This issue is a delicious mix of pioneering, emerging and established authors from around the Arab world.
• short stories by three pioneering writers – Emile Habiby, Fuad al-Takarli and Mohamed Choukri
• works by established novelists Ezzat el-Kamhawi (The Travellers’ Room) and Emna Rmili (Beach of Souls)
• first time in English translation for fiction writers Reem Al-Kamali, Mohammed Alnaas, Dima al-Choukr, Khalid Al-Nassrallah and Bushra Khalfan
• also featured – the six shortlisted novels of the 2022 International Prize for Arabic Fiction
• Book reviews include: winner of the 2021 Saif Ghobash Banipal Prize Girl with the Braided Hair by Rasha Adly, translated by Sarah Enany, the first poetry collection Things You May Find Hidden in My Ear of talented young Gazan Mosab Abu Toha, Solitaire by Hassouna Moshabi, Packaged Lives by Haifa Zangana, and others
• Nouri al-Jarrah reads from A Boat to Lesbos at the live 2022 StAnza Festival
• Khaled Khalifa, 2022 Banipal Visiting Writer Fellow, is in Durham giving the Fellowship annual lecture
The front cover painting is by Iraqi painter Hanoos Hanoos.