subtlety, rather than imposing a rigid pattern on the narrative, creating a novel whose structure is as compelling as its story.

Editor’s note: Longa was published by Kotob Khan (also a woman-run publishing house). More about Kotob Khan at the LEILA website.

Recommended by Mansoura Ez-Eddine

*

Memory of Salt, by Walaa Abazid

This is the debut novel of Syrian writer Walaa Abazid. The protagonist, Sama, together with her family, experiences a car explosion before the fall of the regime, a result of the violent events in the country. She loses her parents, with only her young brother remaining—detained in one of the capital’s prisons. An international humanitarian organization transfers her for treatment first to Lebanon, then to Germany, where she spends a stage of her life struggling to overcome the trauma that hinders her integration into the new society. Through Sama, we live the journey of healing from memory, war, and loss, and the reshaping of self and identity. We witness her life both at home and in exile, resisting despair, pursuing education, and redefining the concepts of home and family.

Editor’s note: This novel emerged from the Novel Writing Workshop within the Dubai International Writing Program, supervised by Shahla Ujayli in 2024, and was published by Qandil Publishing House in Cairo in 2025.

Recommended by Shahla Ujayli

*

The Apartment on Luxor’s Western Land, by Mai Khaled (2025)

Mai Khaled has long written about the transformations of Egypt’s middle class through the lives of women. In this novel, she presents the intertwined lives of three women who meet during a journey to the historic city of Luxor. Each has her own mission: a pediatrician, an architect, and a historian. Through this feminine human relationship with both self and place, we discover the depth of Egyptian life beyond the center, and encounter—through an aesthetic lens—the complexities of female identity and its confrontations, free from extremist ideologies.

Editor’s note: This novel was published by Al-Arabi Publishing House in Cairo. Mai Khaled is an Egyptian writer, translator, and radio and TV journalist.

Recommended by Shahla Ujayli

*

Songs For Darkness, by Iman Humaydan (2024)

Songs for Darkness is a multigenerational novel by Iman Humaydan that follows the lives of four generations of women from the fictional village of Kasura in Mount Lebanon. The novel recovers the stories of women who endured patriarchy, war, occupation, and poverty, preserving lives that history often leaves untold. Jana Fawaz El Hassan recommends Songs for Darkness, noting that its protagonist, Shahira, has stayed with her long after finishing the novel. “I think of her as if she were a real person,” she writes, adding that this is the true power of fiction.

Editor’s note: The novel was published by Dar Al Saqi and longlisted for the 2025 International Prize for Arabic Fiction. It appeared this year in English in Michelle Hartman’s excellent translation. Read an interview with Michelle and Iman Humaydan.

Recommended by Jana Fawaz El Hassan

*

Fruits of Fire, by Haneen Al-Sayegh (2025)

This 2025 novel by Lebanese writer Haneen Al-Sayegh explores the generational inheritance of pain, quiet resistance, and the social constraints placed on women in Lebanon’s rural Druze mountain communities. Jana Fawaz El Hassan praises Haneen’s honest writing and the characters who demonstrate a different kind of woman power.

Editor’s note: You can read more about Haneen Al-Sayegh at the International Prize for Arabic Fiction website (she was shortlisted for her 2024 novel The Women’s Charter), the LEILA website (where they recommend translating and publishing The Women’s Charter), and ArabLit, where she talks about her writing process.

Recommended by Jana Fawaz El Hassan

~SHORT FICTION~

Samir Homs’ Days, by Hind Jaafar (2023)

This is a remarkable short story collection by Hind Jaafar, published by Dar Al Shorouk. Comprising nineteen stories, the collection captures unforgettable human experiences through diverse characters from widely different social backgrounds. Jaafar’s elegant and classic prose brings to life marginalized voices with sensitivity and precision, while her sharp sense of irony reveals the contradictions and hidden paradoxes of everyday life. Drawing on a Borges-like fascination with memory and perception, stories such as “Circular Running” and “Living Memory” explore the boundaries between reality and imagination. Through subtle humor and artistic wit, Jaafar transforms ordinary moments into profound reflections on human existence.

Editor’s note: Read more about the book on GoodReads. We also have more about Hind on ArabLit.

Recommended by Mansoura Ez-Eddine

*

Replica Archive, by Basma Naji

This short-story collection by Basma Naji was published by Kotob Khan. The collection features twenty stories that blend realism with elements of the surreal, portraying characters who experience alienation and estrangement from their surroundings. Naji’s writing is characterized by her art of suggestion and indirect storytelling, approaching each narrative from unexpected angles while leaving space for interpretation. Through imaginative encounters with animals, insects, and human figures, she explores complex emotions with delicacy and depth. With stories that balance mystery, melancholy, and beauty, Replica Archive demonstrates Naji’s ability to transform unusual perspectives into moving reflections on the human condition.

Editor’s note: Kotob Khan is also a woman-run publishing house. This collection was shortlisted for the 2024 Sawiris Cultural Award.

Recommended by Mansoura Ez-Eddine

*

Almost Saved, by Zeina Hamoui (2025)

This collection by Syrian writer Zeina Hamoui contains seventeen stories that trace the trauma of the Syrian war and its devastating aftermath. The stories weave together memories and the daily realities of exile, binding people with objects in moments of bombing and destruction and rendering them lighter beings in times of truce and calm. The stories do not rely on irony or surprise, but rather on discovery. The narrator frequently declares herself to be the author of the story, emphasizing that writing, for her, is a conscious and deliberate act.

Editor’s note: This collection came out from Al-Matbouat Distribution and Publishing Company.

Recommended by Shahla Ujayli

~NONFICTION~

Heavier Than Radwa: Fragments of an Autobiography, by Radwa Ashour (2013)

In this autobiographical work, Radwa Ashour combines reflections on the Egyptian Revolution with her experience of fighting illness during her final years of life. Traveling back and forth between memories of university, the martyrs of the revolution, and the act of writing itself, she offers a deeply personal meditation on resilience, political commitment, and the responsibilities of the intellectual. In this book, and later in الصرخة: مقاطع من سيرة ذاتية (The Scream: Fragments of an Autobiography), published after her death, she appears without the protective distance of fiction: ill, politically engaged, sometimes uncertain, always attentive to the world beyond herself.

Alaa Alqaisi recommends Heavier Than Radwa: Fragments of an Autobiography, describing Radwa Ashour as one of the few writers she cannot separate from the person she senses behind the page. For Alqaisi, what makes Radwa Ashour an enduring source of inspiration is her willingness to think critically through the conditions of her own life, even when it meant embracing contradiction or vulnerability. “She makes conviction look difficult rather than decorative,” Alqaisi writes. “Her positions cost her something. So did her writing.”

Recommended by Alaa Alqaisi

Editor’s note: Heavier than Radwa, by the great Radwa Ashour, was published by Dar al-Shorouk and has not yet appeared in English translation.

*

The Diaries of Omayya Joha at Al-Shifa Hospital, by Omayya Joha

The Diaries of Omayya Joha is an essential piece of contemporary memory, offering a first-hand account of the 2023 genocide in Gaza from inside Al-Shifa Hospital. Accompanied by ten evocative cartoons by the Palestinian author Omayya Joha, it stands as a crucial historical witness. Amal Bouchareb, who translated this diary into Italian for Ca’ Foscari University’s DEP magazine (2024), describes it as an urgent narrative that deserves to be widely read.

Editor’s Note: Omayya Joha worked as a teacher before choosing to pursue a career in newspaper cartooning in 1996. She first published in Al-Risalah, followed by Al-Quds, as well as various other local and regional newspapers. She won first prize in the caricature category at a competition organized by the Palestinian Ministry of Culture in 1999, first prize for press caricature in the UAE in 2001, and finally, the Grand Prize at the Naji Al-Ali Caricature Competition in Turkey in 2010.

Recommended by Amal Bouchareb

*

In the Footsteps of Enayat Al-Zayyat, by Iman Mersal

This is a hybrid work of biography, memoir, and literary investigation where the Egyptian writer and poet Iman Mersal traces the life of the overlooked Egyptian writer Enayat Al-Zayyat, through this work Mersal explores memory, loss,truth, friendship, and the fragmented nature of individual lives. Asmaa Azaizeh recommends this piece as one of the rare books that successfully unveil something about ourselves instead of simply confirming what we already believe. The Footsteps of Enayat Al-Zayyat invited readers to face unsettling questions such as what traces will we leave behind? What kind of life might emerge from our death if someone were to follow our footsteps?

Editor’s note: This has appeared in award-winning English translation as Traces of Enayat but has yet to appear in many other languages.

Recommended by Asmaa Azaizeh

Recommended Books (Classics by Women Writers)

Here, we let the writers we interviewed interpret “classic” in whatever way they chose; thus, we have Palestinian writer Asmaa Azaizeh’s recommendation of the works of Rabi’a al-Adawiyya (713-801 CE) rubbing up against Najwa Bin Shatwan’s recommendation of May Ziadeh (1886-1941) and Badar Salem’s recommendation of Ibtisam Azem’s 2014 novel The Book of Disappearance.

*

For her part, instead of recommending a single book, Libyan writer Najwa Bin Shatwan recommends exploring the collected works of several influential Arab women writers. Her list includes: Ghada Al-Samman, for her intellectual boldness and deep human insight; Latifa Al-Dulaimi, for her blend of philosophical sensibility and narrative beauty; May Ziadeh, as a pioneering figure in modern Arabic literature; Nawal El Saadawi, for the important intellectual and social questions she raised through her work; Fatema Mernissi, whose groundbreaking contributions reshaped discussions of women and society; and Layla Al-Othman, for her distinctive human and artistic vision. Najwa writes that, “Together, the writings of these women form an essential part of the Arab literary and intellectual heritage and deserve to be read continuously by new generations.”

*

First Steps to the Women’s Renaissance in Iraq, by Sabihah Al-Sheikh Dawood (1958)

Sabihah Al-Sheikh Dawood’s First Steps to the Women’s Renaissance in Iraq (1958) is a rare and inspiring work that documents the earliest struggles and efforts of Iraqi women for education, work, and public life from the late nineteenth century to the mid-twentieth century.

Recommended by Inaam Kachachi

*

Woman at Point Zero, by Nawal El Saadawi (1975)

This book by Nawal El Saadawi explains that women’s liberation is not simply a women’s problem but rather a political and societal one. Through her examination of gender, sexuality, religion, and power systems, Nawal El Saadawi dares patriarchy and calls for equality and justice. Iman Humaydan recalls reading this book at an early age, highlighting that it shaped her independent outlook and taught her to question dominant ideas and to think more critically about equality, justice, and women’s role in society.

Recommended by Iman Humaydan

*

A Spaceship of Tenderness to the Moon, by Layla Baalbaki (1963)

A Spaceship of Tenderness to the Moon is a collection of stories that follows the story of a married woman who questions the realities of marriage, love, and the desire for freedom with remarkable honesty for the late 1950s. Through her boldness and openness in addressing these topics, Layla Baalabaki reveals the way society often privileges men. This book was banned shortly after its publication, and legal charges were brought against Baalbaki. However, in 1963 the prosecution was dropped, and the book was released. It has since been widely read and reprinted many times.

Recommended by Iman Humaydan

*

The Open Door by Latifa al-Zayyat (1960)

The Open Door (1960) is considered a landmark of modern Arabic fiction for its psychological depth and its use of colloquial Arabic which expanded the boundaries of modern Arabic fiction.

Editor’s note: While The Open Door is available in Marilyn Booth’s excellent translation, Latifa al-Zayyat’s short stories remain untranslated. You can read one, “By Candlelight,” in Alaa Alqaisi’s excellent translation on ArabLit.

Recommended by Badar Salem & Inaam Kachachi

*

The Book of Disappearance, by Ibtisam Azem (2014)

While more recent, this is “contemporary classic” for its originality and fresh take on the Palestinian experience, making it a work likely to endure over time.

Recommended by Badar Salem

*

Crossing to the Truth (Al-’Ubur ila al-Haqiqa) by Shuaa Khalifa (1993)

A landmark novel by Qatari writer Shuaa Khalifa and a cornerstone of modern Qatari literature. The novel explores the enduring tension between modern progress and cultural identity, shaping a nuanced portrayal of a society in transition.

Recommended by Amal Bouchareb

*

L’amour, la fantasia (Fantasia: An Algerian Cavalcade), by Assia Djebar (1985)

A masterpiece of MENA literature, originally written in French. By combining innovation in form and diction with profound historical and feminist insight, Djebar creates a work that redefines both the historical novel and the possibilities of postcolonial literature. The book transforms colonial history into a deeply personal and polyphonic narrative as it weaves together autobiographical reflection, archival documents, and the silences and voices of Algerian women who have largely been excluded from official histories. Djebar creates a powerful means of reclaiming and preserving suppressed experiences by writing in the language of the colonizer.

Recommended by Yasmeen Hanoosh

*

I Live, by Layla Baalbaki (1958)

A groundbreaking novel by Lebanese writer Layla Baalbaki and one of the pioneering works of modern feminist literature, first published in 1958. Baalbaki follows the story of a young girl who challenges the social constraints imposed on her, breaking the wall of silence around issues of the body, freedom, and identity with a boldness ahead of its time.

Recommended by Iman Humaydan

*

A Mountainous Journey: An Autobiography, by Fadwa Tuqan (1985)

A Mountainous Journey is the memoir of Palestinian poet Fadwa Tuqan, following her personal and intellectual journey against the backdrop of Palestine’s social and political history. The memoir explores identity, gender, resilience, and the enduring impact of historical upheaval. Alaa Alqaisi recommends A Mountainous Journey as a landmark work that reveals the continuity of women’s experiences across generations. For Alaa, it offers the realization that what we often experience as private pain may have much deeper historical roots.

Recommended by Alaa Alqaisi

*

The Works of Rabi’a al-Adawiyya (713-801 CE)

Asmaa Azaizeh mentions that even though most of the literary classics read across the Arab world were written by men, women were not entirely absent from the literary tradition. Since much of that heritage was shaped through poetry, many of the women’s voices that have reached us survive in verse.

If asked to choose one, Azaizeh recommends Rabi’a al-Adawiyya, admiring both her poetry and her remarkable life. Born into a poor family in eighth-century Basra, she devoted herself to a life of spiritual contemplation.

Recommended by Asmaa Azaizeh.

*

The Granada Trilogy by Radwa Ashour (1994 and 1995)

The Granada Trilogy is a masterpiece of Arabic literature. The novel follows the tragic fate of an ordinary Andalusian family after the fall of Granada, Radwa Ashour brings history to life with a powerful meditation on memory, identity, loss, and cultural survival.

Recommended by Shahla Ujayli

*

Maryam, Keeper of Stories, by Alawiyah Sobh (2002)

Maryam: Keeper of Stories is an acclaimed novel by Lebanese writer Alawiya Sobh set during the Lebanese Civil War that offers a rare portrayal of women’s experiences amid one of the region’s defining conflicts. Through a layered, One Thousand and One Nights-inspired narrative, the narrative gives voice to the women whose lives unfold amid war, memory, and displacement, placing female friendships and family relationships at its emotional core.

Recommended by Jana Fawaz El Hassan

The Women Behind the Books

We also asked women writers to tell us about women in publishing who they admire. Here are a few.

~EDITORS and PUBLISHERS~

Yasmina Belkacem: Editorial Director, Chihab Éditions (Algeria)

For her exceptional editorial leadership, which Amal Bouchareb describes as a testament to the vital role women play in shaping contemporary Arab publishing.

-Amal Bouchareb

Zeina Halabi: Writer, Academic, and Editor, Rusted Radishes Magazine (Arabic Section)

For her editorial sensitivity to language and its cultural and aesthetic nuances, and for her thoughtful approach that encourages dialogue while giving writers the space to refine their work.

-Asmaa Azaizeh

Rana Asfour: Editor, The Markaz Review

For her genuine love for fiction and deep knowledge of the literature scene.

-Jana Fawaz El Hassan

Rana Idriss: General Manager of Dar Al Adab (Lebanon)

For her willingness to take chances on new writers and unconventional books.

-Badar Salem & Iman Humaydan

Rasha Al Ameer: Director of Dar Al Jadeed Publishing House (Beirut, Lebanon)

For her professionalism and the exceptional care she gives to every book, treating each publication as a work to be meticulously crafted.

-Inaam Kachachi & Iman Humaydan

Dr. Asia Moussa: Founder and Director of El Ikhtilef Publications (Algeria)

For her decades-long commitment to publishing, expanding the circulation of Arabic literature across the Arab world.

-Shahla Ujayli

Rania Al Moallem: Director, Dar Al Saqi (Lebanon)

Bouthaina Al-Essa: Founder of Takween Publishing (Kuwait)

-Iman Humaydan

~LITERARY TRANSLATORS~

Dai Rahmy: Translator of Poetry

For her efforts in conveying poetic sensibility and aesthetic beauty across languages.

-Najwa Bin Shatwan

Abeer Abdelwahed and Aya Ali: Literary Translators

For building cultural bridges between languages and introducing literary works to new audiences while preserving the spirit and style of the original text.

-Najwa Bin Shatwan

maia tabet & Nada Ghosn: Literary Translators

For their outstanding literary translation between Arabic, English, and French, helping bring Arabic literature to wider international audiences.

-Iman Humaydan

Samah Selim: Scholar and Translator

For her collaborative work with translators in Egypt to uplift the profession and to

highlight important but forgotten literary works.

-Yasmeen Hanoosh

~LITERARY AGENTS~

Yasmina Jraissati: Literary Agent and Founder of RAYA Literary Agency

For bringing Arab writers and translators together and carving out a space for Arabic literary works in translation.

-Yasmeen Hanoosh

~COPYEDITING AND PROOFREADING~

Karima Idrissi: Copyeditor and Proofreader

Known for her precision and professionalism in working with texts.

-Najwa Bin Shatwan

Women-run and Women-friendly Literary Spaces

Maktaba Bookshop (Montreal, Canada)

Recommended by Badar Salem

Maktaba bookshop in Montréal, a cultural space co-founded by Iraqi artist Sundus Abdul Hadi (with her husband) in 2013. Part library, part lively living room, it’s the kind of place where books and conversation spill into each other.

Atras Bookshop (Baghdad, Iraq)

Recommended by Inaam Kachachi

Run by sisters Ban and Zainab Al-Rikabi, Atras Bookstore is a rare literary and cultural space for reading, discussions, and dialogue. True to its motto—“Coffee, Solitude, Books”— Atras Bookstore offers a welcoming refuge for readers and writers alike.

Sijal Book Club (Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates)

Recommended by Najwa Bin Shatwan

Founded in 2015, Sijal Book Club is a women-led reading club that has created a vibrant space for dialogue around literature, ideas, and culture. The club’s most remarkable feature is its longevity, diverse reading selections and activities, and its role in fostering an engaged community of readers.

Trebisonda Libreria (Turin, Italy)

Recommended by Amal Bouchareb

Owned by Malvina Cagna, who has built more than just a bookstore, Trebisonda Libreria has become one of the most vibrant cultural hubs in Italy for promoting and celebrating Arab literature. In the multicultural heart of the San Salvario neighborhood, it serves as a literary bridge between cultures and a welcoming destination for readers eager to discover Arabic literature in translation.

SWANA Rose Culture and Community Center (Portland, Oregon, USA)

Recommended by Yasmeen Hanoosh

A women-led cultural hub dedicated to education, the arts, and intersectional solidarity, SWANA Rose brings together books, community engagement, and dialogue. It is also home to the Center for the Study and Preservation of Palestine Library, which since October 2023 has been serving to educate the local community about the history of Palestine and its colonization since 2023.

Snoubar Bayrout Bookshop (Beirut, Lebanon)

Recommended by Iman Humaydan

Snoubar Bayrout Bookshop was established fifteen years ago as an act of hope and resistance against despair by Hala El Bzri. Through publishing and republishing books on Beirut’s artistic and cultural heritage, the bookshop is dedicated to preserving the city’s memory and celebrating literature as a keeper of Lebanon’s collective past.

Mish.Mash Café (Dublin, Ireland)

Recommended by Alaa Alqaisi

Mish.Mash is a small woman-owned café on Capel Street that has become a cherished literary refuge. Hosting silent reading gatherings where people sit together with their separate books, it offers a rare atmosphere of quiet concentration and reflection—a place where, as Alaa Alqaisi writes: “This place has become one of the places in Dublin where I hear my own thoughts clearly.”

Fattoush Bookshop (Haifa, Palestine)

Recommended by Asmaa Azaizeh

Fattoush Bookshop was founded in 2016 in response to the long-standing isolation of Palestinian readers from Arabic books and culture. For Asmaa Azaizeh as a bookseller and co-founder of Fattoush Bookshop, it represents “a lost paradise made tangible”—a space that preserves connection, community, and the Arabic literary tradition despite decades of cultural separation.

Kitab Yajma‘na: Rainbow Theatre Book Club (Amman, Jordan)

Recommended by Shahla Ujayli

At Rainbow Theatre, the oldest theatre in the heart of Amman, owner Dr. Reem Abu Lughod and content creator Amwaj Abu Hamdeh launched the Book Club initiative, hosting leading Arab writers in open conversations with audiences. The initiative also presents Arab and international film and theatre screenings, reviving the tradition of the multi-purpose theatre and restoring meaningful dialogue between writers and readers beyond the virtual world. Created by Rand Arsheed, Kitab Yajma‘na is one of Jordan’s oldest women’s book clubs. It has grown into a thriving community of women readers, regularly welcoming authors to discuss their literary works.

Black Pearl Books (Austin, Texas, USA)

Recommended by Jana Fawaz El Hassan

A family-run independent bookstore whose goal is to promote diversity, inclusion, and representation through literature. Black Pearl Books is admired for its welcoming atmosphere, thoughtfully curated collection, and commitment to building an inclusive literary community.

Finally

We would like to sincerely thank all the women writers who took part in this feature by sharing their insights and highlighting the collective efforts of women who continue to build and expand the worlds of Arab literature.

Even More Finally

Thanks to Meriem from all of us at ArabLit!

But while you’re here, we do want to recommend that back issues of ArabLit Quarterly magazine are an excellent way to discover a range of Arab writers in translation. The best back-issue beach reads are THE CAT, THE KITCHEN, SONG, THE JOKE, and FOLK issues, as well as — for football fans — the FOOTBALL issue. Publishing professionals who want to peruse e-issues for free can email us at info@arablit.org.

Below, we share a trio of beach reads we recommend for translation; seven football reads (in honor of the World Cup); and recent news about grants and awards. See you mid-August with our Women in Translation Month recommendations, spearheaded by translator Meriem Essaoudy.

-M Lynx Qualey.

