Banipal 42 focuses on the literature being written now in the United Arab Emirates. As readers begin their journey into the works of 27 writers, three introductory essays open up the background to the short story, the development of modern poetry and the state of the novel in the UAE today.
Among the stories that stand out are Abdul Hamid Ahmed’s 'Kuya’s Little Things', about an Indian worker’s struggle to provide for his far-away family, the excerpt from Sara al-Jarwan’s novel Letters to my Lord the Sultan, spelling out the complexities of life in a family of one man with four wives and Adel Khozam’s reflections, Music, in stanzas echoing the musical scale.
Banipal’s Guest Literature feature this issue comes from Germany: eight great authors at the top of their fields.
Banipal 42 opens with a return to the popular feature – Literary Influences. Prize-winning Saudi Arabian author Raja Alem recounts her passion for reading as a child and the world authors she read.
Contents
Editorial by Samuel Shimon
Raja Alem – Literary Influences – "Reading the infidels in Mecca"
Ahmed Mourad – Excerpt from the novel Vertigo, translated by Robin Moger
Ahmed Khaled Towfik - Excerpt from the novel Utopia, translated by Chip Rossetti
New Writing from the Emirates
Nasser al-Dhaheri on The Beginnings of the Emirati Short Story
Adel Khozam on The Development of Emirati Modern Poetry
Shaker Noori on Looking at the Emirati Novel
Abdel Aziz Jassim – Selected Poems, translated by Allison Blecker
Fatima al-Mazrouei – Two short stories, translated by William M Hutchins
Mona Abdulkader al-Ali – A short story, translated by John Peate
Nujoom al-Ghanem – Selected Poems, translated by Khalid al-Masri
Abdul Hamid Ahmed – 'Kuya's Little Things', a short story translated by Thomas Aplin
Dhabiya Khamis – Selected Poems, translated by Camilo Gomez-Rivas
Sara al-Jarwan – Excerpt from the novel Letters to my Lord the Sultan, translated by Robin Moger
Adel Khozam – Selected Poems, translated by Raphael Cohen
Rawdha al-Belushi – 'Resurrection Bus', a short story translated by Thomas Aplin Aisha al-Kaabi – Very short stories, translated by John Peate
Habib Sayegh – Selected Poems, translated by Issa J Boullata
Ali Abu al-Reesh – Excerpt from the novel Room 357, translated by William M Hutchins
Ibrahim Mohammed Ibrahim – Poems, translated by Fadhil al-Azzawi
Khulood al-Mualla – Selected Poems, translated by Allison Blecker
Khalid Albudoor – Selected Poems, translated by Robin Moger
Basema Younes – 'Silence', a short story translated by Ali Azeriah
Mohammed Al-Murr – A Portrait by Peter Clark
Maisoon Saqr – Selected Poems, translated by Robin Moger
Mariam al-Ghafli – Excerpt from the novel Daughter of the Rain, translated by William M Hutchins
Mohammed al-Mazrouei – Selected Poems, translated by John Peate
Mariam al-Saedi – Two short stories, translated by Ghenwa Hayek
Abdallah Abdulwahab – Selected Poems, translated by Fadhil al-Azzawi
Dhaen Shahine – Selected Poems, translated by Robin Moger
Ahmed Rashid Thani – Selected Poems, translated by Raphael Cohen
Alice Johnson – Literary Salons and Book Clubs
Ibrahim al-Mullah – Selected Poems, translated by Robin Moger
Nasser al-Dhaheri – 'The Stone of Desire', translated by Reem Ghanyem
Ebtisam al-Mualla – 'A Dying Light', a short story translated by Sophia Vasalou
Dhabiya Khamis – 'A Travelling Tale', from the novel Life As It Is, translated by Charis Bredin
Guest Literature - Germany
Hinrich von Haaren – 'Slow Tree of Joy', a short story translated by the author
Annika Scheffel – 'Pretty Big', a short story translated by Stefan Tobler
Elke Schmitter – Excerpt from the novel Minor Misdemeanours, translated by Rachel McNicholl
Ulf Stolterfoht – Selected Poems, translated by Ken Cockburn
Volker Kaminski – 'The Top Project', a short story translated by Katy Derbyshire
Thomas Lehr – Excerpt from the novel September: Fata Morgana, translated by Katy Derbyshire
Antonia Baum – Exceprt from the novel Completely Lifeless, Preferably Dead, translated by Simon Pare
Joachim Sartorius – Excerpt from the novel Princes' Island, translated by Stephen Brown
Book Reviews
Alice Johnson: In a Fertile Desert, Modern Writing from the United Arab Emirates (selected, translated and introduced by Denys Johnson-Davies)
Margaret Obank: My Early Days by Sheikh Sultan bin Mohammad al-Qasimi
Norbert Hirschhorn: Two Libyan Novels – Homeless Rats by Ahmed Fagih and Anatomy of a Disappearance by Hisham Matar
Susannah Tarbush: One Day in April by Jad El Hage
Books in Brief
The Hashish Waiter, The Traveler and the Innkeeper, So You May See, Sabra Zoo, Abduction, Professor Hanaa, The Last Storytellers, The Granta Book of the African Short Story, The Present Tense of the World, Mediterraneans/ Méditerranéenes: Our Mothers, Disordered World: Setting a New Course for the Twenty-first Century
Last Page: Najwa Binshatwan - Letter from Benghazi
The translators in Banipal 42 from Arabic are:
Thomas Aplin, Ali Azeriah, Fadhil al-Azzawi, Allison Blecker, Issa J Boullata, Charis Bredin, Raphael Cohen, Reem Ghanyem, Camilo Gomez-Rivas, Ghenwa Hayek, William M Hutchins, Khalid al-Masri, Robin Moger, John Peate, Chip Rossetti, Sophia Vasalou
The translators from German are:
Stephen Brown, Ken Cockburn, Katy Derbyshire, Rachel McNicholl, Simon Pare, Stefan Tobler
The writers and book reviewers are:
Peter Clark, Nasser al-Dhaheri, Norbert Hirschhorn, Alice Johnson, Adel Khozam, Shaker Noori, Margaret Obank, Susannah Tarbush
Among the stories that stand out are Abdul Hamid Ahmed’s 'Kuya’s Little Things', about an Indian worker’s struggle to provide for his far-away family, the excerpt from Sara al-Jarwan’s novel Letters to my Lord the Sultan, spelling out the complexities of life in a family of one man with four wives and Adel Khozam’s reflections, Music, in stanzas echoing the musical scale.
