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Elias Farkouh
was born in Amman in 1948. A short story writer, a novelist and publisher, he started writing short stories in the 1970s. He has published six short story collections, the first in 1987. He has also published four novesl, the first two in 1987 and 1996.
Farkouh’s stories were first collected in Al-Saf'a (The Slap, 1978). This was followed by Tuyour Amman Tuhalliq Munkhafida (Amman's Birds Fly Low, 1981) and Ihda wa Eshrouna Talqa lil-Nabeyy (Twenty One Shots for the Prophet) a year later; the latter won him the 1982 Jordanian Writers Association award. Since then he has written prolifically, his latest book being another collection of short stories, Huqoul Al-Zilal (Fields of Shadows, 2002).
It was following Al-Saf'a, however, that the first principal shift of perspective occurred. Co-operating with poet Taher Riyad, Farkouh worked in the publishing house Al-Manarat until 1991, the year Dar Al-Azmina, his own publishing house, came into being. His work in literary translation – Other Fires, a volume of short stories by women writers from Latin America, appeared in 1999.
His novel Ard al-Yambous (Land of Limbo), published by Al Mouassassa Al Arabiya and Azminah, was shortlisted for the 2008 International Prize for Arabic Fiction. Click here for more.
An excerpt from Elias Farkouh's novel Columns of Dust, which was published in 1996 and is on the Arab Writers’ Association list of best hundred Arab novels of the twentieth century, was published in Banipal 13, which featured the literature of Jordan.
Contributor's Issues
Banipal 30 - Autumn/Winter 2007
The Tent Generations
Things I Left Behind by Shada Mustafa, translated by Nancy Roberts
Shadow of the Sun by Taleb Alrefai
Birds of Nabaa, A Mauritanian Tale by Abdallah Uld Mohamadi Bah
The Stone Serpent, Barates of Palmyra’s Elegy for Regina his Beloved by Nouri Al-Jarrah
Mansi A Rare Man in His Own Way by Tayeb Saleh (Banipal Books, 2020)
Tayeb Salih
Goat Mountain by Habib Selmi
Habib Selmi, author of Goat Mountain and 3 times shortlisted for the IPAF
The Mariner by Taleb Alrefai (Banipal Books, 2020)
Taleb Alrefai, author of Shadow of the Sun and The Mariner
Digital images
Fadhil Al-Azzawi's Beautiful Creatures by Fadhil al-Azzawi (Banipal Books, 2021)
Fadhil al-Azzawi
Poems of Alexandria and New York by Ahmed Morsi (Banipal Books, 2021)
Digital Banipal promotion B67
Saïd Khatibi
Amjad Nasser (1955–2019)
Digital Banipal the full archive
Denys Johnson-Davies (1922–2017) 70 years translating Arabic literature
Ahmed Morsi, author of Poems of Alexandria and New York
Sarajevo Firewood
The Madness of Despair
Mahmoud Shukair – see special feature of Banipal 70 (Spring 2021)
LATEST NEWS
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Link to poems by Mosab Abu Toha, published in Banipal 71 (Summer 2021), available to read online
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Link to poem by Liana Badr published in Banipal 74, now available as an online selection
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GRIFFIN PRIZE SHORTLIST 2023
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Banipal's first audiobook* * *
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Banipal Book Club
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