Banipal 46 – 80 New Poems is back to 224 pages and its main theme takes the pulse of new poetry with works by 14 poets who reflect the diversity and dynamism in Arab life and society today – Taha Adnan, Fadhil al-Azzawi, Salah Faik, Hussein Habasch, Mohamed al-Harthy, Musa Hawamdeh, Heind R. Ibrahim, Hassab al-Sheikh Ja’far, Vénus Khoury-Ghata, Khaled Mattawa, Philip Metres, Dunya Mikhail, Khaled Najar and Amjad Nasser.
The issue opens with the debut novel of Amjad Nasser, Land of No Rain, and is followed by an excerpt from the first English translation of Faris al-Shidyaq’s 1855 novel Leg over Leg – both texts being published in full later this year, by Bloomsbury Qater Foundation Publishing and Yale University Press respectively.
Lorand Gaspar, who lived and worked in Jerusalem and Tunis for many years and is one of France’s most important contemporary poets, is the issue’s Guest Writer.
Banipal 46 also includes a special section of excerpts from the six shortlisted novels of the 2013 International Prize for Arabic Fiction by Saud Alsanousi, Mohammed Hasan Alwan, Sinan Antoon, Jana Fawaz Elhassan, Ibrahim Issa and Hussein al-Wad.
PLUS a searing memoir, The Day the Olive Harvest was Stopped, by Palestinian writer Mohammad Khashan.
The front cover painting is by Moroccan painter and novelist Mahi Binebine, whose latest award-winning book in English translation Horses of God is reviewed in the issue, and is also an award-winning film.