Three Beach Books

You Have Been Blocked, the debut novel by popular writer Nawara Negm

In You Have Been Blocked, the debut novel by popular writer Nawara Negm — daughter of towering literary figures Safinaz Kazem and Ahmed Fouad Negm — explores a collage of different women’s struggles during a single (eventful) day at the Internet Complaints office in Cairo. Her witty, clear style and attention to the minor details of society (family, class, relationships, handbags, religion, everything), as well as quirks of character, make this a tale that is, in turns, funny and tragic. Read an excerpt at ArabLit.

About Me, a memoir by sharp-witted Libyan novelist Najwa Binshatwan

Najwa Bin Shatwan is a Libyan academic and writer who currently lives in Italy. Born in 1970 in Ajdabiya, a town south of Benghazi, she studied Education and was a lecturer at Libyan universities. She holds a PhD in Human Sciences from La Sapienza University, Rome; her dissertation focussed on the slave trade in Libya during the Ottoman period.

Although best-known for her award-winning novels and wild, pioneering short stories (which have also won awards), she’s also the author of a remarkable memoir. Reach out to info@arablit.org if you’re a publishing professional interested in an excerpt in translation.

M is for Murder, S is for Saeed, by Abdallah al-Busais (2019)

This detective novel peels back the secrets of adolescence and more in a thrilling, page-turning journey through 1990s Kuwait. Reach out to info@arablit.org if you’re a publishing professional interested in an excerpt in translation.

Seven Football Reads

Al Majalla recently published a list of seven notable football books in Arabic; we’ve highlighted a few on ArabLit (such as Farid Abdel Azim’s 2019 novel Diary of a Running Man), but there are some new reads we’re excited to get a look at, including:

Alwan al-Suhaimi’s novel A Promising Attack (Rashm, 2024), which follows a a footballer from Tabuk’s poorest neighborhood in Saudi Arabia. He moves to Riyadh and London before, eventually, ending up back home.

Iyad Barghouti's Bardaqanah (Al Adab, 2014), which takes readers back to the period before to 1945, in the period before the Nakba, to tell the story of Capt. Fayez Ghandour, coach of the football team in the city of Acre.

Abdullah Thabit’s The Party, (Tashkeel, 2025 by Tashkeel) explores “how football can influence a writer's thoughts about poetry, language, and life in general. He reuses the familiar footballing vocabulary and gives it further dimensions.”

You can read the complete list of football reads at Al Majalla.

Literary Awards News

Arabic IBBY notables: The International Board of Books for Young People recently announced their 2026 honor list, and there are a number of Arabic titles. These include Bodour al-Qasimi’s Bayt al-Hikma (UAE), Sally Samir’s Laysu Arkaman (Egypt), Hussein Al Robaie’s Al Dinosaur Al Kabeer (Lebanon), Hassan Manasrah’s Aghla mafi al-wujood (Palestine), Fadwa Boustany’s A’azu Asdiqa’i (Egypt), Mckeen Assi’s Maza Law…? (Lebanon), and Samar Mahfouz Barraj’s Adam (Lebanon).

New Prize from The Markaz Review: The Markaz Review recently announced their first-ever lit prize, for short works, open to writers from the SWANA region written in or translated into Arabic. They note they will particularly reach out to authors who write in French and Arabic.

Translation Grants Open Now

Turjuman Award: Sharjah’s Turjuman Award is open now, with an application deadline of September 15, 2026.

The grants are “open to all Arab and international publishing houses that have foreign translations (in any of the world’s languages) from an original publication that is issued in Arabic in its first edition, provided that these translations are linked to the Award’s subject and importance.”

Find out more at the website of the Sharjah International Book Fair.

The Libyan literary and publishing scene has been multiply fractured by colonial invasion and occupation, autocracy and isolation, and civil war and the struggle for power. And yet incredible writers have appeared, among them globally acclaimed authors like Hisham Matar and Ibrahim al-Koni, but also so many more: Najwa Bin Shatwan, Mohamed Alnaas, Kawthar Al-Jahmi, as well as many others discussed below. In this month’s newsletter, Masoud Masoud takes us through the Libyan literary landscape: publishing houses, prizes, festivals, and emerging writers.

Alongside the continuous presence of established authors, the past decade has seen an emergence of a new generation of literary voices within Libyan literature, increasingly making itself heard in the wider Arab literary scene. What makes this development especially significant is the writers’ explorations of different themes related to Libya — whether reflecting on its current reality or revisiting recent history — thereby enriching and expanding the Libyan social and cultural imaginary. Yet, despite these steady efforts, a long-term, government-funded project supporting the publishing and literary scene has not yet evolved to match the scale and significance of their contributions.

Publishers interested in rights, longer samples, or contacting writers can message us at info@arablit.org.

-M. Lynx Qualey

Libyan Publishing Houses

Dar Al-Fergiani

Founded in Tripoli in 1953, Dar Al-Fergiani is one of Libya’s most established publishing houses and booksellers. In 1970, it expanded its operations to Cairo, followed by the establishment of its London branch, Darf Publishers, in 1981. The company also operates three bookshops in Tripoli, which serve as key distribution centers for its own publications as well as a wide selection of Arabic and international literature. Dar Al-Fergiani specializes in Arabic translations of literary works connected to Libya’s political, cultural, and social history, including memoirs and historical accounts by influential figures. The publishing house is also dedicated to promoting literary works by Arab and Libyan authors, with particular emphasis on emerging voices in the contemporary Libyan literary scene, such as Kawthar Al-Jahmi and Mohamed Alnaas.

Reach out through their website and Facebook page.

Dar Al Rowad

Dar Al Rowad is a Tripoli-based publishing house and a bookstore established in 1990. Over the years, it has played a significant role in publishing works of Libyan writers across a wide range of genres, including academic studies, cultural writings, history, and literature. It continues to maintain a consistent presence in the Libyan publishing scene and regularly participates in local and regional book fairs.

A notable work published by them is the Arabic translation of the French novel “Les ombers de Ghadamès“ (The Shadows of Ghadames), written by French journalist Joëlle Stolz. The novel offers a fictionalized account inspired by the author’s visit to the city of Ghadames and her fascination with its unique architecture and social life dynamics.

Dar Al Rowad can be reached through their Facebook page.

A note about publishing in Libya:

Publishing with a Libyan publisher improves a book’s accessibility within Libya, and yet it can make distribution outside the country a challenge, except during regional book fairs such as the Cairo International Book Fair, where Libyan publishers often participate. Conversely, authors who publish with broader Arab publishers may benefit from greater regional exposure, while their books often reach Libyan bookstores slowly due to distribution limitations. Another challenge is the limited purchasing power of readers in Libya, as imported books tend to be more expensive because of currency conversion and added profit margins. Alternatively, interested readers are frequently left to secure books through personal arrangements.

Libyan Book Fairs

In the current landscape, literary events and author gatherings in Libya are driven largely by local non-for-profit cultural organizations, especially as major events such as the Tripoli Book Fair have remained inactive for years. Nevertheless, recent initiatives have sought to revive the country’s book-fair culture, including the Public Prosecution Book Fair, (sponsored by the Public Prosecutor’s office) which has been taking place for the past two years and has attracted participation from Libyan and Arab publishing houses. Many consider these efforts an encouraging step toward rebuilding cultural life after years of conflicts, while others maintain that such initiatives should be led and organized by the Ministry of Culture.

Acclaimed and Emerging Libyan Authors

While the world already knows acclaimed authors Hisham Matar and Ibrahim al-Koni, there are many more Libyan authors yet to be published to a broad global audience. Here are a few you should know:

»Najwa Bin Shatwan«

Najwa Bin Shatwan is one of Arabic literature’s most distinctive literary voices. Writing across genres—including novels, short stories, essays, plays, and memoir—she approaches each work with a new style and thematic lens, while consistently centering the question of human existence. Her novel (زرايب العبيد) The Slave Yards, which was published in Arabic ten years ago and has been translated to English by Nancy Roberts, marked a distinctive milestone in the history of Libyan literature: it was the first Libyan novel to be shortlisted for International Prize for Arabic Fiction (IPAF) in 2017. The novel sheds light on the history of slavery in Libya during the Ottoman era. Another translation of her work, by Sawad Hussain, is the wild and surreal short-story collection (كتالوج حياة خاصة) Catalogue of a Private Life, which reflects the reality of dictatorship and its profound impact on Libyan society in the aftermath of the revolution. Through powerful imagery and layered symbolism, the stories explore themes of resistance and resilience, hunger and the deeply human desire to forget the war. The book won an English PEN Translates grant in 2019 and was published by Dedalus Books in 2021. In the extraordinary 2019 collection (صدفة جارية) An Ongoing Coincidence, Bin Shatwan’s satiric writing style shines, crafting a work that is both humorous and deeply moving in its portrayal of Libya’s political situation and armed conflicts since 2011. Many of the stories in the collection have been translated to English but the full collection remains unpublished. The 2021 novel (روما تيرمني) Roma Termini, translated to Italian, is set in contemporary Rome and explores migration from Eastern to Western Europe through the voice of a young Ukrainian woman. While it falls within the literature of migration and social critique, it also blends Bin Shatwan’s dark comedy with human tragedy. Her novel (وبر الأحصنة) Horses Hair revisits the story of Adam and Eve at the very moment they descend to Earth—specifically to the land of Libya—where they attempt to build a new life taking readers on a dazzling, fantastical journey, blending myth, reality, and history through the narration of an unborn child. The 2022 novel (كونشيرتو قورينا ادواردو) Concerto Qurina Eduardo shortlisted for the IPAF in 2023, traces Libya’s recent social and political history from the 1970s to the present. Her 2025 memoir, (عني) About Me, explores how education, family, home, society, and culture have influenced and shaped her. Finally, her 2026 novel (شجرة الصابون) Tree of Soap presents a striking vision of a government maybe a little too eager to encourage free expression and active democratic participation among its citizens.

You can read an excerpt from Najwa’s latest novel, Tree of Soap, on ArabLit in Nassim Barakat’s translation.

You also can–and should–read Najwa’s wild and award-winning short stories in translation:

Stories from “An Ongoing Coincidence”:

1. “The Sharp Bend at Al-Bakur” - winner of 2019 ArabLit Story Prize

2. “Run, George!”

3. “Portrait of a Libyan Scream”

4. “The Reeling City”

5. “Where Are You Running To This Evening?”

6. “The Fish Market”

Other stories:

1. “His Excellency the Eminence of the Void”

2. “Click Like”

3. “The Eid”

4. “Armando’s Virtuous Crime”

»Mohammed Alnaas«

Mohamed Alnaas—the first Libyan writer to win the International Prize for Arabic Fiction for his extraordinary debut novel Bread on Uncle Milad’s Table—is another of the leading voices in contemporary Arabic literature. His writing is distinguished by lyrical, emotionally nuanced prose that explores themes of identity, memory, masculinity, vulnerability, and authority, while reflecting on Libya’s social and political transformations and the intricate relationship between individuals and society. Alnaas gained wide recognition after winning the International Prize for Arabic Fiction in 2022 for his first novel Bread on Uncle Milad’s Table; the English translation by Sawad Hussian is set for publication this October by HarperVia. His latest work الرحيل إلى الجنة Leaving for Paradise, was published by Dar Al-Fergiani earlier this year; it takes the reader to the painful time period of the Italian colonization of Libya, tracing atrocities and the devastating impact of fascist displacement through the journey of a young boy named Jaballah.

Also, translator Nashwa Nasreldin is at work on Alnaas’s The Fight in Jahanaam. She tells us:

Mohammed Alnaas’s novella, The Fight in Jahannam, is a satiric retelling of fictional events our narrator claims took place in the 1990s, during Muammar Gaddafi’s de facto rule, in a small, Libyan village named Jahannam (literally translated as Hell). The villagers descend into conflict after the warring leaders and their respective factions fail to release their grip on power. Resembling an Arab folkloric tale that would traditionally be narrated by a hakawati (Arab storyteller), the book is rich with black humour and references to politics, playing too with the concept of literature and the ‘rules’ of narration.

Also read Olivia Snaije in conversation with Alnaas and his French translator:

On an Award-Winning Novel & the Unstable Literary Scene in Libya

On Translating a Novel of ‘Profound Gentleness in a Violent Milieu’

Contact info@arablit.org to get in touch with Alnaas or his translators.

»Kawther Al-Jahmi«

Kawther Al-Jahmi is one of Libya’s leading novelists and short story writers. Her writing style demonstrates a keen sense of the nuances of Libyan social life, decoding terms and exploring the social meanings and implications attached to them. The Returnees (عايدون)— is an example of a Libyan social term she notably used as the title of her first novel which was published by Dar al-Saqi in 2019 as the recipient of the Mai Ghoussoub Award for Debut Novels. Al-Jahmi’s works examine the deeply rooted social stereotypes that shape individuals from an early age. Through her stories, she maintains a strong connection to the social realities in Libya, capturing the subtle details of the social dynamics in a way that also reflects the country’s broader political and economic conditions. She has published three novels: (عايدون) The Returnees in 2019, (العقيد) The Colonel in 2022, and (ولد بلاد) A Son of the Country in 2024; in addition to a short-story collection published in 2020: (حي القطط السمان) Fat Cats Neighborhood. Her story (طرابلس المحروسة، 1785) Tripoli the Protected 1785 won first place in Fezzan Foundation’s Story Award in 2017. She is also an editor in Fasila - فاصلة, an online platform dedicated to nurturing emerging Libyan writers.

A Son of the Country revolves around Majdi and his family; his father, Rashid, is a Moroccan who fled his country after a conflict with police in 1976 and found his way to Tripoli, where he marries his boss’s disabled sister Moufida. When they have children, the issue of their children’s documentation comes to the fore, as Rashid cannot secure his own paperwork, and Libyan law doesn’t allow Libyan women who marry foreigners to pass their citizenship to their kids. To make it worse, Rashid dies, leaving Moufida—with the help of her brothers—to take care of the two kids. We follow these characters from 1990s to 2000s and then to 2011 and the years that followed, including wars, armed conflicts, and hopes that the law would change, since the two children are considered stateless: neither Libyan nor Moroccan. The novel poses a question about identity: is it a piece of paper, or a sense of belonging? You can read an excerpt from her novel A Son of the Country (ولد بلاد) on ArabLit in Alaa Alqaisi’s translation.

In conversation with the author:

Kawthar Al-Jahmi’s Journey: From ‘Bint Tripoli’ to Award-winning Novelist

More of her writing:

An excerpt from her novel The Colonel was published on Words Without Borders.

The Most Beautiful Moments of the Journey, on road trips to Benghazi

*

We’ll also note that, in our series “women writers recommend women writers,” novelist Aisha Ibrahim particularly recommended Kawthar’s work, saying, “Kawthar Al-Jahmi is a Libyan novelist whose narrative advantage lies in her ability to consciously immerse herself in the issues of Libyan society, its transformations, and its ideological struggles, both old and contemporary. She presents it in a neutral and creative language that is more like a challenge, because everything she presents is sailing through a thorny and highly complex landscape–but she arms herself with striking intelligence and a vast store of knowledge.”

More Libyan Authors You Should Know

1. Ahmed Yousef Aghila is a storyteller, blogger, and researcher of folklore, widely recognized for his distinctive short-story writing. He has published numerous short-story collections as well as several works documenting Libyan heritage and folklore. In 2025, the Ahmed Aghila Prize for Short Story was established to encourage, support, and bring to the spotlight the work of emerging young writers.

2. Aisha Ibrahim is considered one of the most promising emerging voices in the contemporary Libyan literary scene. She has published a collection of short stories titled The World Ends in Tripoli in 2019, in addition to three novels: (قصيل) Qusayl 2016, (حرب الغزالة) The Gazelle’s War 2019, and her 2022 novel (صندوق الرمل) The Sand Box. Her work has received regional recognition, with The Gazelle’s War and The Sand Box being longlisted for IPAF in 2020 and 2023 respectively. Christiaan James is currently at work translating her صندوق الرمل. Publishers interested in an excerpt can reach out to info@arablit.org.

3. Azza Maghur is a short-story writer who also runs a library where children participate in various activities including reading & storytelling. She is also a lawyer known for defending political prisoners, advocating for NGO rights, and openly calling for a constitution in Libya.

She has written five short-story collections. One notable example of her work is the short story collection (30 قصّة من مدينتي) Thirty Stories from Tripoli, particularly the story A Cup of Tea, which follows Nouriya, a woman whose life mirrors that of many Libyan housewives, entirely devoted to caring for her husband, Al-Sadiq, as she spends her days cooking and preparing his daily afternoon cup of tea. Suddenly, cancer quietly spreads through her body. Unnoticed by her husband and overshadowed by the demands of domestic life, Nouriya’s suffering remains invisible as she slowly deteriorates and ultimately dies, highlighting the often-overlooked sacrifices and struggles of women confined to traditional caregiving roles. (Read a review of the collection.)

Her latest work (سِفرُ الغابة: يومياتي في غابات كندا الثلجية) Book of Forest: My Diaries in Canada’s Snowy Forests, is a collection of 48 diary entries written between 2019 and 2021 when she lived in Ottawa, Canada. Through reflections on nature, life, alienation, and nostalgia, she connects her experiences in Canada with memories of her homeland. The book also features photographs taken by the author, capturing the beauty and diversity of the Canadian landscape.

Read: “Mowgli and Shere Khan,” translated by Safa Elnaili and “The Leaf,” translated by Safa Elnaili.

Publishers interested in reaching out to any of these authors can contact info@arablit.org.

Read These Libyan Modern Classics

Ahmed Fagih is best known in the Arab literary world for his trilogy; however, I would like to highlight and strongly recommend two of his other works (both translated to English), as they offer valuable insight into Libya and the social changes it underwent over a long period of time.

Homeless Rats (فئران بلا جحور) Faqih considered it close to his heart as he witnessed the experience as a ten-year-old child. The story follows a tribe through the wheat harvest season in a village south of Tripoli during the 1940s; shedding light on life in Libya at the time and recounting the suffering of Libyans from poverty and hunger. I personally consider it a hidden Libyan literary gem. (Read a review.)

Maps of the Soul (خرائط الروح), considered the longest Arabic novel (12 parts), it follows the rise story of “Othman Al-Habashi” during the time of the Italian occupation of Libya. (Read a review.)

Anthologies of Libyan Literature

Anthologies in English

Translating Libyan: In Search of The Libyan Short Story is a good introduction to anyone interested in reading translated Libyan Literature, as it provides a glimpse of Libya through short stories written by authors from different decades across the vast geography of the country.

Banipal 40 - Libyan Fiction: This excellent 2011 magazine-issue anthology is one of Banipal’s best, with work by big writers like Ahmed Fagih and Hisham Matar but also lesser-known writers (there’s a wonderful short story by Omar el-Kiddi, translated by Robin Moger).

Anthologies in Arabic

Sun on Closed Windows (2017) شمس على نوافذ مغلقة

Published in 2017 as a collaborative project between the Arete Foundation for Arts and Culture and Darf Publishers, this anthology brings together poems, short stories, novel excerpts, and essays by twenty-five young Libyan writers. However, the collection became the subject of public controversy on social media after excerpts from “Khashan” by Ahmad al-Bokhari were deemed explicit. The debate ultimately overshadowed the contributions of the other writers and undermined the anthology’s original aim of drawing attention to emerging literary voices.

‫Restoration: Art as a Means of Resistance and Recovery (A Collection of Stories by Young Writers) (2023) - ترميم: الفن كوسيلة للمقاومة والتعافي

This book is a narrative anthology that raises several issues experienced by Libyans in the past decade. Its strength lies in the diversity of its texts in terms of artistic forms, language, and themes.

Album Libya: Stories and Pictures from Libya, 2023 ( ألبوم ليبيا)

This book is like a love letter to Libya, bringing together personal photographs and stories from 84 Libyan writers, poets, artists, and intellectuals. These stories, appearing in English translation alongside the original Arabic text , offer a different perspective on Libya, which has long been portrayed in Arab and international media from a purely political standpoint, focusing on oil, dictatorial rule, and the struggle for power.

You can also find it in English at https://albumlibya.ly/en/.

Room 211 - غرفة 211

Room 211 is a periodical published by Arete Foundation for Arts and Culture:

• Issue A, 2023

• Issue B, on the memory of Italian colonialism in Libya, 2023

Anthology: Shortlist Stories from Kamel Maghur Short Story Award First Edition, 2025 - قصص القائمة القصيرة لجائزة كامل المقهور للقصة القصيرة - الدورة الأولى

Libyan Literary Prizes & Grants

The Kamel Maghur Short Story Award is named after the late Libyan author Kamel Maghur, a pioneer of the short-story genre in Libya. Established in 2024, the award aims to encourage short-story writers in Libya by showcasing their work, expanding its reach among readers and potential publishers, and providing a platform that recognizes literary achievement in the field. Since its launch, the award has held two editions, attracting a total of eighty-three submissions in 2024 and 113 submissions in 2025, reflecting the growing vitality of Libya’s literary scene. The winner of the award receives a cash prize of 2,000 Libyan dinars, while the writers of the five other shortlisted stories are each awarded 500 Libyan dinars. In addition, all shortlisted stories are published in a special anthology produced by the award in collaboration with a publishing house.

2024 Winner:

صغار الريح - إسماعيل القايدي

“Children of The Wind” by Ismail Al-Qaidi

2025 Winner:

بائع الوقت - أحمد علي الفاخري

“Seller of Time” by Ahmed Ali Al-Fakhri

Arete Foundation for Arts and Culture:

Arete is a nonprofit Libyan organization dedicated to supporting, mentoring, and facilitating artistic creativity and cultural exchange in Libya and neighboring countries.

Its “Professional Libyan Novel Grant Project” aims to empower a new generation of writers in Libya by supporting their creative projects at the early stages of their careers. Grant recipients work closely with members of the judging panel over a period of approximately nine months to develop and complete their novels. In addition, each recipient receives a grant of 10,000 Libyan dinars.

Notable recipients and works produced through the grant include:

Kawthar Al-Jahmi, for her novel (ولد بلاد) A Son of the Country published by Dar Al-Fergiani in 2024;

Restoration (ترميم): Art as a Means of Resistance and Recovery — a collection of stories by young writers published by Dar Al-Fergiani in 2023;

Mohamed Alnaas;

Yaqin Al-Anaqar, for her novel (قلب يجر صخرة) A Heart Dragging a Rock published by Dar ElAin in 2026.

A final note from Masoud:

These suggestions are mostly from my readings and what I have enjoyed over the years, thus; the list is more of a personal take rather than an all-encompassing expert piece on Libyan literature. I hope that, as I continue reading more Libyan literature—particularly works by new authors—the list of recommendations will continue to grow.

And a final editor’s note: Ok, well, we would be hard-pressed to find a broader and better look at Libyan literature, so thank you, Masoud. And thanks to all those who are supporting this work financially; we encourage those publishing professionals making use of this newsletter to put a coin in the (metaphorical) jar.

