R A Y A | agency for Arabic literature
For those new to the reading groups, And Other Stories is a fantastic independent UK publisher, and one way they select fiction to translate and publish is through reading groups. The groups help AOS get feedback from savvy readers, by reading as-of-yet untranslated novels, discussing them online and in person, and helping AOS pick what to publish.
One great part about the group is that it’s open to people who read in Arabic and people who don’t.
The Arabic group is the second in a series of special reading groups in collaboration …
In the quietness of a corpse washer’s workshop, Antoon explores the multiple faces of violence in Iraq.
In a unique book, Khoury transcribes for the first time oral folk tales from the Levant.
For the third time, the Lebanese novelist Jabbour Douaihy is on the long list of the International Prize for Arabic Fiction. This time, it’s for his novel “American Neighborhood”, published at Dar al Saqi. Another of Dar al Saqi’s titles is long-listed: The Daughter of Suslov, bu Yemeni novelist Habib Abdulrab Sarori.
Publishers Weekly, November 28th, 2014
Ever since I started Interlink Publishing 30 years ago, I’ve been a passionate advocate of literature in translation. Literature is universal, and great literature travels well. It can thrive at home, in exile, and, yes, in translation. So why do translated titles make up less than 3% of books published annually in the U.S.? I asked this question when I participated in a panel discussion at the Frankfurt Book Fair in October.
But when I was invited to speak at the 2014 Sharjah International Book Fair (SIBF) …
“Rakha’s brilliant novel”
In the spring of 2014, Ahmad Saadawi’s book Frankenstein in Baghdad was awarded the International Prize for Arab Fiction, also known as the Arab Booker. It is a novel of a kind quite different from the ones generally acclaimed by the public or by critics, and from those that have come to me for consideration in the past few years. Whatever its originality or flaws, its being awarded the IPAF could be the sign of an interesting change to come.
As I celebrate this fall my tenth year as a literary …
