BANIPAL's first issue of 2014 presents a rich collection of a traditional art – stories by 21 authors, writing in a range of styles and selected from all generations of short story writers and from all parts of the Arab world – from Syria, Lebanon, Palestine, Iraq and Jordan; from Egypt, Morocco and Tunisia; and from Yemen, Oman and Kuwait. From pioneers Zakaria Tamer, Mahmoud Shukair, Ibrahim Aslan, Said al-Kafrawi and Ahmed Bouzfour, to Jokha al-Harth, Ahmed Saadawi, Huzama Habayeb, Basma El-Khatib, Ibrahim Farghali and Nasrin Trabulsi.
This issue also includes A Travelling Tale from Moscow by Kamal Ayadi, Poetry from Arabic, German & English: Kadhim Jihad Hassan from Iraq, Fouad El-Auwad from Syria and Mona Kareem from Kuwaitthe.
There are also excerpts from the 6 shortlisted novels for the 2014 International Prize for Arabic Fiction.
Guest Literature: British poet, editor and translator Stephen Watts.
Cover painting by Iraqi painter Ahmed Alsoudani.