*

Masoud Masoud is a business graduate with a background in wealth management. He is passionate about business and the intersection between literature and publishing. His fascination with the world of literature inspired him to found @Libyan_Readers (on Instagram) & Libyan Readers - القرّاء الليبيّون (on Facebook) both dedicated to sharing his love of reading and highlighting the work of Libyan writers.

While other genres have been written in Oman for more than a millennium (poetry in particular), Abdullah Mohammed Al-Taie’s The Angels of Green Mountain (1965), was the first Omani novel. And it was several decades later, according to Omani novelist Bushra Khalfan, that the first novels with artistic intent began to appear, starting with a book by Badria Al Shihhi in the late 1990s. What’s more, according to internationally acclaimed novelist Jokha Alharthi, even short stories — so popular in other Arab countries in the late nineteenth and twentieth centuries — only began being written in Oman in the 1980s.

But then, quite abruptly, Omani prose exploded, not just locally, but onto the regional and international scenes. At the recent “Translating Oman” literary evening sponsored by Syracuse University Press, novelist Bushra Khalfan talked about her own slow—and then sudden—literary trajectory. Born in 1969, she started writing in the 1990s, but published her first novel (the acclaimed The Garden, forthcoming in translation September 2026) in 2016. Her International Prize for Arabic Fiction-shortlisted Dilshad came just a few years later.

Translation of Omani literature was also dormant — and then explosive. The first Omani novel translated to English was Abdulaziz Al Farsi’s Earth Weeps, Saturn Laughs in 2013 (translated by Nancy Roberts), and no full-length poetry collection or memoir has yet been translated, outside of Sayyida Salma bint Said Al Said’s (known as Emily Reute) Memoirs of an Arabian Princess.

The second to appear was Jokha Alharthi’s Sayyidat al-Qamr (Celestial Bodies, tr. Marilyn Booth) in 2018, which was the surprise 2019 winner of the International Booker. In the last few years, translations of novels and short-story collections by Jokha Alharthi, Zahran Alqasmi, Huda Hamed, Mohammed Alyahyai, Hamoud Saud, Bushra Khalfan, and others have begun to impact the English-language landscape.

Indeed, this translation has played an important role in Oman as well: Khalfan pointed to Marilyn Booth and Jokha Alharthi winning the International Booker as an essential turning point for Omani literature, one that brought further confidence to the Omani literary scene.

Below, find more recommendations of Omani literature for translation from our translators and partners, and then a brief look at important Omani literary landmarks from curator and Sekka magazine founder Sharifah Alhinai. Gratitude to Sharifah, also, for the beautiful photos.

Also, an important note for publishers: Omani authors can apply to the Omani Ministry of Culturefor translation funding.

-Marcia Lynx Qualey

Omani Prose to Translate

Marilyn Booth Recommends

قوانين الفقد (The Laws of Loss) by Mazen Habeeb

The Laws of Loss is a collection of five interconnected short stories that provide keenly rendered portrait of childhood. Each begins with a law of mathematics or physics and brings it into relation with life. This book won the 2026 Bait AlGhashm Dar Arab International Translation Prize.

Marilyn also recommended Jokha Alharthi’s short-story collection ليل ينسى ودائعه.

Nashwa Nasreldin Recommends

مدخل جانبي إلى البيت (Side Entrance to the House) by Amal Alsaeedi

Nashwa writes: “Side Entrance to the House is a wonderful work by the Omani writer Amal Alsaeedi in which the author’s old family house serves as a vehicle to unearth recalled memories and images of childhood and youth, those memories triggering philosophical reflections on her troubled relationships with her husband, parents and siblings.”

She adds: “Amal Alsaeedi is a rare voice from the Gulf, who writes fresh, imaginative, relatable musings, from a perspective rarely heard in Arabic literature, let alone in translation, which tells us more about the realities of modern life in a still-exoticized region, than many bestsellers. This is a book that deserves to be placed on the shelves alongside popular western autofiction. Daring and adventurous, her writing opens up new modes of thought and plays with form to make for a gloriously satisfying read.”

You can read an excerpt in The Common and another that appears today on ArabLit.

Editor’s note: Amal also just won a grant for The Cultural History of the Grocery Store, a “reflective long-form text that weaves together autobiography and collective memory in Oman, tracing the transformation of the grocery store from a symbol of consumption into a space of fracture and confession. Through a female body burdened with heritage, and a family grief that stretches from the mountains to the sea, the text shapes a personal Omani history of loss.”

Alice Guthrie Recommends

دِلْشَاد (Dilshad) by Bushra Khalfan

This book won the Katara Prize and was shortlisted for the International Prize for Arabic Fiction in 2022. Alice Guthrie writes: “Beyond the boring Gulf bling all too familiar to European audiences, along the coast towards the Indian Ocean, lies the richly textured tapestry of Omani history, so intimately entwined with subcontinental and East African threads. Just across the water from the Mumbai of “Midnight’s Children” — a location Khalfan’s beautifully woven narrative encompasses — we are moved to both laughter and tears by the eccentrics dancing across the pages of this uniquely local yet universal novel of love, loss, family, and fate.”

Read an excerpt on the LEILA website.

Bushra Khalfan recommends:

Bushra recommends short-story collections by Suliman al-Mamari, Mazen Habeeb, Hamoud Saud, Mahmoud al Rahbi, Yahya Salam, Asma al-Shamsi, Huda Hamed, Jokha Alharthi, and Mohammed Alyahyai.

Jokha Alharthi recommends:

When asked back when she won the International Booker, Alharthi particularly recommended Zahran Alqasimi’s novel, جوع العسل (Honey Hunger), which is now in beautiful English translation by Marilyn Booth. She also recommended checking out works by Sulaiman al-Maamari, Bushra Khalfan, Huda Hamed, and Azhar Ahmed, adding, “and many others.”

Zia Ahmed recommends:

Mohamed Alyahyai’s The War — the book recommended by Zia Ahmed — comes out in Christiaan James’s translation next month from Dar Arab. Alyahyai also has out a new book this year, حواليس, which spans from the late 19th century to the 1990s, reexamining Omani history.

A Look at the Omani Landscape by Sharifah Alhinai

Omani Poetry to Translate

Aisha Al Saifi: Born in the old city of Nizwa, Al Saifi is one of Oman’s most decorated poets, who made history when she became the first woman to win the celebrated Prince of Poets Competition. Her poetry, which she began to publish in local newspapers in 2005, centers on themes of womanhood, love and grief. Although a few of her poems have been translated into English already and published in Words Without Borders, Asymptote Journal and Sekka, it would be noteworthy to see more of her poetry, and collections of her work (of which there are four), reach wider audiences through translation.

You can read poems by Al Saifi here.

Imam Said bin Ahmad Al Busaidi: In addition to serving as the Imam (ruler) of Oman in the 18^th century AD, Al Busaidi was an eloquent poet. His most famous poem is “Ya Man Hawah A’azahu Wa Athalany” (also known as “Ya Bakhelan Bel Wasl”). Its poignant words, which express the sorrow caused by a lover’s betrayal, has been sung across time by various Arab singers, including Kuwaiti singer Awadh Al Dukhi, Syrian singer Adeeb Al Dayikh and Egyptian singer Abdulrahman Mohamed, among others, moving millions of Arab hearts. Its universal theme will appeal to readers globally and across generations.

Listen to one of his poems on YouTube.

A Newly Awarded Short Story Collection I’m Looking Forward to Reading

La Bara Fe Chicago by Mahmoud Al Rahbi: Al Rahbi is a novelist and author known for his short story collections, and his advocacy for the short story form. His short story collection Sa’at al-Zawal won the Sultan Qaboos Award for Culture, Arts and Literature in 2012, and his most recent one, La Bara Fe Chicago, won the Al Multaqa Prize for Arabic Short Stories (dubbed the “Oscar” of awards for Arabic short stories) last February. Written in Arabic, the fourteen stories of La Bara Fe Chicago are described as exploring the themes of loss, grief and the journey of letting go of the weight of abandonment through an array of characters, from a fisherman to a migrant.

A Rising Publishing House and Literary Prize

DarArab: DarArab is an independent publishing house that was established in 2017 to amplify contemporary Arabic literature and translate fiction, poetry and autobiographies for English-speaking audiences worldwide. Its mission is to revive and preserve Arabic literary heritage while fostering cross-cultural dialogue between the Arab world and the Western world through storytelling and translation. DarArab has published the work of numerous Omani authors, such as Younis Al Akhzami and Badria Al Shihhi, as well as authors from the wider Arab region, including Bothayna Al Essa and Shahd Al Shammari, and translators such as Roger Allen.

Every year, DarArab, in partnership with the Bait Al Ghasham Foundation, presents the Bait AlGhasham DarArab International Translation Prize, worth a total of £70,000. The prize consists of three categories: a prize for an unpublished translation of a published Arabic literary work, a prize for an unpublished Arabic literary work and a prize for a published Omani literary work. Past winners have included Marilyn Booth and Katherine Van De Vate.

Noteworthy Omani Bookstores

Qura Al Maerifa: Nestled in a quiet residential neighborhood in Ghala, Muscat, Qura Al Maerifa is a cozy independent bookstore that specializes in Omani literature and literature relevant to Omani readers. It was founded during the pandemic by Ibrahim Al Salti, who manages the bookstore himself, thoughtfully guiding readers to books best suited to their interests and helping them discover new worlds. The bookstore also regularly organizes literary events, from talks to panel discussions, bringing Omani writers, and writers from the Arab world, together. Their books can also be ordered online on qalmaerifa.net and find their instagram at @qalmaerifa.

Rawazin: Established in 2017, Rawazin (which in Arabic means the window shelf that objects, including books, are placed on), is a bookstore that began as a physical shop but is now operates entirely online. It specializes primarily in Arabic titles, delivering them to bookworms in Oman and beyond. It also sells secondhand books.

Locations That Bring Books To Life

Muttrah: Muttrah is a recurring setting in Omani novels, short stories and poems. A walk through the vibrant Muttrah Souq, Muttrah’s old neighborhoods, all way the up the many steps leading to the over 400-year-old Muttrah Fort, which overlooks the Gulf of Oman, will not only give readers the opportunity to walk in the pages of some of their favorite literary works, but it will also inspire writers. There is a café in Muttrah Fort, where writers can sit, reflect and write while taking in the view.

Al-Jabal al-Akhdar: al-Jabal al-Akhdar (The Green Mountain), part of Oman’s Hajar Mountains, features in numerous Omani literary works. It is known for its historic significance as the site of the al-Jabal al-Akhdar War. Its enduring presence in fiction in particular reflects its strong imprint on the literary imagination. Hiking across the mountain’s terrain, which rises over 2,000 meters above sea level, and through its restored old villages, such as al-Shuraijah and al-Suwgra, will allow visitors to step back into history and give them a glimpse into the resilient communities that have long called this area home. Once there, visitors will notice locals and tourists alike journaling and writing, making it a place of contemplation and inspiration.

Get to Know Omani Literature: Outstanding Translated Works

Bitter Orange Tree by Jokha Alharthi: Alharthi is an award-winning Omani author and academic who became known internationally when, in 2019, she won the Man Booker International Prize with Marilyn Booth for the English translation of her Arabic novel Sayyidat al-Qamar (Celestial Bodies). Alharthi was the first Arab author to win the coveted prize, bringing unprecedented global attention to Omani literature and generating wider interest in it. Following Celestial Bodies, her novels Narenjah and Hareer al-Ghazalah, were also translated into English by Booth and published under the titles Bitter Orange Tree and Silken Gazelles, respectively. I have read all three of the critically acclaimed works, and while Celestial Bodies remains the book I recommend the most to those reading for Alharthi for the first time, I have a soft spot for Bitter Orange Tree, which was longlisted for the Dublin Literary Award. It follows the story of Zuhoor, an Omani student studying abroad in the United Kingdom, who gets pulled into the past as she tries to adjust to her newfound life abroad. She especially lingers on memories of Bint Amer, an old woman who was like a grandmother to her and who died shortly before she left Oman. “My spirit was burning, consumed by my human helplessness, the impossibility of regaining or restoring just one moment from the past,” Zuhoor poignantly describes in the novel. As the story unfolds, fragments of Bint Amer’s troubled past and Zuhoor’s inner struggles are gradually revealed, drawing readers into a dreamlike, poetic atmosphere, where an old bitter orange tree plays a key role.

Honey Hunger by Zahran Alqasimi: Alqasimi is an award-winning Omani author and poet who has published over a dozen literary works. In 2023, he became the first Omani national to win the International Prize for Arabic Fiction for his novel Taghrebat al-Qafir (The Exile of the Water Diviner). In 2025, his novel Ju’ al-Asal, which was translated into English by Marilyn Booth, was published by Hoopoe, an imprint of the American University of Cairo Press, under the title Honey Hunger. The novel centers on Azzan, a beekeeper in rural Oman, who tenderly cares for his bees while navigating personal challenges. Throughout the story, he encounters a range of characters, through whom the novel explores literal and metaphorical forms of hunger. Booth’s translation of the novel is lyrical, effortlessly transporting readers to the country’s majestic mountains, and immersing them in a richly imagined world of bees, nature, and man skillfully crafted by Alqasimi. Booth’s translation won the Saif Ghobash Banipal Prize earlier this year.

I Saw Her in My Dreams by Huda Hamed: Hamed is an Omani author and journalist best known for third novel, Cinderellat Muscat. I prefer her second novel, I Saw Her in My Dreams, however. The novel follows Zahiyya, an Omani visual artist with OCD, and Faneesh, her newly hired Ethiopian domestic worker. When Zahiyya’s husband leaves for Zanzibar in search of the mother he was snatched away from in infancy, the two women are left in a house alone and their lives become unsettled by a shared recurring nightmare, which prompts Zahiyya to personally investigate the mysterious Faneesh. The novel weaves multiple stories —Zahiyya’s, her husband’s and Faneesh’s — together, bringing refreshing honesty to the persistence of racism among some in the Arab region. It also draws attention to the intertwined history of Oman and Zanzibar. I Saw Her in My Dreams was translated to English by Nadine Sinno and William Taggart, and published by the University of Texas Press in 2023.

Sharifah Alhinai is a writer, cultural advisor and curator, and the founder of Sekka and the Khaleeji Art Museum. She is a graduate of the University of Oxford and The School of Oriental and African Studies, the recipient of the Arab Woman Award 2020 and the Young Arab Pioneer Award 2024. In 2023, she was also recognized in Forbes Middle East’s 30 Under 30 List. For more information about her, visit sharifahalhinai.com.

International literary events in Beirut have, understandably, been back-burnered, with many bookshops and publishers focused on supporting displaced families. The same is true of literary events in Sudan, where 14 million are displaced and tens of thousands are missing.

Meanwhile, big literature festivals in Muscat and Abu Dhabi have also been postponed; the winner of the International Prize for Arabic Fiction was announced online, while the winner of the 2026 Sheikh Zayed Book Award has yet to be announced. In the last 20 years, a lot of the Arabic publishing landscape has re-oriented toward prizes and funding in the Gulf, and it’s not yet clear how the expanding war might change the Gulf’s role on the literary landscape.

What is clear is that authors and publishers continue to think and write their way toward a more just universe: attempting to create new pathways and spaces for fresh ideas, different futures. Or, if not justice, as Samar Yazbek said in a recent interview for ArabLit, “giving a voice to people who are abandoned, whom everyone has forgotten. When we transform stories like this with words, it makes me happy because it’s my way of resisting, since I can’t find justice for them.”

Yazbek is one of the authors included in our Spring 2026 SYRIA: Fall of Eternity issue; we highlight a few Syrian authors with works available for translation. Also, we want to bring people’s attention to a new publication that is certainly working to create new pathways: The Key, helmed by Sara Yasin. In an upcoming episode of the BULAQ podcast, Yasin will talk through her process and publishing strategy.

We also want to draw publishing professionals’ attention to two online events in the second half of April: one for those who might be interested in publishing Arabic YA in translation; and another for those interested in learning more about Omani literature.

-MLQ.

Spring Literary Prizes

The International Prize for Arabic Fiction, which usually announces its winner on the eve of the Abu Dhabi International Book Fair, this year announced its winner in an online ceremony.

This year’s winner was Algerian novelist Said Khatibi’s I Resist the River’s Course. We have an excerpt in Alex Elinson’s translation available at ArabLit.

It’s been a big year for Khatibi, since his End of the Sahara (winner of the 2023 Sheikh Zayed Book Award) is out now, in Elinson’s translation, from Bitter Lemon.

Excerpts

From ‘I Resist the River’s Course’

From ‘End of the Sahara’

Interviews

Said Khatibi and the Algerian Crime Novel

Alex Elinson on Translating Noir

ON BULAQ: A Talk with Said Khatibi

Short films

Watch the short films produced about each of the shortlisted titles.

Meanwhile, the Sheikh Zayed Book Award, which usually announces winners before the International Prize for Arabic Fiction, has not yet announced their 2026 winners. They, however, offer subsidies for all shortlisted titles in the literature and children’s literature categories; we particularly recommend A Swiss Summer, by Inaam Kachachi, published by Takween Publishing in 2024.

RECOMMENDED FOR TRANSLATION: Authors from Syria

This spring, Ghada Alatrash and Fadi Azzam co-edited SYRIA: Fall of Eternity, a 300-page anthology of Syrian literature and art that speaks to the present moment.

*

Publishers should already know about the brilliant Samar Yazbek, whose extraordinary literary reportage is featured in the issue (“The Silent Night-Dwellers of Damascus”); for anyone who doesn’t, Yazbek is represented by the Raya Agency. Although Yazbek’s book on Gaza is forthcoming from Fitzcarraldo, English rights to her 19 Women are still available. You can read a sample, in Robin Moger’s translation, on the Raya Agency website.

*

We also have an essay by the extraordinarily gifted Dima Wannous (daughter of the legendary playwright Saadallah Wannous and author of the award-winning The Frightened Ones, tr. Lissie Jaquette. Wannous — also represented by Raya Agency — most recently authored And the Family Devoured Its Men. You can read a brief excerpt, in Jaquette’s translation, on the Raya website.

*

This April, two big anthologies of international literature are being released — The Penguin Book of the International Short Story and Best Literary Translations 2026— and both feature work by Rawaa Sonbol. Read Sonbol’s “The Noose Boy” at ArabLit as well as an interview with the author.

Sonbol’s most recent short-story collection, Do, Yek (2023), was shortlisted for the 2024 Almultaqa Prize.

*

Although, yes, poetry is a hard sell, it’s nonetheless hard to understand why a collection by ArabLit favorite Rasha Omran has not yet made it to English. You can read her “I Want to Smile” on ArabLit, as well as her cat poems in three languages.

*

For more recommended Syrian authors, visit the LEILA website; recommended works have been selected by the project’s jury.

*

Returning to our Spring 2026 issue: If you’re in Berlin, join us for a free launch event on May 3.

Also, if you’re a publishing professional who might be interested in learning more about Syrian authors, please contact us about a free e-copy of ArabLit Quarterly.

Interested in the Omani Literary Landscape?

Join a discussion hosted by Syracuse University Press on Omani literature and translation. A leading Omani novelist and joins two translators of Omani fiction to discuss the Omani literary landscape.

The talk is scheduled for April 27, 2026.

Speakers include:

- Zia Ahmed, translator of The Raven of Ruwi and Other Stories from Oman

- Bushra Khalfan, author of Dilshad

- Marilyn Booth, translator of Honey Hunger, winner of the 2025 Banipal Prize for Arabic Literary Translation and International Booker winner Jokha Alharthi

- Marcia Lynx Qualey, editor of this newsletter

Sign up for the talk here.

Interested in Young Adult Literature in Arabic?

The webinar series ‘Explorations in Translation for Children’ is co-organised by The Centre for Book Cultures and Publishing in partnership with Outside in World, the organisation dedicated to exploring and promoting children’s books in translation.

23rd April 2026, 5pm-6.30pm UK time. Online only. To join via MS Teams, please register here.

Arabic Young Adult Literature in Translation: in conversation with translators, advocates and scholars of Arabic-language writing for young audiences, Sawad Hussain, Susanne Abou Ghaida, and Marcia Lynx Qualey. Despite a huge, diverse base of speakers and vibrant publishing industries, relatively little Arabic-language literature is available in translation to readers of English. This is particularly true of books for children and young adults.

For those who can’t attend in person, the event should be available on the CBCP YouTube playlist after April 23.

A Recommended Classic: Ahmed Khaled Tawfik’s Now I Understand

Translator Melissa Krawczyk is working on a classic spec-fic collection by the massively popular Egyptian author Ahmed Khaled Tawfik; you can read one of the stories from the collection Now I Understand — “The Wall” — over at ArabLit.

The story-in-letters opens with a gentle question from Mahmoud:

As you know, we haven’t made any changes. But that wall, the one you built that divides the living room—frankly, the wall makes the room feel too cramped. The room was four meters long, but the wall has reduced it to a meter and a half. What’s more, you made it an isolated section without any doors or access points. In short, you created a double wall.

This was your house, and you were free to do as you please. However, now that I live here and have a contract for the property, I feel it’s fair that I know why you insist on keeping this wall. When I asked you about it, you said you’re storing all the junk you don’t want to see but can’t bring yourself to get rid of—like the cradle from when you were a baby. Stuff that you don’t want and will never use, but you also can’t bear to throw it in the trash or sell it to a sleazy second-hand dealer who might use it as a spittoon.

Like the photo collection that spans your entire life, about five boxes in all. You don’t want them, but you can’t burn them. So, you decided to store all this stuff behind the wall you built. Your terms were clear: You would sell me the property for an unbelievable price (seriously, a luxurious place in an upscale neighborhood at this price?), but we had to make a solemn promise not to make any changes.

This includes, of course, not knocking down the wall. But why this strange insistence?

You can read the whole story at ArabLit.

Upcoming events

The Rabat International Book and Publishing Fair (SIEL) 2026 is scheduled for April 30 to May 10, 2026.

The 2026 “Ottawa Kitab Book Fair,” a fair for Arabic books in Canada’s capital, is set for May 16-17, 2026.

💰Grants, subsidies, & support

Don’t miss LEILA’s list of grants, subsidies, and support on their website.

The Sheikh Zayed Book Award offers a significant subsidy for shortlisted titles in the children’s and literature categories.

If you know of grants or subsidies targeting Arabic literature, please let us know at info@arablit.org.

Subscribe now

Saudi Arabia is one of the larger Arabic-writing nations, with a varied and wide-ranging literary landscape that includes prison narratives like Maysaa Almoudi’s compelling Mimosa, depictions of African migration and slavery on the Arabian Peninsula like Mahmoud Trawri’s Maimouna, and extraordinary explorations of health and illness like Aziz Mohammed’s The Critical Case of a Man Called K.

