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Youssef Rakha
Youssef Rakha was born on 12 June 1976 in Cairo. He has a first class BA Hons in English and Philosophy (Hull University, UK, 1998) and was awarded there the Larkin Prize for English and the Chris Ayers Prize for Philosophy.
Since the early 1990s he has contributed many articles, book reviews and translations to the Arabic press, and is presently senior writer for the English-language newspaper Al-Ahram Weekly. In October 2009 he was selected as one of the 39 authors of the Beirut39 project.
He has four novels, two of them published in English translation in 2014, a collection of short stories (Dar Sharqiyat, 1999) and two travel books, including Beirut, shi mahal [Beirut, some place], Amkena Books, 2006.
His first novel, Kitab at-Tughra, was published just after Hosni Mubarak gave up power. It is translated by Paul Starkey and entitled The Book of the Sultan's Seal: Strange Incidents from History in the City of Mars, and is excerpted in Banipal 51. The novel has won the 2015 Saif Ghobash Banipal Prize for Arabic Literary Translation.
The Judges said: "One of the most adventurous and innovative novels to have appeared in Arabic in recent years and its English version is a tour de force of translation."
His second novel, The Crocodiles, translated in English by Robin Moger is published by Seven Stories Press, USA. In an op-ed article in the New York Times, it was described as "a portrait of a generation, a cosmology of Egyptian society and the human condition". To read the article click here.
Youssef Rakha blogs at his website http://yrakha.com/
He is currently senior writer for the English language Al-Ahram Weekly.
Contributor's Issues
Banipal 38 - Arab American Authors (2010)
Banipal 27 - Autumn/Winter 2006
Banipal 51 - Celebrating Saadi Youssef (2014)
Banipal 60 - Alaa al-Deeb, A Writer Apart (Autumn/Winter 2017)
Banipal 43 - Celebrating Denys Johnson-Davies (2012)
Banipal 74 - Celebrating Khalida Said and Modern Arabic Poetry (Summer 2022)
Banipal 38 - Arab American Authors (2010)
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 Book Club
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