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Current Issue
Banipal 75 - Celebrating 25 Years of Arab Literature
Editorial:
The Last Issue – Banipal reaches 25 Years
This is the last issue of Banipal, the independent literary magazine, marking 25 years of translating and publishing contemporary literature by Arab authors. Arabic literature will always need a magazine like Banipal. In fact, more than one. We're closing at No 75, not because the magazine is no longer necessary but because we, as central producers, can no longer continue.
We no longer have the physical energy necessary, and believe that for such a magazine to continue, there must be new blood, a young staff, with the same enthusiasm and conviction that we have had all these years. We leave behind a massive archive of diverse literature by umpteen different authors that will continue to give readers an endlessly enthralling world of modern Arabic literary works.
Margaret Obank, Publisher
REMEMBERING ARDASH KAKAFIAN
Farouk Yousif
Ardash Kakafian, a painter who looked to the past with a strong nostalgia for Baghdad
Sherine Ahmed Morsi
Ardash Kakafian, a big man with a huge heart
LITERARY INFLUENCES
Najwa Barakat
Writing is a Test and an Ordeal
TRANSLATOR’S NOTEBOOK
Anton Shammas
on Emile Habiby: Writing Inside yet Outside the Box
Abdelfattah Kilito
On Averroes’s Balcony, translated from the French by Nadia Naami and Christina Civantos from Le Cheval de Nietzsche
Jamila Omairah
My Name is Suleiman
A short story, translated by Samira Kawar
(online only) CLICK TO READ NOW
Rawi Hage
A short story
The Shepherd
Katia Al-Tawil
An excerpt from her novel Heaven is More Beautiful from a Distance, translated by Nancy Roberts
Ammar Al-Mamoun
reviews Heaven is More Beautiful from a Distance
Menna Abo Zahra
He Looked Like Cairo and other poems, translated by Raphael Cohen
Walid Hermiz
Poems from
Bells of the Chaldeans
translated by Raphael Cohen
(online only) CLICK TO READ NOW
Nizar Aghri
Excerpts from the novel
In Search of Aazar
translated by Paul Starkey
Amir Sommer
Two short stories – Afro-Palestinian Disco and One Fine Day You Find Out You’re An Arab, translated by Jessica Cohen
Ann El Safi
A short story Al-Qama’ir
translated by Becki Maddock
Maisoon Saqer
Excerpts from
The Café Riche – An Eye on Egypt
translated by Jonathan Wright
Winner of the 2022 Sheikh Zayed Book Award, Literature. category
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PRISON WRITING
Thaer Deeb
Reading on the Fat of One’s Heart
translated by Jonathan Wright
Jamal Fayez
A Short story
Human Clusters
translated by Jonas Elbousty
(online only) CLICK TO READ NOW
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Ghalib Halasa
A Letter to Denys Johnson-Davies
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BOOK REVIEWS
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Trino Cruz reviews The Stone Serpent, Barates of Palmyra’s Elegy for Regina his Beloved, by Nouri Al-Jarrah
Jaafar Al-Aluni introduces the Spanish edition of Adoniada by Adonis
Susannah Tarbush reviews The Night Will Have Its Say by Ibrahim Al-Koni
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Joselyn Michelle Almeida reviews The Water People by Vénus Khoury-Ghata
Stephanie Petit reviews Mister N by Najwa Barakat
Fayez Ghazi reviews Nihayat al-Sahra’ (The End of the Desert) by Saïd Khatibi
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Hannah Somerville reviews No Windmills in Basra by Diaa Jubaili
Stephen Watts reviews Stigma by Yaseen Ghaleb
Sara Slim reviews Villa al-Fusul al-Arb‘a (Four Seasons Villa) by Ibrahim Saadi
BOOKS IN BRIEF
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The Threshold by Iman Mersal, translated and introduced by Robyn Creswell. • Warda by Sonallah Ibrahim, translated by Hosam Aboul-Ela • The Drowning by Hammour Ziada, translated by Paul Starkey
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Birth by Abdelaziz Baraka Sakin, translated by Adil Babiki • Fountain of the Drowning by Reem Bassiouney, translated by Roger Allen • Among the Almond Trees, a Palestinian Memoir by Hussain Barghouthi, translated and introduced by Ibrahim Muhawi
BOOKS EVEN BRIEFER
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The Turban and the Hat by Sonallah Ibrahim • Bitter Orange Tree by Jokha Alharthi • The Lady of Zamalek by Ashraf El-Ashmawi
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Come, Take a Gentle Stab: Selected Poems by Salim Barakat • Roundabout of Death by Faysal Khartash • Planet of Clay by Samar Yazbek
The translators of this issue
Christina Civantos, Jessica Cohen, Raphael Cohen, Trino Cruz, Jonas Elbousty, Samira Kawar, Becki Maddock, Nadia Naami, Nancy Roberts, Paul Starkey, Jonathan Wright
For information about all contributors – authors, translators, reviewers, editors – to this issue and others, go to https://www.banipal.co.uk/contributors/
UK representation and sales
Selections from this issue
FICTION
Jamila Omairah – Short story by Jamila Omairah
FICTION
Jamal Fayez – A Short Story Human Clusters
POETRY
Walid Hermiz – Four Poems from Bells of the Chaldeans
OTHER SELECTIONS
Anton Shammas – Translator's Notebook by Anton Shammas
OTHER SELECTIONS
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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