Mohammad Alanazi gives us a glimpse of the bigger publishers, literary prizes, lit mags, and a few of his favorite Saudi writers. I’ll note that — in addition to the books Mohammad mentions — we also have an excerpt from Saudi novelist Zainab Hifni’s I Was Here Yesterday coming soon on ArabLit.

I’ll also reiterate that if there’s anything in particular you’d like to see — a particular question you want answered — you should let us know in the comments or at info@arablit.org.

-MLQ.

*

A Look at the Saudi Publishing Scene

By Mohammad Alanazi

Saudi publishers who are doing interesting work

• Rashm Publishing

Rashm Publishing is relatively new to the Saudi publishing scene. However, it quickly left a significant mark not only on the Saudi literary scene but across the region. In collaboration with Tunisian publishing house Dar Meskiliani / Masciliana Editions, it had published several novels that were nominated for the International Prize for Arabic Fiction. It won the prize in 2023 with the publication of Taghrībat al-Qāfir by Omani author Zahran Alqasmi. (Read an excerpt of that award-winning novel here.)

• Dar Athar

Established in 2010, this publishing house initially focused on publishing literary works from Saudi Arabia and neighbouring Gulf states, but later expanded to include translations and works from other Arab countries.

• Tashkeel Publishing

A darling of the publishing scene in Saudi Arabia, this publishing house is prolific and focused on local talents and readership. It has won numerous awards for its efforts to publish and promote Saudi Arabian literature.

What are the important or interesting Saudi literary prizes?

The main prize for Arabic literature on the global stage remains the International Prize for Arabic Fiction, which consistently nominates works by Saudi authors like Raja Alem and Mohammed Hashem Alwan (who have both won the prize) and Omaima al-Khamis (who was longlisted for this year’s IPAF). Saudi Arabia intends to compete in this area, yet nothing has been established to rival the International Prize for Arabic Fiction in popularity and global reach. Here are a few official awards:

• The Ministry of Culture’s National Cultural Awards.

As the name suggests, these awards are not limited to literature but encompass any Saudi cultural production. For literary-related categories, it has a Literature Award and a Publishing Award.

• Golden Pen Award

Led by literary scholar Saad Al-Bazei as its chair and supported by the General Entertainment Authority (GEA), this award is meant to support “the most influential literature” in Saudi Arabia and the wider Arabic-reading public. According to the GEA website, the award “seeks to honor the most impactful literary creativity in the Arab world, supporting authors who enrich Arabic literature with their unique contributions. It aims to foster literary culture and encourage excellence and innovation in writing.” Furthermore, it “features six categories: novels, screenplays, best-translated novels, best Arab publisher, audience choice, and the grand prizes.” Overall, the awards are meant to popularize literature and support the adaptation of it into other creative mediums, mainly cinema.

• Riyadh International Book Fair Awards

Despite having a category for fiction early on, these awards have since shifted their focus to support the national publishing industry.

• Prince Abdullah Al-Faisal Award for Arabic Poetry

Established in 2019, this prize aims to support and enrich poetry written in Classical Arabic.

Where can people learn about new Saudi work?

• The Ministry of Culture

MoC’s Publications page offers a wide array of resources on Saudi Arabia’s cultural production. The Cultural Commissions Publications page contains two free-access books, Saudi Tales and Saudi Village, that were published in 2023 to display Saudi Arabia’s literary talents. Despite the inadequate quality of these translations, these two books can offer a good example of the range of Saudi writers.

• Riyadh Review of Books

The RRB was created to highlight Saudi (and Arabic) literature and promote it to a global audience. Although the website is not entirely focused on Saudi literature, it is a good resource for discovering new Saudi works and authors.

Who are some interesting Saudi writers?

• Ahmed Al-Hokail

Al-Hokail began his literary career by publishing his experimental short stories online, which he later collected in various books. He later became a novelist and published one of the greatest works of Saudi fiction, Turuq wa mudun [Cities and Roads] (2019). The novel uses a nonlinear, fragmented narrative to map the damage engendered by the violently rapid urbanization of the Najd region and how it fractured familial and social ties. Al-Hokail’s work is forthcoming on ArabLit, including a short story and an excerpt from his novel, Turuq wa mudun.

• Wafa Al-Harbi

Popular for her flash fiction and short stories shared on social media, Al-Harbi’s style is simple yet effective, surprising her readers with twists and turns. Her writing leaves room for interpretation and invites readers to fill the gaps left by her sparse, poetic style. (You can read some of her flash fiction on ArabLit.)

• Mohammed Al-Aradi

A short story writer, Al-Aradi’s writing is an exciting addition to the Saudi literary scene. Most of his stories experiment with the short story genre and draw from various sources to produce stories that are both authentic and unique. (His book Why Does the Sane Soldier Think He Is a Dog? is available in TM Kiani’s translation.)

Who are the Saudi writers who people around the region or the world should know about, but don't?

• Mohammed Al-Thubaiti

Usually considered the poet of modern Saudi Arabia, Al-Thubaiti was among the first poets in the Arabian Gulf to adopt free verse and the modernist movement, which grew rapidly in Saudi Arabia in the late 1970s. He has four poetry collections: Lover of the Rosy Age (1982), I Spelled a Dream/I Spelled an Illusion (1983), The Terrains (1986), and The Sand In/stance (2005), which was released almost 20 years after his third collection because of the vicious public attacks he faced by religious fundamentalists in Saudi Arabia. Al-Thubaiti’s poetry is known for its inventiveness in cadence and diction, setting it apart from other free verse poetry, both within and outside Saudi Arabia. Furthermore, his poetry was largely an attempt to reclaim a pre-national and “pre-petro” space, as described by Saudi scholar Hatem Al Zahrani. The anecdote goes that when a journalist interviewed Palestinian poet Mahmoud Darwish, Darwish asked where he was from, and the journalist answered, “Saudi Arabia.” Darwish quickly responded, “Oh, from Al-Thubaiti’s country.”

• Fawziyya Abu Khalid

A pioneer of prose poetry in Saudi Arabia, Abu Khalid is a unique voice in the country’s literary landscape. Growing up in a generation of women activists, most of her poetry deals with issues that are unfortunately too common for Saudi women, from silencing women’s voices to motherhood. Furthermore, the environment and its elements occupy a prominent place in her poetry. Abu Khalid has also published many children’s stories.

Examples of poetry by Abu Khalid and Al-Thubaiti can be found in New Voices of Arabia: The Poetry: An Anthology from Saudi Arabia, edited by Saad Al-Bazei, as well as in Tracing the Ether: Contemporary Poetry in Saudi Arabia, ed. Moneera Al-Ghadeer.

• Suliman al-Fulih

Born to a Bedouin nomadic tribe in the Hamad Desert, which spans Saudi Arabia, Iraq, Jordan, and Syria, Al-Fulih lived stateless for years before eventually settling in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia’s capital. His life mirrored that of many Bedouins in the Arabian Peninsula: he left the desert to settle in one of the newly established Gulf states, which is why he was known as “The Last Bedouin.” He worked as a journalist for most of his life, penning his own satirical column called “Babbleology.” His poetry is path-breaking in its own way, blending elements and terms of Bedouinity with classical Arabic verse. Moreover, most of his poetry was dedicated to commemorating his tribe’s nomadic lifestyle, and, much like his journalism, utilized humor and satire to comment on and critique social and political issues.

For more on Al-Fulih, see Tareq Alrabei’s Stateless Literature of the Gulf: Culture, Politics and the Bidun in Kuwait, where chapter 4, under the title “The Desert Apocalypse: the last Bedouin, the first Bidun,” is focused entirely on Al-Fulih and his poetry.

For examples of his poetry translated into English and other languages, please see Selection of Suleiman Al-fulayyih Poems, collected by the late poet’s son, Osama Al-fulih, and includes some of my translations.

• Ghazi Algosaibi

One of the most prominent political and literary figures in the modern history of Saudi Arabia. He was widely admired and celebrated for his contributions to academia, public service, diplomacy, journalism, and literature. A prolific writer, he produced a wide range of works, including political and nonfiction essays, poetry collections, and novels. Of his extensive collection of books, only a few have been translated into English, such as An Apartment Called Freedom, Seven, Dusting the Colour from Roses, and The Gulf Crisis: An Attempt to Understand.

An excerpt from Algosaibi’s Abu Shalakh the Chameleon is forthcoming on ArabLit later this week.

• Saleh Zamanan

A poet and playwright, Zamanan is a unique voice in Saudi Arabia’s contemporary poetry scene. His poetry has been translated into many European languages. Four of his plays were recently published in the collection The Greatness of the Eye; you can read more at The Riyadh Review of Books.

*

Mohammad H. Alanazi is a poet, writer, literary translator, and lecturer. He earned a BA in English Language and Literature from Northern Borders University and an MA in Literary Translation Studies from the University of Rochester. He is currently pursuing his PhD in Comparative Literature at UMass Amherst with a focus on modernist and contemporary Arabic literature, Bedouin literature and culture, and (Pan-)Arab nationalism and identity. His first poetry collection, Fayaḍān [Deluge], was published in Arabic by Tashkeel Publishing in 2022.

Editor’s note: Update about upcoming events

Both the upcoming book fairs in Muscat and Abu Dhabi have been postponed. However, the International Prize for Arabic Fiction will still be awarded on April 9, 2026, in an online event.

Subscribe now

Arabic prizes are perhaps even less ignoreable than they are in English, as they play an outsized role both in author remuneration and in book discoverability.

Also: In the last 20 years, the gravitational pull of Arabic literary prizes has shifted significantly. This form of literary soft power used to be wielded in a more localized manner (with national prizes a reward from a national critical or political establishment), but have increasingly been overshadowed by big-money, pan-Arabic prizes in the Gulf.

To name a few . . .

In the Emirates: The Shaikh Zayed Book Award (first awarded in 2007), the International Prize for Arabic Fiction (first awarded in 2008), and the International Award for Arabic Children’s Literature (first awarded in 2010);

In Kuwait: AlMultaqa Prize for the Arabic Short Story (first awarded in 2016);

In Qatar: the Katara Prize for the Arabic Novel (first awarded in 2015);

In Oman: the Bait AlGhasham DarArab Prize (first awarded in 2024);

And in Saudi Arabia: the Golden Pen Award (first awarded in 2025).

Naturally, there are many more pan-Arabic prizes, including the Khaled Khalifa Award for Fiction for first-time authors; the Mahmoud Kahil awards for illustrated works and graphic novels; the Naguib Mahfouz Medal for Literature (based at the American University in Cairo Press), not to be confused with the Naguib Mahfouz Prize for Arabic Fiction or the Naguib Mahfouz Award; and the AFAC grants for creative and critical writings. What’s more, there are dozens of local prizes, such as the Sawiris Cultural Awards in Egypt, the Golden Comar Prize in Tunisia, and the Prix du Maroc du livre.

It’s not only a lot to wade through, but there’s also the occasionally sad one-upmanship, from the offerings of huge money (most of them), to a ridiculous variety of translations (the Katara Prize) to guaranteed film adaptations (the Golden Pen Award).

Here, we offer just a few glimpses from the Winter-Spring 2026 Prize Season.

-MLQ.

The International Prize for Arabic Fiction. Intersectionality, Propulsive Narratives, & What Hits, What’s Missed

Earlier this month, the International Prize for Arabic Fiction judges announced their 2026 shortlist, with nods toward intersectionality & books with an “appeal to a swathe of publics whether in the original Arabic or in translation.”

What hits:

Najwa Barakat’s The Absence of Mai, which is currently Her Unbecoming in Luke Leafgrens’ translation.

Najwa’s work is represented by Yasmina Jraissati at Raya Agency; really, do not be late with this one!

Doaa Ibrahim's A Cloud Above My Head. We already mentioned this in the newsletter on motherhood, so we won’t say much, except that we have an excerpt available in Alaa Alqaisi’s translation.

Said Khatibi’s I Resist the River’s Course. Khatibi’s previous award-winning crime novel — The End of the Sahara — is out this month in Alex Elinson’s translation. A couple days ago, Khatibi talked with ArabLit about this latest novel and his interest in crime fiction. Among other things, he said:

I am an Arab writer, and Arabic literature is one of the foundational grounds of the crime novel. If we go back to One Thousand and One Nights, from first pages, we face a serial killer: Shahryar, who kills a woman every day. Then the stories continue with twists and turns, in line with the essence of crime literature. In the Nights, the margin of freedom expands through eroticism and imagination, because crime literature also widens the space for freedom.

Read the whole interview at ArabLit.

What missed:

Translator Sawad Hussain was disappointed that she didn’t find Omaima al-Khamis’s The Al Musharaq Family’s Aunt on the shortlist.

Sawad said, over voice notes, that the “novel has great historical depth, and it’s such a propulsive narrative. The novel works as a counter-history of the Arabian peninsula, writing back to the general Orientalist view of the region. It’s also quite cinematic in the way that she’s crafted it.”

A screengrab from the livestreamed annoucement:

The 2026 Sheikh Zayed Book Award

The Sheikh Zayed Book Award hasn’t yet announced their 2026 shortlists — which means we don’t yet know which books are available for translation subsidies — but two to look out for:

Literature category:

A Swiss Summer, by Inaam Kachachi, published by Takween Publishing in 2024. This speculative fiction — by acclaimed Iraqi novelist Inaam Kachachi — also made Sinan Antoon’s list of recent favorites. In the novel, four Iraqis are taken to a Swiss clinic to undergo experimental treatment aimed at erasing painful memories. Read more about it at the Fiker Institute website.

Emerging writer category:

My Butterfly Never Dies, by Alaa Alqatrawi, published by Arab Institute for Research & Publishing in 2025. ArabLit’s Sahar Othmani has a translation currently underway; you can read her short introduction and a poem from the collection, in her translation, at ArabLit. As Sahar writes:

Refaat Al Areer had set the scene, declaring, “If I must die,” and Alaa Al Qatarawi’s sorrow metamorphosed into a butterfly that perseveres. She writes, “If I die, my butterfly does not die.”

Children’s book category

A Really Tiny Problem, by Bothayna Alessa, ill Emily Youssef, published by Arwa Al Arabeia for Publishing in 2025. A tender story about a girl who can’t sleep because there’s a fly buzzing in her room — and this tangles up all the other upsetting things in the world. The book addresses an important part of a child’s life; how to worry about things that are both little and big. See your favorite Booktuber talk about it here!

The Sawiris Prize (Egypt): Critical Preening

Although the Sawiris is a national rather than pan-Arab prize, Egypt — you will have noticed — is a pretty big country, and the Sawiris has been a good place to discover excellent books and excellent writers. The Sawiris does now have a partnership with the AUC Press to translate one of its winners (Areej Gamal’s Maryam, It’s Arwa is the first), but many of the other books are worth knowing.

Of course, this January, the big Sawiris news was how first prize in the emerging-writer short-story category was withheld (but second place awarded) in a truly obnoxious display of critical preening, described at Asymptote by Ibrahim Fawzy. Not only did the judges refuse to award the top prize, but one of the judges issued a scolding statement.

Shortlisted collections were: Pet Mice by Nesma Awda, Violent Love by Huda Omran, A Distance Suitable for Betrayal by Noha El-Shazly, and Death Knocks Three Times by Iman Abu Ghazaleh.

Huda Omran is a contributor to ArabLit, and we echo her rejection of this paternalistic bulllshit, as well as Noha El-Shazly’s request for a formal apology.

Other Sawiris awards this January went to Ahmed Abdellatif, Olfat Atef, and Walid Mekki; you can read more about it in English here.

More award-winning children’s literature!

This year, Egypt’s Walid Taher is on the shortlist for the 2026 Hans Christian Anderson award, one of the most prestigious global awards for literature for young readers. And while Walid’s work is available in translation in French and German, there really isn’t much of it available in English (I suppose because English-language publishers of children’s literature tend to be more rulebound), which is really a shame.

Walid has won pretty much every Arabic-language literary award out there for picture books, including the aforementioned International Award for Arabic Children’s Literature, more than once.

A few of his best-known works as a writer are The Black Dot, winner of the 2011 Etisalat Award for Arabic Children’s Literature and the fun Fizo series, featuring a mischievous boy named Fizo, while some of his best-known works as an illustrator include I Feel Like. . . أشعر وكأن, a book about a little girl who uses imagination to express her feelings (written by Soheir Abaza), published by Dar Al Balsam in 2020, and I Dream of Being a Cement Mixer (written by Hussain Almutawaa), winner of the 2019 Sheikh Zayed Book Award.

You can read a longer reflection on Walid’s work at the IBBY website.

Upcoming events

The Riyadh International Book Fair in Saudi Arabia is set for March 13 – 23, on the heels of the London Book Fair.

For our Canadians: The Arabic Canadian Book Fair is set for April 25-26, 2026.

💰Grants, subsidies, & support

Don’t miss LEILA’s list of grants, subsidies, and support on their website.

The Sheikh Zayed Book Award offers a significant subsidy for shortlisted titles in the children’s and literature categories.

If you know of grants or subsidies targeting Arabic literature, please let us know at info@arablit.org.

Subscribe now

While I don’t understand the ins and outs of Canadian literary funding, I do gather that living in Canada (or having Canadian citizenship) is a Good Thing in this regard.

With that in mind, I asked for some help in assembling a list of Arabic-language writers who live in Canada; we’re throwing in a list of Canadian translators as a bonus. Particular thanks to Badar & translator Chloe Bordewich.

The one author glaringly missing from this list is Iman Mersal. This is because (we hope) you already know she’s in Edmonton.

Also, if you have questions or requests, please reach out to info@arablit.org. We’re happy to take requests. Perhaps you’re interested in Arabic novels that foreground nature/animals? Arabic nonfiction about football ahead of the World Cup? Arabic poetry about clowns? Well, yes, we’d be at a loss with that last one, but we could ask around.

-MLQ.

Hilal Chouman lives in Canada! Sign his heartwrenching queer coming-of-age romance

I had forgotten Hilal lives in Canada (sorry, Hilal!); thanks to Badar and translator Katharine Halls for reminding me.

Hilal’s most recent novel is the tender-gritty coming-of-age queer romance Sadness in My Heart (Khan Al Janub, 2022), which twines stories of exile, guilt, bloodshed, and love that Azo shares with Yusif. There are a few excerpts floating around in translation, although the one in Katharine’s translation is available only in print. There is a French translation available online, an excerpt translated by Nashwa Nasreldin and one translated by Suneela Mubayi.

Hilal is also the author of the interlinked short story collection Limbo Beirut (think Yōko Ogawa’s Revenge), beautifully translated to English by Anna Ziajka Stanton. He is a gifted stylist and his characters rattle around in the reader’s mind long after the book has been finished.

You can get in touch with translator Katharine Halls about the rights through the 10/11 literary agency. It’s honestly a bit hard to understand why English rights to this book haven’t yet been signed.

We’ll have more on Syrian writers living in Canada! But for starters, Mohamad Abdo Najari’s memoir of the movie-theater burning in Amuda

Translator Chloe Bordewich is working on a translation of Syrian writer Mohamad Abdo Najari’s memoir, The Fire, about which she writes:

The traumatic episode recounted in The Fire looms large in the collective memory of Amuda, a Kurdish border town in northeastern Syria, the autonomous zone of Rojava. In 1960, more than 200 children were killed in a fire at the town cinema during a special screening billed as solidarity with the Algerian revolution. Najari was one of the survivors.

Why now? November 2025 marked the 65th anniversary of the cinema fire. After decades of marginalization, northeastern Syria is at the center of big, open questions about the post-Assad order. In the intervening decades, the negligence that led to the tragedy and subsequent government efforts to quash remembrance of its victims came to symbolize state oppression. That history is at play today as tensions simmer between Rojava and Damascus.

The Fire recounts the private and public aftermath of the fire, weaving flashes of everyday life with Najari’s later turn to left-wing politics. He joined the Communist Party and studied in Moscow from 1971-1980, part of a big wave of socialists from Arab countries who did so. The excerpt I’m sharing here takes us back to the origin point of this political awakening.

Mohammad Abdo Najari was born in Amuda and now lives in Montreal. He is a prolific translator, having rendered more than 70 works from French and Russian into Arabic. None of his own writing has ever appeared in English.

All I will say is that I wept reading the excerpt, then gave a wet, surprised laugh at the final line. You can read the opening fourteen pages at ArabLit.

Chloe also recommended several more Syrian writers living in Canada, including:

Abeer Dagher Esber (fiction)

Nabil Mohamad (fiction)

Soheir Fouzat (poetry)

Mosab Alnomairy (poetry)

Basheer Amin (fiction)

Chloe promises she’ll help on a special “Syrian writers in Canada” feature, perhaps later in the year.

And speaking of Abeer Esber:

You can read an excerpt from Chloe’s translation of Abeer Esber’s Inheritors of Silence at Asymptote and an excerpt from Abeer Esber’s سقوط حر (Free Fall), tr. Nouha Homad, on ArabLit.

Also, bonus, both Chloe and Nouha are Canadian translators.

We’ll have more from the other authors Chloe' recommends forthcoming on ArabLit.

Iraqi writer Hadiya Hussein lives in Canada! Sign her exploration of two Iraqi strangers & what they reveal about the changes since 2003

Hadiya Hussein — co-winner of the 2020 ArabLit Story Prize (with translator Shakir Mustafa) for her “Tunnels” — is an acclaimed short-story writer and novelist from Iraq whose work focuses on the layered lives of ordinary Iraqi women. Her Waiting for the Past was translated to English by Barbara Romaine

Her Riyam and Kafa was longlisted for the International Prize for Arabic Fiction and her latest novel is A Very Loud Night, which focuses on a chance encounter between two very different Iraqi women in Baghdad—after one returns from exile—that leads to an unusual friendship. Two oddly matched strangers, in close proximity, reveal things about eachother that otherwise might have remained hidden in an exploration of sectarianism, identity-based killings, and the changes that have swept through Iraqi society since 2003.

Publishers interested in a sample should be in touch at info@arablit.org.

Yasser Abdellatif lives in Canada!

As you probably know, Yasser Abdellatif is an award-winning Egyptian poet, short-story writer, screenwriter, and novelist who lives in Edmonton. In 2005, he was awarded the Sawiris Prize for his debut novel Qanoon al-Wiratha (The Law of Inheritance), which appeared from Seagull in Robin Moger’s translation. His collection of short stories, Younis in the Belly of the Whale, won the same prize in 2011. You can find his title story, “Younis in the Belly of the Whale” in the 2023 collection The Big Book of Cyberpunk. You can also read an excerpt from Abdellatif’s “Angel Lust” on Guernica.

