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Denys Johnson-Davies
was born in 1922 in Vancouver, Canada but grew up in Sudan, Egypt and East Africa, later settling permanently in the Arab world. He studied Arabic at Cambridge University, and became a literary translator while working with the BBC Arabic Service, publishing some short stories of Mahmoud Teymour in literary magazines.
He is the pioneer of Arabic literary translation into the English language, as well as being the first to translate a work by Naguib Mahfouz. He has translated, as he says himself “practically every word written by Tayeb Salih”, including the latter’s now classic Season of Migration to the North, also many other authors, including Tewfiq al-Hakim, Yaha Taher Abdullah, Mohamed El-Bisatie, Sonallah Ibrahim, Taha Hussein, Yusuf Idris, Mohammed Berrada, Salwa Bakr, and Zakaria Tamer.
He edited the first series of Arabic literary works in translation, published under the Heinemann African Writers Series, later publishing many translations with Quartet Books, and AUC Press, as well as his own book of short stories Under the Naked Sky (reviewed in Banipal 10/11), his memoir Memories in Translation: A Life Between the Lines of Arabic Literature (reviewed here in Banipal 35 – Writing in Dutch, Summer 2009) and several books of children’s stories.
In 2007 he was awarded the inaugural Sheikh Zayed Award for Personality of the Year.
The Arabic original of Mohamed El-Bisatie’s Hunger, translated by Denys Johnson-Davies and published by AUC Press, 2008, was shortlisted for the International Prize for Arabic Fiction 2008-2009.
Contributor's Issues
Banipal 34 - The World of Arab Fiction (2009)
Banipal 43 - Celebrating Denys Johnson-Davies (2012)
Banipal 33 - Autumn/Winter 2008
Banipal 69 - 9 New Novels (Autumn/Winter 2020)
Banipal 74 - Celebrating Khalida Said and Modern Arabic Poetry (Summer 2022)
Banipal 35 - Writing in Dutch (2009)
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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