Banipal Current Issue

Front cover painting by Faisel Laibi Sahi

Front cover painting by Faisel Laibi Sahi

EDITORIAL

Ali Bader – A chapter from his novel Al-Kafira (The Infidel Woman), translated by Raphael Cohen
Charbel Dagher: Eight Poems, translated by Basil Samara
Shakir Noori: An excerpt from his novel Jaheem al-Rahib (The Monk’s Hell), translated by Robin Moger
Jawdat Fakhreddine: Four Poems, translated by Huda Fakhreddine and Roger Allen

THE SHORT STORIES OF ZAKARIA TAMER

ZAKARIA TAMER: NINE STORIES
“The Policeman and the Horse”, trans. Clayton Clark
“The Pill Man’s Fate”, trans. Jonathan Wright
“The Disaster”, trans. Jonathan Wright
“Brief Lives”, trans. Ibrahim Muhawi
“The Neighing of the White Horse”, trans. Spencer Scoville
“The First Round”, trans. Jonathan Wright
“He Doesn’t Know”, trans. Jonathan Wright
“News of the Sheep”, trans. Ibrahim Muhawi
“A Cold Night”, trans. Jonathan Wright

Subhi Hadidi: The Poet of the Short Story
Abdo Wazen: Hammering a new style into the Arabic short story
Srpko Leštarić: The Wonderful World of Zakaria Tamer
Alessandro Columbu: From Damascus to Oxford and Cagliari
Mahmoud Shukair: A Uniquely Creative Short Story Writer
Fadhil al-Azzawi: Sitting in a café and cursing the dictators
Denys Johnson-Davies: Leading Writer of Short Stories
Hartmut Fähndrich: About The Execution of Death
Mehmet Hakkı Suçin: Made for Each Other – the short story and Zakaria Tamer

ZAKARIA TAMER: Two Very Short Stories, trans. Ibrahim Muhawi

Paul Starkey reviews Tigers on the Tenth Day and The Hedgehog
Susannah Tarbush reviews Breaking Knees
Volker Kaminski reviews Die Hinrichtung von Tod (The Execution of Death)
Ismail Fahd Ismail: Fingers on the Trigger

ZAKARIA TAMER: Interview by Dima Alchukr

ZAKARIA TAMER: “The Promotion of Folly”, trans. Ibrahim Muhawi

ZAKARIA TAMER: FOUR STORIES
“The Arab Prison”, trans. John Peate
“The Old Gate”, trans. Roger Allen
“The Earth is Ours, the Sky belongs to the Birds”, trans. Spencer Scoville
“An Angry Man”, trans. Roger Allen

ZAKARIA TAMER: 13 STORIES FOR CHILDREN
“Why did the River stop Talking?” and other stories, introduced and translated by Cayton Clark, with illustrations by Abigail O’Brien

ZAKARIA TAMER: The Biography

BOOK REVIEWS

      
Both these books, reviewed below, have been longlisted for the FT/Oppenheimer Emerging Voices awards. Read more about the awardhere and here

Paul Blezard: The Broken Mirrors/Sinalcol by Elias Khoury
Paul Starkey: Women of Karantina by Nael Eltoukhy
Michael Hulse: Dizza Castle by Salah Niazi
Margaret Obank: Studying Modern Arabic Literature: Mustafa Badawi, Scholar and Critic
Stephen Watts: Sand Opera by Philip Metres
Clare Roberts: Telepathy by Amir Tag Elsir
Aoe Tanami: Revolution is my Name by Mona Prince

BOOKS IN BRIEF
• FICTION
My Torturess by Bensalem Himmich
Oh, Salaam! by Najwa Barakat
Chewing Gum by Mansour Bushnaf
The Confines of the Shadow, Volume I: “In Lands Overseas” by Alessandro Spina
The Blue between Sky and Water by Susan Abulhawa
Bitter Almonds by Lilas Taha
Vanished by Ahmed Masoud

• POETRY
Tahrir Suite by Matthew Shenoda
Tender Spot: Selected Poems by Naomi Shihab Nye
The Gold Shop of Ba-‘ali: Poems by Yahya Frederickson

• NON-FICTION
Your Mother-in-Law Loves You And Other Proverbs and Expressions fromSyria by Rebecca Joubin
In Reel Bad Arabs: How Hollywood Vilifies a People by Jack Shaheen
Keep Your Eye on the Wall Edited by Olivia Snaije and Mitchell Albert
What Makes a Man? Sex Talk in Beirut and Berlin by Rashid Al-Daif and Joachim Helfer
Sykes-Picot: The Legacy Edited by Kenneth Pickering

BOOKS RECEIVED

• FICTION
Under the Tripoli Sky by Kamal Ben Hameda
Haifa Fragments by Khulud Khamis
The Hidden Light of Objects by Mai Al-Nakib
The Arabian Nights: An Anthology edited by Wen-Chin Ouyang

• POETRY
Desert Sorrows – poems by Tayseer al-Sboul

• NON-FICTION
Iterations of Loss: Mutilation and Aesthetic Form, Al-Shidyaq to Darwishby Jeffrey Sacks

• THE LIBRARY OF ARABIC LITERATURE
What Isa Ibn Hisham told us or, a period of time (Volumes one & two), Edited by Roger Allen
Consorts of the Caliphs. Women and the Court of Baghdad, Edited by Shawkat M. Toorawa

• EDINBURGH STUDIES IN MODERN ARABIC LITERATURE
Writing Beirut: Mappings of the City in the Modern Arabic Novel by Samira Aghacy
Sufism in the Contemporary Arabic Novel by Ziad Elmarsafy
Autobiographical Identities in Contemporary Arab Culture by Valerie Anishchenkova
War and Occupation in Iraqi Fiction by Ikram Masmoudi

EVENTS
Abu Dhabi: The 2015 International Prize for Arabic Fiction Award
Abu Dhabi: The 2015 Sheikh Zayed Book Award
London: Saud Alsansousi launches The Bamboo Stalk

CONTRIBUTORS
For the authors, please click on the links above:

The translators, writers and artists for THE SHORT STORIES OF ZAKARIA TAMER are:
Fadhil al-Azzawi, Dima Alchukr, Edward Alexander, Roger Allen, Layla Almaleh, Clayton Clark, Alessandro Columbu, Hartmut Fähndrich, Subhi Hadidi, Ismail Fahd Ismail, Denys Johnson-Davies, Volker Kaminski,Sprko Leštarić, Ruth Martin, Ibrahim Muhawi, Abigail O’Brien, John Peate,Basil Samara, Spencer Scoville, Mahmoud Shukair, Paul Starkey, Mehmet Hakkı Suçin, Susannah Tarbush, Abdo Wazen, Jonathan Wright

The other contributors are:
Ali Bader, Paul Blezard, Raphael Cohen, Charbel Dagher, Huda Fakhreddine, Jawdat Fakhreddine, Michael Hulse, Robin Moger, Shakir Noori, Clare Roberts, Anton Shammas, Aoe Tanami, Stephen Watts