Yasser also translates between Arabic, English, and French.

Speaking of translators . . . Arabic-English & Arabic-French translators in Canada!

We have worked with a number of Arabic-English and Arabic-French translators who live in Canada. They include:

Nouha Homad. Born in Damascus, Syria, Nouha Homad was brought up and lived in Europe, the Middle East and South America. She has translated with Kama Abu-Deeb Pablo Neruda’s Twenty Love Poems and a Song of Despair (published 1986), co-authored and edited a three-volume interpretation of the Quran from Arabic into English (published in 1997), and translated Jorge Paolantonio’s novel from Argentine Spanish into English under the English title Ashes of Orchids (Jorge Pinto Publishing, New York, 2008). She came to Montreal in 1999. Find her at nouhahomad.com.

Chloe Bordewich is a Montreal-based researcher, writer, editor, and translator. She writes that she is “especially interested in translation projects with a historical bent and creative ways of blending scholarship with fiction, performance, and public engagement.” Find her at chloebordewich.com.

Michelle Hartman is a literary translator and professor of Arabic literature at McGill University. She has translated more than a dozen novels from Arabic to English including three other novels by Iman Humaydan, The Weight of Paradise, Other Lives, and Wild Mulberries. Her latest translation is A Long Walk from Gaza (Interlink, 2024). She has also written on Lebanese women and the Civil War in two co-authored volumes (with Malek Abisaab), Women’s War Stories: The Lebanese Civil War, Women’s Labor and the Creative Arts (Syracuse UP, 2022) and What the War Left Behind: Women’s Stories of Resistance and Struggle in Lebanon (Syracuse UP, 2024).

Caline Nasrallah is a literary translator, editor, and researcher based between Montreal and Beirut. Her extensive editing and translation work spans fiction and non-fiction, with a particular emphasis on using language as a tool for feminist resistance. She has co-translated multiple novels into English, such as Without by Younis Alakhzami, Memoirs of a Militant: My Years in the Khiam Women's Prison by Nawal Qasim Baidoun, and A Long Walk from Gaza by Asmaa Alatawna. Additionally, she has worked on the translations included in What the War Left Behind: Women's Stories of Resistance and Struggle in Lebanon, co-authored by Malek Abisaab and Michelle Hartman. Her translations have also appeared in British literary magazine Wasafiri, and she has worked as an English editor and translator for multiple issues of Beirut/Montreal-based Al-Hayya magazine and Journal Safar. Caline is pursuing her PhD at Concordia University, focusing on the nuanced communication of resistance and asserting translation as a form of resistance. She endeavors to put language at the service of liberation in each of her projects.

Eman Abukhadra is a Jordanian Canadian translator, interpreter, and poet of Palestinian origin. You can find more of her work through her Instagram, at @aquaclick.

Upcoming events

The first big event on the 2026 calendar is the Cairo International Book Fair, set for Jan 21-Feb 3, 2026.

Translator Sawad Hussain also notes that there are a lot of Arabic-English translators at this year’s Emirates LitFest, for anyone who happens to be in Dubai.

💰Grants, subsidies, & support

Don’t miss LEILA’s list of grants, subsidies, and support on their website.

The Sheikh Zayed Book Award offers a significant subsidy for shortlisted titles in the children’s and literature categories. On this year’s SZBA children’s book longlist there’s a book by Egyptian-Canadian author Mona Kamal, with When Wishes Came True, published by Dar Raheeq AlKotob in 2024. We’ll certainly keep publishers updated about whether Mona makes the shortlist.

If you know of grants or subsidies targeting Arabic literature, please let us know at info@arablit.org.

Subscribe now

Below are novels by and about Saudi women, including Laila Aljohani’s examination of grief; Aida Mahgoub’s look at the traces of history; and Badriyah Elbeshr’s examination of Saudi’s enslaved.

Elbeshr’s The Secret of Zafaranah is on the longlist for the 2026 Sheikh Zayed Book Award, and we also look briefly at the longlisted titles.

Then . . . we’re off for the holidays & hope you are as well.

-MLQ.

Featured Fiction: Aida Mahgoub’s Ritual of the Braid

Much of history tells us the stories of men. Yet Aida Mahgoub’s Ritual of the Braid turns archeology to a different purpose. This 2025 novel takes a thing as ephemeral as human hair and uses it to call up the long-neglected histories of Saudi’s Bedouin women.

Through a carefully woven cycle of interconnected stories, the book centers on the figure of Ruhayel, a young Bedouin man and a recent graduate of the Faculty of Archaeology, Cairo University. During the course of his work, he stumbles upon a small, weathered box buried deep beneath the sand; its contents concealed for generations. Inside, he discovers a single lock of a woman’s braided hair, preserved with deliberate care, carrying the weight of an untold past.

From a section near the start of the novel, translated by Amr El-Zawawy:

The Hoopoes

No one in the tribe had ever truly noticed the women until they vanished. Then, all at once, they became visible—spoken of, sought after. Ruhayel walked to the ridge again, as he always did, to think. But this time, his thoughts wandered not to stars and skies but to the women of his tribe. He realized, to his shame, that even though he had studied civilizations, he knew nothing of their living hearts. All stories, he thought, had been written by men. Every legend had been told in a man’s voice. It was time, he vowed, to write a history where both the storyteller and the story belonged to a woman.

That night, Ruhayel slept on the ridge beneath a blanket of sand and stars, covered in the grunts of camels, the braid in his pocket glowing with meaning, as though it were a guiding lamp. He dreamed of sitting in a vast circle in the desert—as still as a monk awaiting revelation. His silence could not have been spoiled by either serpent or vermin. A breeze swept over his face, and suddenly a hoopoe landed at his side, tapping his ear with its beak. The bird turned into a Bedouin woman who spoke and spoke—then vanished once more into wings and sky. One by one, eight hoopoes came—eight women—each unburdening her load before taking flight.

Ruhayel woke trembling, his soul heavy with their voices. He understood before his mother could tell him—he was the Prophet of the Tribe, the Messenger of Women.

Mahgoub is a writer, journalist, and mental-health counselor who is also a popular podcaster. She hosts two acclaimed podcasts: Bayan Podcast and the Black Dog Podcast. Find more about her at her instagram: @aydshka.

Send a note to us at info@arablit.org if you are interested in a longer sample.

Featured Fiction: Laila Aljohani’s The Mother’s Room

As reviewers at Al Majalla note, it was more than 15 years before Saudi novelist Laila Aljohani returned to fiction, with a short novella, an excerpt of which appears in the ArabLit Quarterly GRIEF issue. In the novel, the protagonist returns to empty her mother’s room after she dies, exploring the traces of those we have lost in the things they leave behind.

The excerpt, translated by Ghazal Alharbi, opens:

Tuesday, January 29, 2019

The Shadow of a Dove

This morning, Ghada saw the shadow of a dove reflected on the glass of her bedroom window, its wings fluttering as it flew away into the sunlit horizon. The sight stirred a memory from a distant morning, of a dove perched behind her brother Ziad’s glass window. That memory brought with it the sound of laughter that had filled the room that day, along with an old sorrow buried deep within her, one that had never healed despite the passage of years. For a moment, her heart clenched as she thought of her mother, who had been lying in a hospital bed for more than a week.

Life had changed after that long-ago morning. Ghada, the second among the children of the family, suddenly found herself the eldest. She had been drifting gently along with life’s flow, changing a little day by day, only to be abruptly thrown into a whirlwind that threatened to swallow everything. Like any teenager, she had once dreamed of better days ahead, but she soon grew fearful and anxious about what was to come. Nothing terrified her more than the lurking shadow of death that seemed to hide inside every coming moment.

As she pondered the shadow of the dove, the laughter, and what followed, she had no idea that death would arrive later that morning. Just a few hours after she saw the dove’s shadow reflected on her window, death would come and take her mother, who had been bedridden with a sudden illness for several days.

Send us a note at info@arablit.org if you are interested in a longer sample or a copy of the GRIEF issue.

Featured Fiction: Badriyah Elbeshr’s The Secret of Zafaranah

This novel, on the longlist for the 2026 Sheikh Zayed Book Award (more on that below), takes us back through the history of enslaved people on the Arabian peninsula. Written by acclaimed Saudi writer Badria Albeshr (whose Hend and the Soldiers was published in Sanaa Dhahir’s translation by University of Texas Press) the novel centers on its titular character, Zafaranah, whose name indicates that she was “owned” by another.

The story encompasses the official liberation of all slaves and the abolition of slavery, the outbreak of smallpox, the spread of locusts in fields and homes, and the opening of girls’ schools.

There are translation subsidies available for books on the SZBA shortlist; a shortlist announcement is expected in early 2026.

Featured Poetry: Tracing the Ether

Anyone interested in getting a broad look at the Saudi poetry landscape should pick up ArabLit contributor Moneera Al-Ghadeer’s excellent bilingual anthology Tracing the Ether: Contemporary Poetry from Saudi Arabia, now out from Syracuse University Press.

The 2026 Sheikh Zayed Book Awards: Longlists

At the end of November, the Sheikh Zayed Book Award organizers announced the prize’s 2026 longlists.

The literature prize:

In addition to Badriyah Elbeshr, mentioned above, there are several acclaimed writers on the literature longlist, including Egyptian writer Ashraf Elashmawy, with Births in the Zoo (Elashmawy has two novels available in English translation), Iraqi author Inaam Kachachi’s A Swiss Summer (which, as Ahram Online notes, “explores an experimental drug to rid people of their ideologically induced bigotry”) and International Prize for Arabic Fiction-winning novelist Jalal Barjas, with Symphony of the Seventh Day.

The young writer prize:

Our favorite title on this year’s young writer longlist is My Butterfly Never Dies by Palestinian writer from Gaza Alaa Alqatrawi, published by Arab Institute for Research & Publishing in 2025. We’ll have more on that book (in Sahar Othmani’s translation) in a forthcoming newsletter.

Upcoming events

The first big event on the 2026 calendar is the Cairo International Book Fair, set for Jan 21-Feb 3, 2026.

💰Grants, subsidies, & support

Don’t miss LEILA’s list of grants, subsidies, and support on their website.

The Sheikh Zayed Book Award offers a significant subsidy for shortlisted titles in the children’s and literature categories.

If you know of grants or subsidies targeting Arabic literature, please let us know at info@arablit.org.

Subscribe now

WHILE WE RECOGNIZE that publishers have a general horror of the old, there are many ways to make it new again. ArabLit Books’ publication of Samira Azzam’s Out of Time was an unquestionable success; we believe there is an audience for more work by authors — especially women authors — whose twentieth-century works were crowded out of the public sphere. Writers like Lebanese author Layla Baalbaki (read an excerpt from her extraordinary Spaceship of Tenderness to the Moon and her incisive short story “The Cat”); Tunisian novelist Aroussia Nalouti; and Syrian poets Da’ad Haddad and Saniya Saleh (read why Rasha Omran thinks you should publish Saleh’s work).

Indeed, when asked to recommend fellow Arab women writers, prominent Arab women writers often mentioned those from a previous generation.

For publishers who want a recognizable (old) name, Palestinian writer Ghassan Kanafani’s iconic short-story collection Land of Sad Oranges has not appeared in English (although the title story has), and we just published the charming title story from Palestinian writer Najati Sidqi’s The Millionaire Communist.

Something new:

WE RECENTLY FEATURED an excerpt from Zuhair Al Hiti’s new book A Nest of Embers, which explores Iraq’s Sabaen community and the dark side of village life, and we also reviewed award-winning Egyptian author Muhammad Makhzangi’s 2025 book, The Smell of the Sun. More on those below.

Something poetry:

THE SHARP-EYED, ORIGINAL Palestinian poet from Gaza Hend Jouda — whose poetry straddles the comic and serious, the banal and the transcendent — has a book available for translation to English, and we have already made a go of translating many of the poems. More on that below.

. . . . and another thing that’s new:

THIS MONTH, WE LAUNCH a Spanish-language website for Arabic literature in translation, ARABLITe.org, edited by the translator Danae Fonseca.

-MLQ.

Featured (New) Fiction: Zuhair Al Hiti’s A Nest of Embers

ArabLit’s Iraq editor Hend Saeed has been working on assembling a list of diverse Iraqi stories; books that illuminate the many visions and versions of Iraq.

A Nest of Embers tells the story of Zafaran, a young man trying to escape the labels slapped on Sabeans, who leaves Baghdad hoping to find freedom in a small village. Yet, as soon as he arrives, he is recognized as the “Sabean,” and his life takes a new turn, such that he not only faces the myths about Sabeans but the village’s inner darkness.

Zuhair Al Hiti, an Iraqi writer and journalist, has published three novels; this is his most recent.

The excerpt we published, Chapter 5, opens:

The shadow of the girl in the damp morning air confused him. It lingered in his mind as he made his way to school on his first day, which passed without any major surprises, which was not how it had begun.

Zafaran did not expect that the nickname “Sabian” would stick to him in Kish from the very first day in school, triggering the rural community’s prejudices—the ones rooted in shared memory about this “mysterious” religion. These prejudices were coupled with cruel images and stories about the Sabian community, including claims that they choked birds before eating them, practiced magic, and supported the regime. There were also the accusations of extreme wealth and a variety of racist beliefs. So, Zafaran’s arrival in the village was no ordinary event. Everyone was curious about the Sabian. Women in particular were interested, since having a romantic relationship with an outsider was considered safer than dating a local in a place where everyone knew everyone.

Read the whole chapter.

Featured (Old) Fiction: Najati Sidqi’s Short Stories

Old short stories aren’t just enjoyable; they’re also an insight into cultural and political history.

Najati Sidqi’s Memoirs of a Palestinian Communist, translated by Margaret Litvin, Anas Farhan, and Gideon Gordon, is out this month from University of Texas Press.

His delightful short story “The Millionaire Communist” appeared in Sidqi’s 1962 short-story collection of the same name; it’s a satire that follows the story of a real-life fellow Arab Communist from Haifa who returned from Russia and got rich profiteering off a war-relief charity.

It opens:

I was on a plane to Egypt in early January when an investigative journalist sat down next to me. He was a frequent traveler, well read, an expert in people’s stories and temperaments. I noticed him turning toward the back seats when suddenly he grabbed my arm; I thought he was having a dizzy spell, and I almost rang the bell to call for the flight attendant, but he quickly stopped me and as he nodded toward a stocky man looking at the clouds from the window. He asked:

“Do you know that gentleman?”

“Not at all. Who is he?”

Read the whole story.

Featured Poetry: Hend Jouda

Hend Jouda is a Palestinian poet from Gaza — currently in France — whose most recent collection has also appeared in French translation. Born in the Bureij refugee camp in 1983, Jouda has published three collections: Someone Always Leaves (2013), No Sugar in the City (2017), and A Finger That Managed to Survive (2024).

We have published five of her poems on ArabLit but have a small collection translated by Alaa Alqaisi, M Lynx Qualey, and Layla Salma.

Read the five poems and send us a note if you’re interested in more.

ARABLITe: Arabic Literature in Spanish Translation

This month, we launch ARABLITe, a Spanish-language e-magazine of Arabic literature in translation.

ARABLITe, a partner site of ArabLit’s, will be run by Danae Fonseca, a postdoctoral researcher and lecturer at the University of Barcelona whose work focuses on Palestinian visual arts and literature, co-founder of “Llegir Palestina.” (More about Llegir Palestina: Making a Space to Read About Palestine.)

She write:

“My interest in ARABLITe stems from my belief that literature conveys memory, history, and imagination across borders,” Fonseca said. “I hope this platform can connect Arabic literary voices with readers in the Spanish-speaking world, honoring their diversity and expanding the pathways through which stories travel.”

Upcoming events

Read Palestine Week is set for November 29-December 5. Publishers who want to participate, please contact publishersforpalestine@gmail.com or info@arablit.org.

💰Grants, subsidies, & support

Don’t miss LEILA’s list of grants, subsidies, and support on their website.

The Sheikh Zayed Book Award offers a significant subsidy for shortlisted titles in the children’s and literature categories.

If you know of grants or subsidies targeting Arabic literature, please let us know at info@arablit.org.

Subscribe now

For #ReadPalestineWeek (November 29-December 5), we are bringing together a collection of essays by writers in Gaza, on the books that connect them (and sometimes disconnect them) from their homes. Alaa Alqaisi writes about leaving Gaza through the lens of Warsan Shire’s Home; Jehad Abu Daya writes about Camus’s The Stranger; Layla Salma writes about Ghassan Kanafani’s Land of Sad Oranges.

It has got me thinking about books about books. In Arabic, there are a number of exciting books about censors and monitors (Bothayna Al-Essa’s The Book Censor’s Library, tr. Ranya & Sawad; Amir Tag Elsir’s The Grub Hunter; Khaled Nasrallah’s The White Line of Night); there are books about the history of Arabic printing and bookselling (Mohammed Alajmi’s The Secret of the Morisco, tr. Christiaan James; Omaima al-Khamis’s The Book Smuggler, tr. Sarah Enany). There are just books about reading and writing, like Ahmed Naje’s Rotten Evidence, tr. Katharine Halls.

Personally, I would love to find an anthology-in-translation about bookselling across the Maghreb and Mashreq, with essays like Abdalla Bayyari’s “My Grandfather and the Bookseller,” translated by Dima Masri.

This month’s newsletter focuses on books about books with a secret bonus favorite children’s picture book.

-MLQ.

Suggested Nonfiction: Alaa Alqaisi on Palestine through Books

Exceptionally gifted writer, critic, and translator Alaa Alqaisi has written several essays about books that could be collected together.

Perhaps best-known for her essay “Beneath the Howl of Hunger,” she has written essays on and with work by Anne Carson, Mahmoud Darwish, WB Yeats, Warsan Shire, Saed Wadoud, and Ghassan Kanafani, as well as essays on translating Palestinian literature.

Alaa, who is newly at a PhD program at Trinity College, is a beautiful thinker and writer whose work can and should be brought together in a collection.

Featured Fiction: Fawwaz Haddad’s The Unfaithful Translator

Fawwaz Haddad’s The Unfaithful Translator was shortlisted for the second-ever International Prize for Arabic Fiction, way back in 2009.

This sometimes biting, sometimes hilarious story centers on a minor literary translator living in Damascus who disdains strict fidelity to the text, and freely adapts the novels he translates.

Disaster strikes when, in translating a novel by a Sudanese writer, our unfaithful translator changes the ending—from what he considers self-indulgent defeat to a more patriotic one. The novel wins an award and is thrust into the limelight; so too its unfaithful translator.

As translator Sophia Vasalou writes: “Not so much through literary integrity as out of old and petty pique, he’s attacked by an eminent journalist and subjected to mud-slinging throughout the Syrian media. The story that follows, which documents the struggle of the hapless translator to restore his reputation, is as much about a positive vision of the purpose of art and creativity, as it is about an anatomy and critique of intellectuals working within an authoritarian culture, and about the relationship between intellectuals and political power.”

It is also, at moments, bitingly funny.

Read a translation of Chapter 7, by Sophia Vasalou.

Featured Fiction: Khaled Nasrallah’s IPAF-shortlisted ‘The White Line of Night’

Khaled Nasrallah’s The White Line of Night, shortlisted for the 2022 year’s International Prize for Arabic Fiction (IPAF), is set in a nameless country where censorship of published texts is carried out by force of parliament. The censoring body checks all books before they are allowed to be published, and ban those deemed offensive.

The protagonist of Nasrallah’s The White Line of Night, shortlisted for the International Prize for Arabic Fiction (IPAF), is a dilemma-stricken censor who happens to be a voracious reader who becomes disturbed and pained whenever he has to ban a book, especially one he loves. The story begins when he is captivated by a book penned by an author going by the pseudonym of the “Knight Writer,” which he ends up having to ban because it includes some words deemed offensive by the powers that be. He then meets with the author and tries to convince him to edit these words out, but fails.

Later on, a number of authors and activists stage a protest against censorship when another author, the “Adventurer,” is awarded an international prize for a book that is banned in her own country. This leads to censorship rules relaxing a little before coming back full force. The censor, who also owns a publishing house that he inherited from his father, faces the difficult decision of whether to pursue his passion and defend his deep-seated belief that good books should be available for all, or to stick by the rules.

Read an excerpt from the novel, in Ibrahim Fawzy’s translation.

And a conversation with the author, on censorship.

Secret Extra: A Favorite Children’s Book

I’m Not Alone, by Rami Tawil, ill Sandra Calvi, Dar al-Saqi

I LOVE THIS STORY and its illustrations. I laughed & I cried. Rami Tawil is the rare grown-up novelist who also understands children.

The book, centered on a lonely boy who yearns (and learns) to become un-lonely, begins:

At school one day, the teacher asks who has brothers and sisters.

__

Everybody starts to count theirs up.

Laila has two brothers. Samer has one sister.

Hani says he has five! Three sisters and two brothers.

---

“And what about you, Maher?” the teacher asks.

I look around and think. And think. And think.

The teacher smiles, waiting for me.

“Yes,” I say at last. “I have a lot.”

Write to info@arablit.org for the original Arabic PDF, English translation, and who to contact about rights.

Upcoming events

The Dubai International Publishing Summit, curated by the Emirates Literature Foundation at the request of the Mohammed Bin Rashid Library will take place at the library from October 30 to November 1 2025.

The Sharjah International Book Fair will be back November 5 of this year; publishers who want to take advantage of the book fair’s translation grant need to be in attendance.

Read Palestine Week is set for November 29-December 5. Publishers who want to participate, please contact publishersforpalestine@gmail.com or info@arablit.org.

💰Grants, subsidies, & support

Don’t miss LEILA’s list of grants, subsidies, and support on their website.

The Sheikh Zayed Book Award offers a significant subsidy for shortlisted titles in the children’s and literature categories.

The Sharjah International Book Fair translation grant is available to publishers who are present at the fair.

If you know of grants or subsidies targeting Arabic literature, please let us know at info@arablit.org.

Subscribe now

There are by now a few collections of myths, legends, and tales translated from Arabic: Bushnaqs’, of course, and Speak, Bird, Speak Again: Palestinian Arab Folktales. There is also Hadil Ghoneim’s wonderful bilingual book, Arabic Folktales for Children and the brilliant Arab Fairy Tale Feasts from Interlink.

Yet while I knew about ancient Egypt from an early age, I never found a satisfactory collection of Egyptian myths in any language. That is, until the translator James Scanlan sent me an email about أبناء نوت وأساطير أخرى : حكايات مصرية عتيقة (The Children of Nut and Other Myths: Ancient Egyptian Tales), by Egyptian novelist Muhamad A. Jamal.

Muhamad’s novel is not for children. Rather, it is for adults like me—adults who still love to feast on myth, but with a twist of grown-up humor and insight.

Naturally, the work of Ibrahim al-Koni is also full of (Tuareg) myth, and mythophiles should certainly pick it up. In this newsletter, in addition to Jamal’s work, we also feature Nadia Ghanem’s reflections on Algerian folklore, particularly Zoubeida Mameria’s three-volume collection of Algerian myths, Tales from the Land of Algeria (Contes du Terroir Algerien, 2013), which could be excerpted in the manner of Pearls on a Branch. And then there are books for young readers, such as Hoda Shaarawi’s graphic novel about legend, archaeology, & Gilgamesh, which we excerpted in Gaza! Gaza! Gaza! and is out now from the Tamer Institute. Any publisher interested in seeing our excerpt (or getting the whole issue) can just send a note.

-MLQ.

Featured Novel: The Children of Nut and Other Myths: Ancient Egyptian Tales (أبناء نوت وأساطير أخرى : حكايات مصرية عتيقة)

In his introduction to The Children of Nut, Muhamad A. Jamal (here, translated by James Scanlan), writes about the absence of fun works about the Egyptian deities—and how he came to want to fill that gap:

You’d be hard pressed to find any sort of work outside of academia that tells the stories of the pantheon of Ancient Egyptian deities, in Arabic at least. The small number of examples that do exist are short and humorless—stray, dry paragraphs devoid of detail, fluency, or drama. Any regular Egyptian who wants to learn about the myths of their ancestors must embark on a soul-crushing journey that has less in common with escapism and more with exam revision.

In the end, it was a cocktail of coincidence and serendipity that finally sparked my interest in the myths of Ancient Egypt. I was fortunate enough to translate several books of world mythology. At times during the process, I became consumed with further research, and at others, I was transported by the sheer enjoyment of the ancient tale on the page.

What had once been a passing interest became an obsession. Overnight, I developed an intense passion for everything Ancient and everything Mythology. I discovered that myths hold all the kindness, wit, wisdom, boldness, and creativity I failed to find in so much of our modern literature.

But at the same time, I was jealous.

How can there be so many of these wonderful books that retell the world’s oldest stories—and are so thrilling and profound and clever—when I, a humble Egyptian reader, must settle for reading the myths and legends of my own people in the monotonous and haughty tones of academics?

This isn’t Muhamad A. Jama’s first myth-infused novel. Translator James Scanlan first stumbled across Muhamad’s earlier novel, Flying, in a Diwan bookshop. (Read an excerpt of Flying here.) Scanlan says:

I became overly excited when I read the blurb of Flying at Diwan in Zamalek. Alexandrians, airborne! Bonkers. Devoured it thrice. It was so inventive and thrilling and fun—culminating in utter madness. But also thought-provoking and touching. And this book? It was a case of sit down again with Mr. A. Jamal and learn about his ancestors. A book purpose-made to be accessible and featuring Anubis. Brilliant.

James has rendered the first two chapters of The Children of Nut in a delightful English. It opens:

“I was alone in Nun.”

This is what Atum would later say about those initial moments of creation.

Perhaps he said it to his sons and grandsons—gods and kings of men all—on one of his nightly journeys across the sky, regaling them with the glory of that first moment of existence.

Or he might have said it in a private tête-à-tête with the scribe god Thoth. Lest the first cosmic moment go un-minuted.

Or perhaps he said it to himself, alone in his pyramid: a nostalgic monologue, far from eavesdropping ears and eavesdropping writing instruments. After all, the future of the world he had designed would certainly not allow him a single moment of privacy thereafter.

“I was alone. I had not created gods or humans. I had not built Annu, nor raised the sky, nor established the earth, nor made Hapi. I had not caused the plants to grow or made the animals. I was alone, and I had no place to live.”

This is Atum, and this is what he was feeling.

Although he was the Father of the Gods, the Builder of Annu, the King of Kings, and the Holder of the Sun Disk (along with thousands of Other Titles), underneath it all he was just a creator god standing in front of a nothingness, looking for somewhere to live, and for someone to talk to.

His story is the story of us all.

Featured Folk Collection: Tales from the Land of Algeria (Contes du Terroir Algerien)

Our Nadia Ghanem writes that this “lush collection of Algerian folktales bursts with stories of hungry ogresses, talking bones, shape-shifters, and magic mixing with daily activities. Laborers’ carts are pulled by lions and snakes, and midwifes help frogs give birth. Zoubeida Mameria wanted to put to pen the stories of her childhood, and she gathered them in three volumes, using French and Derja.”

ArabLit ran an essay about the collection here.

In it, Ghanem notes:

The striking element in all these tales and myths is the sheer number of women in them. They’re here as main characters — and as storytellers — young and old, rich and poor, beautiful or not. All are highly intelligent and endure and outwit the cruelty of fate, and of men.

For Young Readers: Gilgamesh’s Skull

Gilgamesh is one of the oldest of legends that remains in regular circulation. In introducing this graphic novel by Hooda Shawa, illustrated by Michael Jabareen (published by the Tamer Institute), Hooda writes that this:

. . . is a story of displacement, dispossession, colonization, and the ongoing injustice of military occupation. A single ancient object—a magical cylinder seal—travels through time, carrying its encrypted talismanic powers. First owned by a family fleeing warfare in the Assyrian empire during the seventh century BC, the object is unearthed in an archaeological dig between Gaza and Jerusalem in British-occupied Palestine, in the days before the Nakba. Decades later, a Palestinian student of archaeology at Birzeit University seeks its recovery.

Flinders Petrie (1853–1942) was a dominant figure in Egyptian archaeology. His interest in biblical archaeology, specifically focusing on ancient artefacts as means to verify the historicity of biblical narratives, initiated a long trend of biblical and colonial archaeological missions that continue to this day.

The excerpt that ran in ArabLit Quartelry was translated by Anam Zafar and Nadiyah Abdullatif and is available upon request.

Upcoming events

The Amman International Book Fair in Jordan is set to begin on September 25, 2025.

The Dubai International Publishing Summit, curated by the Emirates Literature Foundation at the request of the Mohammed Bin Rashid Library will take place at the library from October 30 to November 1 2025.

The Sharjah International Book Fair will be back November 5 of this year; publishers who want to take advantage of the book fair’s translation grant need to be in attendance.

💰Grants, subsidies, & support

Don’t miss LEILA’s list of grants, subsidies, and support on their website.

The Sheikh Zayed Book Award offers a significant subsidy for shortlisted titles in the children’s and literature categories.

The Sharjah International Book Fair translation grant is available to publishers who are present at the fair.

If you know of grants or subsidies targeting Arabic literature, please let us know at info@arablit.org.

Subscribe now

For this month’s publishers’ newsletter, we turn our gaze to books about motherhood: from the transcendent moments, to the banal ones, to the days when a mother is barely slogging her way through. The fictions feature a range of mothers, from the self-sacrificing type to those who are sacrificing their children’s happiness in order to boost their own.

With many thanks to Al Majalla’s list of “Five unconventional portrayals of motherhood in Arabic novels,” by Ibrahim Adel, as well as to ArabLit contributing editor Ibtihal Rida Mahmood (who is heading up our Women in Translation Month coverage) and novelist Badar Salem, whose Deserted as a Crowded Room is forthcoming in translation from Invisible Publishing (a connection made through this very newsletter!).

-MLQ.

Featured Novel: Postpartum Depression & Hiva Nebi's One-size-fits-all Blue Dress (ثوب أزرق بمقاس واحد)

This recommendation comes via Badar Salem, who writes: “In her debut novel One-size-fits-all Blue Dress, Syrian-Kurdish writer Hiva Nebi offers us a rare gem: a book that doesn’t simply tell a story, but draws the readers into a raw, intimate exploration of the self. While the novel’s focus is postpartum depression, it also captures the experiences of being a woman, of giving birth, of living in a war zone, and of being married yet unbearably alone. It is a story of loving and hating in the same breath, of grieving and longing for stillness, for escape, and sometimes, for nothing at all.”

The excerpt, translated by Badar herself, opens:

Naming what pains us can lighten half our suffering, or that’s the way it feels to me. I’ve always needed to call things by their true names, to strip away their weight and terror. Naming pins the unknown to the known, making it manageable, even approachable. There’s a strange kind of magic in it, a faint echo of explanation. By naming, by pointing or staring, you inch closer to understanding.

Take the turmoil that’s taken hold of me: it might feel gentler, more balanced, if I could only name the disorder within. For weeks, I’ve been trapped in this state: anxiety, sleeplessness, lost appetite, scattered pains, and relentless obsessions. I wake to the sense of an eye watching me, urging me to stare back. I fix my gaze on a single point, even in the dark, compelled to hold it. Circles ignite within that point, rippling like heat on summer asphalt. The eye demands I persist. My eyes water, redden, and burn, but I tell myself salvation lies in seeing it through. “It will end when I hold my gaze,” I whisper, as if staring could unravel the mystery—or seal it, taming its terror.

Featured Novel: Conflict, Motherhood, & Doaa Ibrahim’s A Cloud Over My Head

This recommendation comes BOTH from Badar and from Al Majalla (and if you want spoilers, read their summary of the novel). Badar writes: “A recent novel I haven't been able to shake is Doaa Ibrahim's فوق رأسي سحابة (A Cloud Over My Head); it's unsettling portrait of an Egyptian nurse -- abandoned by her father, neglected by a mother, and sexually assaulted by her uncle at a young age. It's bleak I know, but she gets her revenge --she kills and more!”

Permissions are with Dar Al Ain and this excerpt was translated by the exceptional Alaa Alqaisi, who was a participant in our Gaza Literary Translation Workshop Series and is a gifted writer and translator.

The novel (starting with Chapter 0) begins:

I did not see a white angel with wings of light to tell me, with deepest sorrow, that my mother would die tonight, exactly tonight. It was not a vision that singled me out from all others. I awoke to the beak of a bird boring into my head in the night. The vision dissolved in the darkness, and sound became an instrument, as if the whole universe had contracted into a single sentence telling me my mother would die tonight. This heavy truth settled on my shoulders, exhausting perhaps because it was the first time. In spite of everything, I tried to make things ordinary. I slipped off my clothes and let myself fall onto the bed.

Today, a strong urge seized me to try on one of her hidden garments, tucked away among the piles of ordinary, everyday clothes: a crimson nightgown. For whom had she worn it last? And was it necessary for her to change her underclothes with the changing of husbands? Or was it not necessary at all? Who would ever know the last person you wore it for, except me? And in the end, I would never tell.

Keep reading chapter 0 at ArabLit. And if you’re looking for a literary translator, we can put you in touch with Alaa Alqaisi.

Featured Nonfiction: Ibtihal Rida Mahmood Recommends

Recommendations from an ArabLit contributing editor

Ibtihal says that “the first book that immediately came to mind is of course Iman Mersal's How to Mend: On Motherhood and its Ghosts. This is one of my favorite books of all time.”

Although Mersal’s How to Mend is available in Robin Moger’s English translation, translations into other languages would certainly be welcome.

Other motherhood books Ibtihal recommends:

And Between Us a Garden (وبيننا حديقة), by Sara Abdeen and Marwa Abu Deif. This book is a collection of letters exchanged between the two poets about their mothering experiences

The Motherhood Collection (ديوان الأمومة), ed. Rana Tonsi. This is a collection of essays by 17 women writers on their experiences with motherhood.

The Motherhood Dilemma (معضلة الأمومة), introduced by Hind Salem and edited by Amir Zaki. Essays by ten women examining and critiquing the mainstream cultural conception of what it means to be a mother.

Featured Nonfiction: Choosing Not to Be A Mother

Saudi novelist Laila Aljohani writes in her memoir, 40, about her choice not to become a mother. In an excerpt translated by Ghazal M. Alharbi, she writes:

I’m growing older, and I’m approaching forty without having given birth to a child. However, my name will not be erased, as many women around me think, and my life will not lead to emptiness.

What I gave birth to is resistant to death, and everything I know about life has made me realize that immortality is the ornament of those who are conscious, not those who multiply. And, on top of this, my life is full.

Yes, my life is full, even though some women think or console themselves with the thought that a childless life is empty. In the past, I had been preoccupied with justifying, to those women and others, the reason for my reluctance to have children. Then I realized that I was like someone swimming in the icy water of pointlessness. I make a great effort to explain to these women, and those who think in this way, that they define themselves differently than I define myself. They don’t see the world from my viewpoint, so I decided to just smile at them.

I try to understand how women realize that having a child is a weighty commitment, and then how they treat this fact lightly.

I try to comprehend the point of this motherhood trouble. I try to understand how a woman thinks that all children born are a good deed and will save her in her final days, so she keeps saying to me with great certainty: “Bear a son who will support you when you grow old.”

Upcoming events

The Amman International Book Fair in Jordan is set to begin on September 25 2025.

The Dubai International Publishing Summit, curated by the Emirates Literature Foundation at the request of the Mohammed Bin Rashid Library will take place at the library from October 30 to November 1 2025.

The Sharjah International Book Fair will be back November 5 of this year; publishers who want to take advantage of the book fair’s translation grant need to be in attendance.

💰Featured subsidy: For Hoda Barakat’s Hind, or the Most Beautiful Woman in the World

This novel of maternal cruelty — the winner of the 2025 Sheikh Zayed Book Award — is eligible for the SZBA translation subsidy.

As Ibrahim writes about the novel in Al Majalla:

Barakat crafts their complex relationship with subtle precision, between a daughter who can never truly escape, and a mother obsessed with appearances (and preserving them), who decides that her daughter no longer fits the image of a ‘proper’ girl. In doing so, the ideal of motherhood is stripped down to a superficial fixation on image.

💰More grants, subsidies, & support

Don’t miss LEILA’s list of grants, subsidies, and support on their website.

The Sheikh Zayed Book Award offers a significant subsidy for shortlisted titles in the children’s and literature categories.

The Sharjah International Book Fair translation grant is available to publishers who are present at the fair.

If you know of grants or subsidies targeting Arabic literature, please let us know at info@arablit.org.

Subscribe now

Twenty leading literary translators — including winners of the International Booker, the Banipal Prize, and the Harvill-Secker — are helping with these workshops.

Sixteen participants in Gaza are taking part in these masterclass workshops. And while some are relative beginners, others are already accomplished translators. Since introducing all thirty-six might be a bit much, we’re focusing on four. -MLQ.

Featured Workshop Leader: Katharine Halls, Pitching Hilal Chouman’s Sadness in My Heart

Katharine Halls (who will lead a workshop on voice & tense) won this year’s Banipal Prize for Arabic Literary Translation for her work on Ahmed Naji’s Rotten Evidence. If you follow Katharine’s translations, you’ll find she has a focus on beautiful prose, unflinching honesty, queer stories, and wry humor.

Currently, she is translating Hilal Chouman’s hot, moody, beautiful Sadness in my Heart.

As Halls writes at her agency website, 10/11, Chouman’s “uncompromising, deeply-felt writing throws cliché and voyeurism out the window, getting right at the tender heart of what it is to be a man who loves men.” Or, as I would have it, “hot, moody, beautiful.”

An excerpt from the novel appears in the spring/summer 2025 issue of Erotic Review, in Katharine’s translation. There are a few other translated excerpts floating around online, and you can read more about the novel at the LEILA website.

Find more about the translator at katharinehalls.com/.

Featured Workshop Participant: Alaa Alqaisi, Pitching Nasser Rabah’s The Gazelle’s Fence

Translator-scholar-author Alaa Alqaisi is developing her first full-length translation, by Palestinian author Nasser Rabah, who saw his first book-length translation out this year from City Lights: Gaza, The Poem Said Its Piece.

You might know Alaa best for her heartbreaking piece, “We Knocked Until Our Hands Broke”; but she is also a gifted translator. Her translational interests are wide-ranging, but she is particularly keen on bringing beautiful literary work from Gaza to wider reading publics.

Alaa writes, of The Gazelle’s Fence, “The story begins in a village teetering on the edge of erasure. Three settlers ride in on horseback, heralding a quiet conquest. Soon, the village is absorbed into the expanding borders of Netivot, a settlement that thrives agriculturally while erasing the memory of those who lived there before. At the center of this transformation is Ayad, a mentally impaired man rendered voiceless and invisible. Betrayed by his two brothers, who conspire to divide the family land, Ayad is left to wither in a wooden shack—isolated, mocked, and ultimately killed. His life is buried not only beneath soil but beneath silence. A jagged stone marks the site of his neglect—a symbol that recurs throughout the novel as a mute witness to historical injustice.”

The excerpt begins:

Three horses tore across the earth, charging in from the east, trailed by a swirl of dust. They appeared suddenly, startling the two barefoot men who were plowing the final stretch of their last dunam. Instinctively, the men dropped their hoes, freezing in place as though bracing for bad news. The horses galloped along the edge of the dry valley, and when they reached the plowed land, they veered off and came to a halt. The three riders stood silently, their olive trousers tucked into tall, polished boots that rose to mid-shin. A gleaming form rested across their saddles—that was all the two men saw. Their feet were bare, their two heads bowed out of respect and fear of the multazim’s men, whose shadows loomed beneath them.

These were the men of the multazim, agents of tax and authority whose tongues might soon deliver either a curse or a blessing. They said nothing. Their eyes scanned the surroundings—right, left, forward, behind—measuring the space with stern, calculating gazes. Then one of them gave a slight nod to his companion and spoke.

“One dunam of wheat or barley—it doesn’t matter. That’s about twenty or thirty sacks. The tax assessment comes to two Majidi liras. Agreed?”

“Agreed. And there are also fifteen sheep to be accounted for, plus two donkeys.”

“Excellent. Then that’s one more Majidi lira. Three Majidi lira total, before the rains come. You understand, don’t you, folks?”

The two men stammered, mumbling indistinct syllables. One of them placed both hands on his head and bowed. The men of the multazim took that gesture as a sign of agreement. They nudged their horses, turned around, and rode off the way they came.

Keep reading the first chapter at ArabLit.

Featured Workshop Mentor: Nashwa Nasreldin, Pitching Mohammed AlNaas’s A Brawl in Jahannam + Amal El Saeedi’s Side Entrance to the House

Nashwa Nasreldin is a core part of ArabLit and — along with Batool Abu Akleen — the fomenter of this workshop series.

Nashwa is also a gifted essayist, writing material that twines the personal, historical, and the natural world. Her previous translations include Shadow of the Sun by Taleb Alrefai, Shatila Stories (a collaborative novel by nine refugee writers), and a co-translation of Samar Yazbek's memoir, The Crossing: My Journey to the Shattered Heart of Syria. Nashwa’s ouvre includes works with deep emotional resonance and contemporary significance.

Nashwa says:

“I am currently pitching two shorter books that I feel very passionate about - one is A Brawl in Jahannam, a novella by the award-winning Libyan author Mohammed Alnaas, whose debut novel Bread on Uncle Milad’s Table won the 2022 International Prize for Arabic Fiction and will be released in an English edition in Sawad Hussein’s translation (the French edition was translated by Sarah Rolfo).

“Alnaas’s second book is a satiric retelling of events that the narrator claims took place in the 1990s in a small, Libyan village named Jahannam (literally translated as Hell). Resembling an Arab folkloric tale that would traditionally be narrated by a hakawati (Arab storyteller), or bawdy talk amongst youths, the book is rich with references to politics, sexuality, and especially satirizes the concept of literature and the “rules” of narration. This book was also released in French, in Sarah Rolfo’s translation.  

“The other book, Side Entrance to the House, is a wonderful work by the Omani writer Amal Alsaeedi in which the author’s old family house serves as a vehicle to unearth recalled memories and images of childhood and youth, those memories triggering philosophical reflections on her troubled relationships with her husband, parents and siblings.

“Both books represent a new generation taking bold literary risks, reinterpreting classical Arabic styles.”

We would also note that the French translation of A Brawl in Jahannam has been exceptionally well received. From Le Monde:

Mohammed Alnaas touche juste. Il n'est pas nécessaire d'être au fait de l'histoire libyenne contemporaine pour apprécier cette fable, à la portée universelle, en ces temps où, un peu partout, les coqs qui nous gouvernent ou aspirent à le faire semblent prêts à tout pour assouvir leur soif de pouvoir.

An excerpt of A Brawl in Jahannam is available in Rana Asfour’s translation, on The Markaz Review. You can also email us to be put in touch with Nashwa for a sample of her translation.

Read an excerpt of Side Entrance to the House, in Nashwa’s translation

Featured Workshop Guest Speaker: Luke Leafgren, Pitching Najwa Barakat’s ‘May Vanishes’

Luke Leafgren, winner of the 2024 Bait AlGhasham DarArab International Translation Prize, for his translation of Bushra Khalfan’s The Garden, has translated two award-winning books by Najwa Barakat: Oh, Salaam! (2015) and Mr. N (2022); both are darkly compelling, and the latter was shortlisted for the 2023 EBRD Literature Prize.

In the novel May Vanishes — particularly for fans of Rabih Alameddine’s An Unnecessary Woman — Barakat gives us “a nuanced portrait of this elderly woman, highlighting her rigidity, her toughness, her sensitivity, and her loneliness, along with her peculiarities,” in Barakat’s characteristically fierce and unflinching prose, which examines the violence we do to each other.

Reviewer Wafaa Sha’rani writes of the novel: “Barakat leads the reader into vast fields of love: days spent with a lover turn into a battle against a destructive impulse capable of leading to murder.”

From the novel:

The bathroom. I sometimes go there to be alone–even though the house has finally been vacated by everyone living here. I love this little room with no light and no window apart from a little hole leading to a skylight that gives no light because it is walled in on all sides. I go in, but I don’t turn on the light. I close the door behind me to luxuriate in utter darkness. As though I’ve entered a womb. I feel my way to the toilet. I lift the lid and sit down to empty my bowels and my head alike. I close my eyes. I open them. It’s the same. I see nothing. I hear nothing. I’m in a spaceship the size of my own body, swimming in the purity of black, the serenity of nothingness. Gravity is nonexistent, and I float free, invisible and extinguished.

Keep reading the sample translation here.

Upcoming events

The Amman International Book Fair is set to return for its 24th edition from 25 September through 4 October 2025.

The Sharjah International Book Fair will be back November 5 of this year; publishers who want to take advantage of the book fair’s translation grant need to be in attendance.

💰Grants, subsidies, & support

Don’t miss LEILA’s list of grants, subsidies, and support on their website.

The Sheikh Zayed Book Award offers a significant subsidy for shortlisted titles in the children’s and literature categories.

The Sharjah International Book Fair translation grant is available to publishers who are present at the fair.

If you know of grants or subsidies targeting Arabic literature, please let us know at info@arablit.org.

Subscribe now

“I don’t think that Tunisian literature is well-represented in English translation …. The few Tunisian novels which are available in translation made it into English thanks to the prizes that they won, or because of the curiosity the country attracted after the Arab Spring. I am hopeful, however, that the young vibrant translators will be able in the near future to make a strong case to convince publishers about the merits of Tunisian literature, and Maghrebi literature in general.”

So said Tunisian writer and translator Miled Faiza, in a 2021 interview with ArabLit.

Although since then, more Tunisian books have appeared in translation (Miled Faiza and Karen McNeil have co-translated two) this newsletter makes the case for a broader look at Tunisian literature. And while we love Yamen Manai, for instance, our focus is on Tunisian literature in Arabic. We recommend old favorites as well as newer discoveries, and ask Tunisian writers Rania Said & Ali Znaidi to share their thoughts, as well as Tunisia-focused translator Karen McNeil.

Also: As far as I know, there isn’t an anthology of Tunisian literature in English. But you can discover more through the Words Without Borders Tunisia archives, Banipal issue 39, which had a focus on Tunisia (love the story by Rachida Charni), and our own listicle of short stories by Tunisian women. -MLQ.

Featured Fiction: Noah’s Hourglass by Sufyan Rajab

The wryly funny Sufyan Rajab is a Tunisian poet, novelist, short story writer, and journalist who was born in Enfidha, Tunisia.

He is the author of three poetry collections, three short-story collections, and four novels. The Reader of the Tanners’ Alley (2023) was longlisted for last year’s International Prize for Arabic Fiction and his short-story collection The Last Hour (2018) was shortlisted for the Multaqa Prize for the Arabic Short Story in 2019. Go ahead and check those out, but we are recommending his 2025 novel Noah’s Hourglass. The novel is no ordinary East-West love affair. The sharply observed novel moves between two voices—the Tunisian Belkacem and the Ukrianian Olga—as they each try to find safe harbor in an unsafe world.

The pair first meet when they are young and attractive, and they come together again when Olga flees the war in Ukraine, now older, thicker in the waist, and with her disabled daughter Eliza. As they tell each other their family histories, they find they’re more entangled than they thought. It’s a novel that brings together low farce and high poignancy, which Lena Abdel Rahman, writing in the Independent Arabia, particularly lauds for its portrait of Olga.

Lena Abdel Rahman writes:

The author deftly portrays the atmosphere of the Tunisian town and its characters, bringing the work close to reality and expressive of the complexities of life. It relies on simple and direct language in describing events, characters, and internal conflicts. …. The war between Russia and Ukraine also appears in the background, in everything related to Olga's past and present. The novel implicitly criticizes the reality of marginalized people, whether they are like the grandfather, who is described as a dwarf, or Noah, who is considered crazy.

In the excerpt on ArabLit, translated by James Scanlan, we meet both Belkacem and Olga. Here, from Belkacem’s point of view, when he meets Olga again for the second time:

I wandered in and out of the airport for over an hour, but I couldn’t find Olga. I scanned the faces of the people coming and going, glancing at my phone in case she’d messaged to say she’d arrived.

Then a large blonde woman approached, like she’d stepped right out of a Fernando Botero painting. She was pushing a wheelchair in which sat a little girl.

The woman stopped in front of me and opened her arms wide.

“Hello, Belkacem.”

I didn’t know what to say—it was Olga.

“Have I really changed that much? I guess I have.”

I finally regained my composure and went toward her, arms open.

“Oh Olga, these are cruel times. We’ve all changed.”

As we hugged, she said, “You haven’t changed; you’re still strong and handsome.”

Her embrace was cold and short. She stepped back and gestured at the girl in the wheelchair.

“This is my daughter, Eliza. She’s all I have. You can see for yourself that she’s in a wheelchair. But she’s a dreamer, and her dreams are always of flying. She’s American, but she also has her mom’s nationality. And she plays the balalaika really well.”

This flurried introduction to her daughter was the most Olga had said. She bent down to the girl and said in English, “This is Uncle Belkacem.”

On the way to Bizerte, I kept thinking about what connected me to Olga. Surely there was nothing between us save the initial spark of a relationship extinguished by time.

I’ll admit that I had rushed out to meet her like a flood—and was met with a barrier of ice.

You can read the whole excerpt at ArabLit. Publishers who are interested in rights can reach out to info@arablit.org to be put in touch with the publisher, Rewayat, and translator James Scanlan.

Ali Znaidi Recommends: Two new novels

Ali Znaidi, Tunisian Anglophone poet and writer and editor of the Tunisian litblog tunisianlit.wordpress.com recommends two recent novels:

Ras Angela (Cape Angela), by Ines Abassi

A 224-page paperback novel published in February, 2025 by Naufal Books in Lebanon. In this novel, Ines Abassi tells the story of two Tunisian sisters who immigrated for different reasons: Linda headed East, and Nadia headed West. In between, Abassi weaves in an intricate way the story of Philippe, a thirtysomething Frenchman whose Tunisian father is unknown. The novel is a story about immigration, roots, the consequences of colonialism and undocumented immigration; about children with absent fathers and mothers seeking independence in their own ways.

Shifah Al Raml (Lips of Sand), by Khira Khalfallah

This novel came out in 2024 from Al Ferdaws Edition. It sketches a love relationship between Saria and Jasser and through it the autobiography of contemporary Tunisia. In a nutshell, a novel of Tunisian pain.

Featured Fiction: Turab Sukhoon by Amira Ghenim

As we noted back in the January newsletter, we were suprised when Amira Ghenim’s Turab Sukhoon didn’t make the International Prize for Arabic Fiction (IPAF) longlist.

Ghenim’s IPAF-shortlisted, enjoyable historical fiction A Calamity of Noble Houses won the Prix Arabe in its French translation and recently appeared in Miled Faiza and Karen McNeil’s excellent English translation.

Sawad Hussain, who is working on an excerpt, notes that while this title literally means hot land, or hot dust, it’s a play on a proverb about how Tunisia is a place of saints, so “not sure what working title I should go with yet.” The novel—like Ghenim’s IPAF-shortlisted A Calamity of Noble Houses—centers Tunisian history. Here, it focuses on a history of Wassila Ben Ammar Bourguiba, the second wife of Tunisian president Habib Bourguiba and the First Lady of Tunisia from 1962 until 1986.

Read more: An interview-profile of Ghenim is appeared recently in ArabLit.

Note: Translator Sawad Hussain is working on an excerpt of Turab Sukhoon; publishers who want to be put in touch, reach out to info@arablit.org.

Featured Work in the Public Domain: A Journey Around Mediterranean Bars

The LEILA project recommends several Tunisian works for translation, and perhaps none is more intriguing than Ali Douagi’s 1962 title جولة بين حانات البحر المتوسط, or A Journey Around Mediterranean Bars.

LEILA’s recommendation opens:

This book belongs to the subgenre of travel literature. At the age of twenty four, Douagi sets out on a trip from Tunisia to various Mediterranean cities. He boards a ship alongside a snobbish British woman and other European tourists who at the time were divided over their support for Nazism in Europe.

Douagi first published these writings as a series of articles in local newspapers in Tunisia in 1933-1934. They only appeared in book form after his death, when they were collected and released in 1962. This book offers a unique view of Mediterranean cities during the 1930s where Douagi documents major shifts across various countries, including the rise of Ataturk in Turkey, as well as fascism in Italy, captured in Douagi’s signature satirical style. Each of his adventures promise amusement and curiosity.

Publishers looking for a translator to work on this project should reach out to info@arablit.org.

What’s popular?

Rania Said says: Fatin Fazaa’s novels in Tunisian Derja.

For a glimpse of what’s popular among Tunisian readers, she says, you can check out Ceres Bookshop’s “bestsellers” page (where you’ll also find the ubiquitous Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*ck).

Fatin Fazaa’s Life Will Toy With Us is a song of self-acceptance.

Which Tunisian novels would Karen McNeil like to translate?

McNeil says:

“I do know that there are several Tunisian novels that I would like to translate, if God gives us life (and spare time!). The first is A Date in Its Cluster by Bashir Khrayyef. He’s a founding father of the Tunisian novel, and this novel is beautiful. It’s a shame that it hasn’t yet been translated, even though it was published in 1969. I think it hasn’t yet been done because it would be difficult for any translator who is not Tunisian: Khrayyef writes the narrative in Standard Arabic, but the dialogue is all in a southern dialect of Tunisian Arabic. The way in which the language of the novel is so grounded in its setting is one of the things that makes it beautiful, but the dialect holds some difficulties for anyone who is not very familiar with Tunisian Arabic.

“The second novel is A Farewell to Rosalie, by Hassouna Mosbahi. Mosbahi has had other novels translated into English, but this one has not been yet and it’s one of my favorite novels. The third is Family Secrets, by Faten Fazaa. This is one of the new crop of novels written in vernacular Tunisian Arabic, and the first written by a woman. And it’s a novel I enjoyed very much, although in translating it I would face a challenge in representing the light and beautiful Tunisian Arabic that it’s written in. One review that I read described its language as bneen (“delicious”) and I quite agree. I would love to take on the challenge of translating it.”

There is a German translation of A Farewell to Rosalie (Adieu Rosalie) by Erdmute Heller.

Also read: Miled Faiza and Karen McNeil, ‘On the Merits of Tunisian Literature’

Tunisian Literary Events & Book Prizes

You just missed the Tunis International Book Fair (FILT), which ran from April 25 to May 4, 2025, unfortunately overlapping both the Rabat and Abu Dhabi fairs.

But you haven’t missed one of the country’s biggest literary prizes, the annual COMAR d'Or. This prize launched in 1997 and grants prizes for novels written in Arabic or French. This year’s prize is set to be awarded on May 17, 2025 — in two days.

💰Grants, subsidies, & support

Don’t miss LEILA’s list of grants, subsidies, and support on their website.

The Sheikh Zayed Book Award offers a significant subsidy for shortlisted titles in the children’s and literature categories.

If you know of grants or subsidies targeting Arabic literature, please let us know at info@arablit.org.

What have you missed lately on ArabLit?

We published our GRIEF issue at the end of April, published two new conversations in the “Between Two Arabic Translators” series, had a feature on Alifa Rifaat and “erased women writers,” and more. If you ever want to catch up on what we’ve published recently, you can go to arablit.org/in2025/.

Subscribe now

For our April 2025 newsletter, I had planned to feature two novels by Palestinian writer Ala Hlehel & a memoir by Palestinian poet Asmaa Azaizeh. Then, in March, new contributor Alia H. Salim sent ArabLit an email about a Palestinian novel that was full of “wit, love, death, and everything in between.”

As she predicted, I was delighted both by Badar Salem’s novel (وحيدة كغرفة مزدحمة, or Lonely as a Crowded Room) and by Alia’s conversation with the author.

In addition, we also bring you new work by young Gazan writer Alaa Alqaisi (publishers who want to commission more by Alaa, send us an email) and a Palestinian classic: poetry by Fadwa Tuqan.

Interested publishers should note that all of the featured writers can do events & interviews in English. Canadian publishers please further note that Badar is a Canadian resident. -MLQ.

Featured writer: Ala Hlehel

I first got to know Ala Hlehel’s work in 2009, when he was named one of the Beirut 39, “39 great Arab writers under 40,” by Hay Festival Beirut. And while he has since seen one of his novels well-received in French (Au Revoir, Akka, which appeared from Actes Sud in Antoine Jockey’s translation) and stories and excerpts in English, none of his novels have yet appeared in English.

We particularly recommend his Au Revoir, Akka and his most recent, Katara-award-winning Seven Letters to Umm Kulthum.

You can read an excerpt of his serious and sexy Napoleonic-era historical novel Au Revoir, Akka in Alice Guthrie’s translation at The Common, about which Reem Ghanaeym said:

‘In Au Revoir Akka, Ala Hlehel achieves something major: he retrieves a historical event so long ignored that it has dried up and become brittle and lifeless, and he irrigates it with his creative imagination, transforming it into a malleable and responsive literary clay which grows – under his hands – into an mature and coherent artistic vision. Delightfully far from the familiar reference works on the era in question, this novel blends the serious with the humorous, art with history, and fact with fiction.’ – Reem Ghanayem, poet and critic

Meanwhile, an excerpt of Seven Letters to Umm Kulthum appears this week in ArabLit, in Peter Theroux’s translation. The novel follows the story of a Palestinian family from a small, remote village in the Upper Galilee: the parents, Mustafa and Hajer, and their sons, Yazn and Nur. Events of the novel open on December 8, 1987, when the first Palestinian intifada begins. The first Arabic edition was published in June 2023, and it won the 2024 Katara Award. Critic Ibrahim Taha writes of the novel:

What happened to Hajar on her journey to reclaim her self and triumph over her fear is convincing, beautiful, and inspires hope.

And Riad Kamel notes:

This novel makes no distinction in principle between liberation from the yoke of the occupier and liberation from men's oppression of women.

The excerpt at ArabLit begins with young Nur, under his mother’s watchful eye:

Nur reached his arm deep into the burrow until it disappeared up to his shoulder. He shoved his arm down the burrow as the right side of his body lay along the dirt and fresh, damp green grass, then lay down fully on the ground so that his green wool sweater seemed like an organic part of the broad green meadow which was marked all down its length by a wide network of dark brown earthen lumps—no one but a blind mole knew who had strewn them upon the earth with such precision and order.

We also have an interview with Hlehel today on ArabLit, for publishers who want to get to know him a little better. About the origins of his writing, he says:

No doubt, The Adventures of Tom Sawyer was the book that first made me think about writing. I was just a boy then. The clever storytelling and tight plot, along with the focus on boys and their world—both private and public—spoke to me deeply. I was a child growing up in a small, secluded mountain village, and suddenly, the ordinary details of everyday life felt like something worth writing about.

More by Hlehel:

“My Husband Is a Bus Driver,” a short story translated by Tony Calderbank

Publishers interested in rights or in reading a longer sample (a complete version of Au Revoir, Akka is available) should email info@arablit.org.

Featured writer: Asmaa Azaizeh

We’ve also known Asmaa’s work for a while — three translations of her poem “Dragonflies” (into French, English, and Dutch) appeared in the first-ever issue of ArabLit Quarterly. But it was only recently that we read her first book-length prose work, her moving memoir of the loss of her father: The Year of Small Museums.

Asmaa is a gifted poet, performer, and journalist who has published four poetry collections. Her collection Don’t Believe Me If I Talked To You Of War was published in 2019 in Arabic, Dutch, and Swedish. Her poetry has also been translated to English, German, Spanish, Farsi, Swedish, Italian, Greek, among other languages.

From an excerpt translated by the poet Sara Elkamel:

I made it to my home in Haifa, flung myself on the couch, and let out a sigh that had been trapped for a full year. On its way out, the sigh expunged images of hospital beds, wheelchairs, and endless canes—with one leg, three legs, four legs—and whispered confessions to my sister of the fear that pricks my heart like a woodpecker. This must be the same leisurely outbreath that my father’s chest had just released. With it, the fear of his dragging foot betraying us dissipates. I declared my relief to Adam. I thought of how fortunate it would be if, unlike Anat, my father did not end up dying a slow death in his bed. Adam had grown accustomed to canes and wheelchairs and beds that metamorphosed into entire worlds. Whenever he noticed a regression in my father’s foot, he would encourage me to take the necessary precautions and buy equipment preemptively. I rejected his conjectures, deciding they were bad omens. It was bad enough that my father had started using his left hand to lean against walls and the edges of things. It was bad enough that he was using this cane, which was mutating like a strange animal. It had one leg, then it had three. It was bad enough that I felt I was one with the cane. Since my fear grew as it grew, I now imagined it had 10 feet.

Read the whole excerpt at ArabLit.

Publishers interested in rights or in reading a longer sample should email info@arablit.org.

Featured writer: Badar Salem

As mentioned above, debut novelist Badar Salem came as a delight & a surprise! An excerpt of her وحيدة كغرفة مزدحمة, or Lonely as a Crowded Room appeared at The Markaz Review, in the author’s own translation, which is how Alia H. Salem came across her work. (Thank you, TMR.)

Alia loved the excerpt so much, she tracked down the novel. And she was so charmed by the novel — as she writes in her review-interview — that she found herself compelled to get in touch with the author.

We felt the same way about the novel (and the author) and encourage you to read the excerpt and interview on ArabLit. As Lebanese book-club organizer Hoda Marmar wrote on Twitter*:

I LOOOOOOVED it, and so did our bookclub members.

And Egyptian reader Reem Gehad added:

Absolutely loved this book!

We think this book will have especially strong appeal with young women readers.

Lonely as a Crowded Room’: Wit, Love, Death and Everything in Between, By Alia H. Salim

Subject: Mirror, Mirror, from Lonely as a Crowded Room

Publishers interested in rights or in reading a longer sample should email info@arablit.org. We will put you in touch with Badar.

More from ArabLit

We also want to take a moment to recommend the work of young Palestinian author-poet-scholar Alaa Alqaisi, based in Gaza (who is also a gifted translator), and to remind you of the classic poetry of Palestinian author Fadwa Tuqan (here translated by Adey Almohsen).

Reach out if you are interested in commissioning any of our Gaza-based authors, artists, or translators.

Note: We are also now keeping a page of all work from 2025, in case you miss something: arablit.org/in2025/.

Upcoming events

The 2025 Rabat International Book Fair is set to be held April 17-27 at the OLM Souissi venue in Rabat. If you’ll be there, we’re having a launch event for our Slender Thorns collection, with winning author Karima Ahdad. Reach out & come see us!

The International Prize for Arabic Fiction is set to be announced on Thursday, April 24, 2025 in Abu Dhabi, on the eve of the Abu Dhabi International Book Fair (April 26 - May 5, 2025). We have been running interviews with shortlisted authors & prize judges at ArabLit.

💰Grants, subsidies, & support

Note that the PEN Translates grants are open now through the end of May 2025.

Don’t miss LEILA’s list of grants, subsidies, and support on their website.

The Sheikh Zayed Book Award offers a significant subsidy for shortlisted titles in the children’s and literature categories. This year’s prize went to Hoda Barakat’s Hind, or the Most Beautiful Woman in the World. A subsidy of $19,000US is available for books shortlisted either for the literature or children’s-literature prizes; rights for Hoda’s novel are with Astier-Pécher Literary & Film.

If you know of new grants or subsidies targeting Arabic literature, please let us know at info@arablit.org.

*Hoda followed this comment with a string of hearts that aren’t rendering correctly in this newsletter.

Subscribe now

Featured Foodie Fiction: Omar Taher’s ‘Kohl and Cardamom’

Omar Taher is one of Egypt’s most popular authors. His books are bestsellers (and best-pirateds, if that’s a thing). He is perhaps best-known for his satiric, humorous works, such as Captain Misr and Paving Egypt. But his first novel—Kohl and Cardamom—was a tremendous critical & readerly success. This food-first exploration of the contemporary Egyptian family was a critical darling & shortlisted for the 2021 Naguib Mahfouz Medal.

NY-based translator Mariam Moustafa is at work on an English version. She says: “The more I read Taher’s work, the more I realize that he is not only unveiling the various aspects of Egyptian society but also illuminating the details of human
emotions. In a simple and profound style, Taher presents human emotions and struggles, including love, loss, memories, homesickness, ambition, and spirituality.”

In the excerpt she shared an excerpt with ArabLit, we explore a father-son relationship through their ideas about food. From the excerpt:

He wasn’t like the other men of the family, in terms of his relationship with food. He would eat soundlessly, unlike one of my male relatives who would stuff food into both sides of his mouth, so that, when he chewed, it looked like two balloons were bulging out of his cheeks.

And he always set aside whatever was most delicious on his plate and put it on my mother's. Every night, I’d see my mother worry that my father might forget—until he did it, and she smiled. This was the complete opposite of another of my male relatives, who was close to divorcing his wife because she cooked a pair of pigeons, one for each of them. He found this equality an insult.

I heard my father ask my mom not to close the kitchen door when she was frying or grilling. He told her: “It's the smell of goodness.” Meanwhile, I had a relative who showered his family with takeout fava beans, falafel, and bissara, because he couldn’t tolerate the smell of cooking.

My dad's only fault was that, at night, he would turn into a cat: he got up hungry and would eat whatever he could get his hands on. My mom stopped boiling the meat the night before, because my father would get up at dawn, half awake, and take the fork from the pot to pick at whatever was within reach. When my mom yelled at him, he’d say: “I was asleep.” She’d say: “And how’s that?! You toasted the bread and took the black pepper out of the cabinet!”

From the press:

With lightness and grace, the Egyptian writer Omar Taher published his book (Kohl and Cardamom), do not doubt for a moment that the author is a skilled cook. The son inherited the love of cooking from his mother, then developed into a philosophy in which he evaluates the role of each type to bring the dish to the peak of its perfection; in form and subject. He compares with grace and depth between types of food. -Gulf24, Mohamed Mostafa Al-Khayat

You can read the whole excerpt at ArabLit.

Featured Foodie Nonfiction: Charles Akl’s ‘Food for Copts’

Charles Akl is another fantastically talented Egyptian author. His Food for Copts made many best-of lists when it was published in 2017, including Ahram Online’s Top 10.

The book is a journey into the Egyptian Coptic kitchen, “revealing its little-known intricacies: a hundred and twenty different ways to make ful medames, and hints and tips on how to get around the vegan bent of Coptic fasting, which lasts for a good part of the year. Drawing on daily menus and traditional recipes, Akl delves into secret-filled homes to describe, in multi-layered language generously seasoned with his acerbic wit, the customs, practices and values of a minority community that has resolutely closed in on itself to protect its cultural identity within a not- always-friendly larger society.”

You can read an excerpt, translated by our Ranya Abdelrahman, and also watch Akl talk about his food writing in this BILA HUDOOD panel that centered on the “Taste of Letters” food-writing workshop. You can also read more about Food for Copts from the LEILA project. They call it: “An ironic cookbook and serious socio-political commentary.”

Featured Foodie Middle Grade: Miranda Beshara’s ‘Teta and Babcia’

Miranda Beshara’s Teta and Babcia: Kitchen Tales from Egypt, Poland, & Syria, ill. by Heba Khalifa, was also a part of our BILA HUDOOD festival, and the book is now being championed by translator Anam Zafar.

You can watch a video introduction to the book here, and Anam notes that this book made the 2022 IBBY Honour List & Takamtikou’s 100 Books for Young Readers in Arabic. English language rights are available, while French-language rights were acquired by Orients Editions.

Anam writes:

Teta and Babcia: A Journey Through My Grandmas’ Kitchens is a warm and inspiring illustrated middle-grade title. This multicultural, multigenerational tale is told through grandmothers’ recipes from Egypt, Syria, and Poland, from the perspective of a 12-year-old girl. Farah lives in Paris and is curious about her roots, which extend across three other countries. Her three grandmothers are eager to help her on her quest: Teta Aida (her Egyptian great-grandmother), Babcia Monika (her Polish maternal grandmother), and Teta Afaf (her Syrian paternal grandmother), who open their hearts and kitchens to Farah, infusing their delightful life stories with delicious family recipes.

Featured Foodie Picture Book: Miranda Beshara Recommends ‘Adnan and the Dish for Ramadan’

When we asked Miranda Beshara what other food-focused children’s books she recommends, she mentioned: (عدنانُ وطبق رمضان) written by Haya Saleh, whose award-winning YA novel Wild Poppies was translated to English by ArabLit’s M Lynx Qualey, and illustrated by Ali Al-Zaini.

In this book, Adnan decides to fast during Ramadan, and he longs for his favorite food. You can see sample pages at the Al Yasmine website and write to us for more at info@arablit.org.

Upcoming events: the Rabat International Book Fair

The 2025 Rabat International Book Fair is set to be held April 17-27 at the OLM Souissi venue in Rabat. If you’ll be there, we’re having a launch event for our Slender Thorns collection, with winning author Karima Ahdad. Reach out & come see us!

💰Grants, subsidies, & support

Don’t miss LEILA’s list of grants, subsidies, and support on their website.

The Sheikh Zayed Book Award offers a significant subsidy for shortlisted titles in the children’s and literature categories.

If you know of grants or subsidies targeting Arabic literature, please let us know at info@arablit.org.

Subscribe now

Featured Author: Yousri Alghoul

On October 13, 2023, when Israel called for the evacuation of the entire population of northern Gaza, and hundreds of thousands of people fled south, Palestinian author Yousri Alghoul decided to stay,determined to remain steadfast in response to what he believed was an attempt at ethnic cleansing. “If I had left,” he said, “I would have been betraying my word.”

Alghoul, 44, lives in Al-Shati refugee camp in Gaza City. He is the author of three critically acclaimed novels and several collections of short stories. Before the genocide, he was involved in several cultural initiatives for youth and adults, founding Shaghaf Gaza and Cordoba Culture. His own personal library was a community space, and he lent out its books to friends, university students, and mentees. The library, along with his home, was severely damaged in the war, and he has been raising money on GoFundMe to rebuild it.

Throughout the horrors of genocide, Alghoul continued writing. He moved to a friend’s house, which was equipped with solar panels. Thus able to keep his laptop charged, he used any spare moment he found to write.

“I started to write at that time because I felt that I was a prophet, that I was a messenger to the people,” Alghoul said. “If I didn’t write anything at the time of the aggression or the time of genocide, the people would not find out what happened, or they would forget it.”

Four of Alghoul’s books we want you to know about:

Book of Witness: Testimonies on the Walls of My Beloved Gaza

Alghoul’s radical commitment to his writing during the war is evident in his most recent book, شهادات على جدران حبيبتي غزة (Testimonies on the Walls of My Beloved Gaza), which was published in Jordan in late 2024. It is a collection of documentary vignettes, some of which rely on supernatural literary elements as a means of portraying otherwise inconceivable violence. In his introduction, SOAS professor Kamal Abu Deeb writes that, in this book, “consciousness is mixed with the unconscious, reason with madness, God with the Devil, smooth writing with chaos….” In this sense, Alghoul’s self-conception as a prophet seems apt. Indeed, his portrayals of the destruction of Gaza are suggestive both of Quranic depictions of the apocalypse and biblical wars of annihilation (which, of course, multiple Israeli leaders themselves cited at the beginning of the genocide).

Read one of the vignettes from this collection: “A Life Dipped in Blood” tr. Liddell published at the prestigious Irish magazine, The Stinging Fly.

Featured Novel: Gallows of Darkness

Alghoul’s 2021 novel مشانق العتمة (Gallows of Darkness), centers on a group of refugees who find themselves packed together in the same unseaworthy dinghy as they journey clandestinely to northern Europe. The chapters are narrated by multiple characters, as if addressing one another aboard the boat. Alghoul lingers on flashbacks that reveal the circumstances of the narrators' displacement and their unforeseen connections to other characters. The novel puts the multigenerational experience of Palestinian refugeehood into conversation with the post-2015 "refugee crisis" in Europe.

Liddell is working on a complete translation of this novel, and is actively seeking a publisher. The first three chapters will be published by Michigan Quarterly Review this spring (and are available to interested publishers upon request). From the novel:

The woman next to me unburdens herself of a bit of her nervousness, her child now asleep on her chest. She rocks him as she tries to fight off her tears, which scatter with the foam of the sea. Storm, emotion—these are as close to one another as God the Withholder is to the jugular vein. The woman asks, “Will we make it across safely?”

Keep reading a selection from the first chapter at ArabLit.

Latest Novel: Clothing That Miraculously Survived

Alghoul’s latest novel was published in late 2023: ملابس تنجو بأعجوبة (Clothing That Miraculously Survived) is set in Palestine during Israel’s devastating 2014 war on Gaza. Critiquing Palestinian disunity in the face of a formidable enemy, the novel depicts the conflict between Fatah (the nationalist movement that dominates the Palestinian Authority in the West Bank) and Hamas (the Islamist movement that rules Gaza).

A review of the novel at The Independent Arabia notes:

Events in the novel unfold in 2014, during the Occupation's war on Gaza that began on July 7 and lasted for fifty-one days, resulting in 2,322 martyrs and 11,000 wounded. It's set in a public school that was used as a shelter for the displaced. ... Alghoul diagnoses the malfunctions that afflict Palestinian reality and delves into the unspoken by tracking the relationships between the novel's characters, their reactions to the brutal aggression, and their interactions with one another.

Featured Short-story collection: JFK Sometimes Hallucinates

In 2023, Alghoul published a collection of short stories entitled جون كندي يهذي أحيانا (John F. Kennedy Sometimes Hallucinates). Not unlike his recent Testimonies, this volume contains stories with supernatural elements. One of them, “Gabriel García Márquez Heartily Applauds,” imagines barzakh, which, in Islam, is an intermediate state between death and the afterlife. Here, Alghoul’s narrator has the opportunity to meet his writerly heroes, including the titular García Marquez, William Faulkner, and, most strikingly, slain Palestinian journalist Shireen Abu Akleh.

Read a different short story from this collection: “Today My Sight is Sharp” tr. Liddell

Updates from This Year’s Cairo International Book Fair

The 56th annual Cairo International Book Fair was held this year from Jan 24-Feb 5. This year’s session saw the participation of 1,345 publishing houses from 80 countries, a significant increase from 2024, when there were around 1,200 publishers.

A few things cast a pall over this year’s fair, as Mada reported: the publisher Dar Al Maraya was inexplicably banned from the fair, and the Ministry of Culture emphasized that books should be free of “destructive” ideas. Still, despite all, the book fair remains a key event for Egyptian readers, for authors, and for Arabic publishing.

Several publications made highlight lists of books released at this year’s fair (Mada Masr’s listicle was the most comprehensive while Ahram Online focused on the new releases from Diwan Publishing); Egyptian Streets filmed a brief video tour; and popular BookTuber “Nedal Reads” showed off her immense haul from the fair.

Among the many, many highlights: Heba Khamis’s Salty Air (هواء مالح)--a novel that interweaves two timelines, before and after a train accident that reshaped the protagonist’s life. Khamis’s first collection of short stories, From a Window Overlooking the Square (2011) won the Culture Palace Central Prize and her follow-up collection, Zar won the 2019 Sawiris Cultural Prize. Her 2023 novel, American Residences was also shortlised for the same prize; you can read her work in translation in the Comma Press anthology Egypt + 100.

Next up is the Muscat Book Fair (February 24-March 4) in Oman.

Almultaqa Prize Announces Shortlist

The most prestigious award for Arabic short-story collections, the Kuwait-based Almultaqa Prize, announced their 2025 shortlist February 15. Shortlisted & winning titles have achieved acclaim in English translation: The inaugural Almultaqa winner, Mazen Maarouf’s Jokes for the Gunmen, went on to be longlisted for the International Booker in Jonathan Wright’s translation.

This year’s shortlisted titles include The Wounds Point to Us (الجراح تدل علينا) by Palestinian writer Ziad Khaddash, who the LEILA Project calls “a master of the Palestinian short story” in their recommendation that his work be translated.

Translate This! A Modern Classic

This month’s featured classic is also recommended by LEILA: Sargon Boulus’s When You Were Sleeping in Noah’s Ark (إذا كنت نائماً في مركب نوح).

Boulus writes, in his description of the collection, “I had to create this flowing rhythm, this mad flowing rhythm of language and then everything is being dragged by this fantastic current.”

You can read two new translations of Boulus’s work by Miles Cayman on ArabLit: “A Story” and “Baudelaire’s Pain Arrived.” You can also read a new translation of Boulus’s work by Cayman in The Paris Review.

💰Grants, subsidies, & support

Don’t miss LEILA’s list of grants, subsidies, and support on their website.

The Sheikh Zayed Book Award offers a significant subsidy for shortlisted titles in the children’s and literature categories. The International Prize for Arabic Fiction also offers occasional support; interested publishers should reach out.

If you know of grants or subsidies targeting Arabic literature, please let us know at info@arablit.org.

Subscribe now

The International Prize for Arabic Fiction (IPAF) announced their 2025 longlist on January 7. Launched in 2008, the IPAF is one of the prestige prizes for Arabic literature. While we can agree to disagree with some of its selections, the prize has certainly turned an international spotlight on a number of strong works by excellent novelists, including by the late Khaled Khalifa, Rabee Jaber, Raja Alem, Saud Alsanousi, Hoda Barakat, Mohammed Alnaas, and others.

This year’s longlist is notable both for what it included and what it didn’t—you won’t find towering Lebanese novelist Hoda Barakat’s latest, for instance: Hind, Or the Most Beautiful Woman in the World. Naturally, we don’t know which novels publishers submitted, nor which authors might have declined to participate; however, Barakat could always be a contender. She won the prize in 2019 for her beautiful The Night Mail (translated to English by Marilyn Booth and given the awful title Voices of the Lost by the US publisher). Barakat might have wanted to cede the stage.

One book on the longlist is already forthcoming in English translation in 2025: Iman Humaydan’s Songs for the Darkness, thankfully maintaining its evocative title. It’s scheduled for publication by Interlink in Michelle Hartman’s translation. Other, non-English rights are still available.

You can read the complete list of all sixteen longlistees at ArabLit, as well as at the IPAF website.

Ibrahim Fawzy’s highlights from the IPAF longlist:

Ibrahim will be working on excerpts of the following three titles, as well as interviews with the authors, which you will be able to find on ArabLit.

Sumar Shihada’s My Life Has Just Begun

Ibrahim writes: “Set against the backdrop of war-torn Syria, My Life Has Just Begun undertakes a nuanced exploration of justice, employing the framework of a detective story to unravel its intricacies. The novel opens with the enigmatic death of a prominent Latakian lawyer—a symbolic event that underscores the death of justice in Syria. Through a series of brief yet resonant confessional vignettes, the narrative delves into the characters' inner lives and their connections to the Syrian conflict, highlighting a nation grappling with loss and disillusionment.”

Also: You can read more about the author and the book at the IPAF website.

Ahmed Al-Malawany’s Happy Dreams

Ibrahim writes: Happy Dreams depicts a dystopic city where the people are artificially put to sleep. It explores repressive regimes and their power to crush the ordinary prople's lives and dreams.

Also: Read more about the author and the book at the IPAF website.

Ahmed Vall Ould Dine’s Danshmand

Danshmand is a meticulously crafted historical novel that intricately charts the interior life of Imam Abu Hamid Al-Ghazali, the celebrated 12th-century scholar, a towering figure within Islamic history. This compelling narrative invites contemplative reflection on the contours of our own times.

Also: Read more about the author and the book at the IPAF website. You can also read a review in English at New Lines, as well as Vall Ould Dine’s compelling memoir about his time imprisoned for reporting in Libya, In Gaddafi’s Clutches, translated by Nicole Fares and published by Dar Arab.

Sawad Hussain’s highlights from the IPAF longlist:

Nadia Najar’s The Touch of Light

The protagonist, Noura, explores history through family photos, using an app to help her see and understand their contents. The novel is set around the history of pre-oil Dubai and Bahrain, as they are discovered by Noura.

Also: Read more about the novel and its author at the IPAF website. Nadia Najar is represented by agent Rola al-Banna; Sawad is at work on an excerpt.

M Lynx Qualey’s highlights from the IPAF longlist:

Inaam Bayoud’s Houaria (also written as Inam Bioud)

MLQ writes: For drama AROUND the book, you could not pick a more exciting title than Inaam Bayoud’s Houaria, which caused so much controversy after winning the Assia Djebar prize in Algeria that it caused MIM Edition, its highly respected publisher, to shut down in the face of the firestorm of criticism that suggested the book is “immoral” and uses “rude terms from Darija,” the Algerian spoken dialect of Arabic. Critic Fayçal Metaoui told AFP that the author and publisher were targeted because they were women.

A plot summary:

Houaria is a palm reader from the densely populated Akmeel neighborhood in the city of Oran, Algeria, where crime and drugs are rife. At the outset, Houaria finds herself in the women’s ward of a hospital for neurological diseases, suffering from memory loss and unsure how she got there. Set over two decades, before and after the Black Decade of the 1990s’ Algerian civil war, the novel explores what life was like for ordinary people during that nightmarish period, and how they managed to survive, in a climate of fear. While some characters, like Houaria’s brother Houari, become oppressors, others are forced to flee the country.

Also: Read more about Bioud from the International Literature Festival Berlin.

I’m also looking forward to reading Jan Dost’s novel (after enjoying his Safe Corridor, forthcoming in Marilyn Booth’s translation, and his A Green Bus Leaving Aleppo), as well as Iman Humaydan’s Songs for the Darkness.

What should have made the 2025 International Prize for Arabic Fiction longlist but didn’t?

When the 2025 IPAF longlist was announced, Saudi author and journalist Hashim al-Jahdali asked his followers: What novel was supposed to be on this list but wasn't? Several in the comments mentioned Bahraini novelist Laila Al-Mutawa’s Those Forgotten Between Two Seas (المنسيون بين ماءين), which also made Sawad’s list of should-have-beens.

Laila Al-Mutawa’s Those Forgotten Between Two Seas

The novel unfolds in interconnected chapters, foregrounding the experiences of Salima and Nadia, both of whom are looking to come to grips with their personal histories and Bahrain’s. This is a sort of eco-crit that explores how industrialization threatens Bahrain and its two seas. Sawad Hussain will be working on an excerpt.

Amira Ghenim’s Turab Sukhoon

Sawad notes that while this title literally means hot land, or hot dust, it’s a play on a proverb about how Tunisia is a place of saints, so “not sure what working title I should go with yet.” The novel—like Ghenim’s IPAF-shortlisted A Calamity of Noble Houses—centers Tunisian history. Here, it focuses on a history of Wassila Ben Ammar Bourguiba, the second wife of Tunisian president Habib Bourguiba and the First Lady of Tunisia from 1962 until 1986. If you want to get a sense of Ghenim’s work in English translation, her enjoyable, Kirkus starred and Prix Arabe-winning A Calamity of Noble Houses is forthcoming in Miled Faiza and Karen McNeil’s translation in February. Sawad Hussain will be working on an excerpt of Turab Sukhoon.

Hoda Barakat’s Hind, Or the Most Beautiful Woman in the World

Already mentioned above, Hoda Barakat’s Hind, Or the Most Beautiful Woman in the World centers on the relationship between a mother and her daughter who suffers a rare disease that leads to facial disfigurement and the mother isolating her daughter. This novel has been longlisted for the Sheikh Zayed Book Award; if it’s shortlisted, there will also be a subsidy available for interested publishers.

Layla Al-Juhani’s The Mother’s Room

This powerful novella is a meditation on grief, focusing on the objects in the room of the protagonist’s mother, which she must empty after her mother’s death. Ghazal Alharbi will be working on an excerpt. You can also read an excerpt of al-Juhani’s 40 in Alharbi’s translation on ArabLit.

Samar Mezghanni's Dinner for Eight

In Mezghanni’s darkly humorous novel, Rami Al-Farkhi obsesses over his preparations for a luxurious dinner to which he invites the most important figures in the country. But then things start to spiral out of control . . . Mezghanni’s debut novel after establishing herself as an accomplished short-story writer. Look for an excerpt from Sawad Hussain.

📚Featured Fiction: Nawara Negm’s You Have Been Blocked

Nawara Negm is the daughter of two of Egypt’s most towering literary and critical figures.

So first, her famous mother:

Nawara’s mother is the great Safynaz Kazem, and if you’re interested in translating a classic, you should check out her Romantikiyaat; we ran an excerpt of it in the Winter/Spring 2020 issue of ArabLit Quarterly, and it’s a recommended read from no less than the great Iman Mersal. You can read an excerpt on our website. From that excerpt, tr. Hadil Ghoneim:

New York, August 17th 1965

My birthday. Alone in the room…preparing myself for a feast of daydreams… The others don’t understand, the others being my serial roommates, “Let’s do something.” Why do they insist on tying their boats to mine? I’ve always meant to keep my boat free, to follow only what occurs to it without the burden of explaining and answering questions and racing and group outings. The truth is I have nothing to explain, and my answers never convinced anyone in the past. I had to lie to make my answers sound more reasonable. I didn’t have the money for the race. I am arrogant because I like to be virtuous. Sorry.

Hadil also writes about Safynaz’s life in the excellent “Fallible Men vs. Safynaz Kazem.”

And second, her famous father:

Ahmed Fouad Negm (1929–2013), popularly known as Al Fagoumy, was one of Egypt’s most popular poets. The first poet to write in colloquial Egyptian, he was known for his satiric verses mocking rulers and others in power. In the 1960s he collaborated with Sheikh Imam Eissa, a composer and oud player, who set Negm’s verses to music, such that they became popular worldwide. (A biopic was released in 2011, although not not much acclaim.)

You can read his “Important Announcement,” translated by Elliott Colla.

And now, Nawara Negm:

Nawara Negm is an Egyptian journalist, writer, and one-time blogger based in Cairo, Egypt. She works as a translator and news editor but grew popular through her blog, “Popular Front of Sarcasm.” She has previously published several books: a collection of her essays; an anthology of work by women authors, I Am Female; and a 2023 memoir about her relationship with her father, And You're The Reason, Dad. However, You Have Been Blocked is her first (fiercely funny and fiercely feminist) novel.

Here, from the excerpt beautifully translated by James Scanlan:

She looks in the rear-view mirror and sees a line of cars honking in outrage. Sahar nods at the man, and his bearing shifts so that he erupts like a drill sergeant with commands of “To me!” and “To you!”

Sahar collects her things in a hurry—phone, earphones, cigarettes—and puts them in her oversized handbag. She exits the car with the aim of asserting some distance between herself and That Spit.

“You will leave the key fob,” he says, as if reading from a transcript. Further spools of spittle fly with the “f” of “fob”. Sahar leaps back, and the man attempts a reassuring smile, which sets forth a band of broken black teeth: the orbiters of a single silver incisor. He introduces himself as “Hassan, the doorman for that building over there.”

Sahar removes the fob from a chain strung with so many keys to so many forgotten doors. She hands it to Hassan, and his rough fingers chafe against hers as she does so. He asks how long she’ll be away. She tells him she’s going to the Internet Complaints office, and he responds with invocations of “La hawla wala quwwata illa billah” and “Hasbi Allah wa na’m al-wakeel,” cursing the sort of godless bastard who could harm a poor, defenseless woman.

She ignores this and asks which way to walk. He raises an arm to the end of the street, and an aroma of chickens blows from within.

Sahar walks quickly in the direction Hassan pointed out; she’s already late for Mamdouh, her lawyer.

The eyes of a boy no older than twelve communicate the rise and fall of her breasts. She pulls up her shirt and strides on, head to the ground, oblivious.

Calls of “You beauty!” pursue her, regardless.

She crosses the road through a line of stationary cars by traffic lights. Mamdouh is waiting for her, smartly dressed in a full suit. They shake hands and Sahar apologizes for being late, smiling, irritable. The smell of lavender hits her. Mamdouh’s shaving cream, presumably. He uses the same one as her ex-husband Ashraf. She feels nauseous again and—this time—doesn’t retch.

Mamdouh gestures for her to go ahead. Sahar hesitates at first but goes ahead anyway, then falls into step behind him when he starts walking. Better that way—for protection. She won’t have to keep pulling up her shirt. The plan crumbles under the probing gaze of the man by the automatic doors. She pulls up her shirt. Mamdouh walks on imperatively, and Sahar follows, eyes down.

“YES?” the man announces.

“Internet Complaints,” Mamdouh says.

The man points to the only conceivable way they could possibly proceed. Sahar catches up with Mamdouh to ask why the man by the door had said “YES?” like that. But she knows the answer already: it’s not easy earning a living as a doorman to an automatic door. One must create side quests for one’s own amusement, such as giving directions to people who don’t solicit them.

The pair climb a set of steps to reach the building’s entrance. To the left of the door, a young man is sitting behind a desk. As they walk toward the lift, he calls after them, “YES?”

“Internet Complaints,” Mamdouh says.

“Floor eight,” the young man says.

“Thank you, sir.”

Read the whole excerpt at ArabLit. Rights are with Dar El Shorouk; you can be put in touch with the translator (and thence the publisher) by contacting us at info@arablit.org.

📚The Etisalat Award for Arabic Children’s Literature

Also this month, the Etisalat Award for Arabic Children’s Literature, one of the biggest prizes for literature for young readers, announced their shortlists in five categories: early readers, picture books, poetry, young adult literature, and chapter books. The list features several returnees — Egyptian illustrator Sohaila Khaled and Palestinian illustrator Baraa Alawoor, among others — as well as publishers, authors, and illustrators new to the prize.

Ruth Ahmedzai Kemp has put together some highlights over at ArabKidLitNow!

Some we’re particularly looking forward to seeing are the middle-grade novel ابنة غواص اللؤلؤ وعقد البَعو (A Pearl Diver’s Daughter and the Cowrie Necklace) by Maitha Abdulwahab al-Khayat; the middle-grade novel لغز اللافندر (The Mystery of the Lavender) by Abir Adel Ahmed, illustrated by Sama Shabout; and the chapter book أين سأتخلص منك يا حصينة؟ (Oh, Where Am I Going to Dump You, Hasinah?) by Salma al-Lahham, illustrated by multi-award-winning Gazan artist Baraa al-Awoor.

Reach out to us for samples and more.

💰Grants, subsidies, & support

Don’t miss LEILA’s list of grants, subsidies, and support on their website.

The Sheikh Zayed Book Award offers a significant subsidy for shortlisted titles in the children’s and literature categories. They should be announcing their 2024 longlists soon.

If you know of grants or subsidies targeting Arabic literature, please let us know at info@arablit.org.

Subscribe now