Banipal’s Guest Literature feature this issue comes from Germany: eight great authors at the top of their fields.
Banipal 42 opens with a return to the popular feature – Literary Influences. Prize-winning Saudi Arabian author Raja Alem recounts her passion for reading as a child and the world authors she read.
Contents
Editorial by Samuel Shimon
Raja Alem – Literary Influences – "Reading the infidels in Mecca"
Ahmed Mourad – Excerpt from the novel Vertigo, translated by Robin Moger
Ahmed Khaled Towfik - Excerpt from the novel Utopia, translated by Chip Rossetti
New Writing from the Emirates
Nasser al-Dhaheri on The Beginnings of the Emirati Short Story
Adel Khozam on The Development of Emirati Modern Poetry
Shaker Noori on Looking at the Emirati Novel
Abdel Aziz Jassim – Selected Poems, translated by Allison Blecker
Fatima al-Mazrouei – Two short stories, translated by William M Hutchins
Mona Abdulkader al-Ali – A short story, translated by John Peate
Nujoom al-Ghanem – Selected Poems, translated by Khalid al-Masri
Abdul Hamid Ahmed – 'Kuya's Little Things', a short story translated by Thomas Aplin
Dhabiya Khamis – Selected Poems, translated by Camilo Gomez-Rivas
Sara al-Jarwan – Excerpt from the novel Letters to my Lord the Sultan, translated by Robin Moger
Adel Khozam – Selected Poems, translated by Raphael Cohen
Rawdha al-Belushi – 'Resurrection Bus', a short story translated by Thomas Aplin Aisha al-Kaabi – Very short stories, translated by John Peate
Habib Sayegh – Selected Poems, translated by Issa J Boullata
Ali Abu al-Reesh – Excerpt from the novel Room 357, translated by William M Hutchins
Ibrahim Mohammed Ibrahim – Poems, translated by Fadhil al-Azzawi
Khulood al-Mualla – Selected Poems, translated by Allison Blecker
Khalid Albudoor – Selected Poems, translated by Robin Moger
Basema Younes – 'Silence', a short story translated by Ali Azeriah
Mohammed Al-Murr – A Portrait by Peter Clark
Maisoon Saqr – Selected Poems, translated by Robin Moger
Mariam al-Ghafli – Excerpt from the novel Daughter of the Rain, translated by William M Hutchins
Mohammed al-Mazrouei – Selected Poems, translated by John Peate
Mariam al-Saedi – Two short stories, translated by Ghenwa Hayek
Abdallah Abdulwahab – Selected Poems, translated by Fadhil al-Azzawi
Dhaen Shahine – Selected Poems, translated by Robin Moger
Ahmed Rashid Thani – Selected Poems, translated by Raphael Cohen
Alice Johnson – Literary Salons and Book Clubs
Ibrahim al-Mullah – Selected Poems, translated by Robin Moger
Nasser al-Dhaheri – 'The Stone of Desire', translated by Reem Ghanyem
Ebtisam al-Mualla – 'A Dying Light', a short story translated by Sophia Vasalou
Dhabiya Khamis – 'A Travelling Tale', from the novel Life As It Is, translated by Charis Bredin
Guest Literature - Germany
Hinrich von Haaren – 'Slow Tree of Joy', a short story translated by the author
Annika Scheffel – 'Pretty Big', a short story translated by Stefan Tobler
Elke Schmitter – Excerpt from the novel Minor Misdemeanours, translated by Rachel McNicholl
Ulf Stolterfoht – Selected Poems, translated by Ken Cockburn
Volker Kaminski – 'The Top Project', a short story translated by Katy Derbyshire
Thomas Lehr – Excerpt from the novel September: Fata Morgana, translated by Katy Derbyshire
Antonia Baum – Exceprt from the novel Completely Lifeless, Preferably Dead, translated by Simon Pare
Joachim Sartorius – Excerpt from the novel Princes' Island, translated by Stephen Brown
Book Reviews
Alice Johnson: In a Fertile Desert, Modern Writing from the United Arab Emirates (selected, translated and introduced by Denys Johnson-Davies)
Margaret Obank: My Early Days by Sheikh Sultan bin Mohammad al-Qasimi
Norbert Hirschhorn: Two Libyan Novels – Homeless Rats by Ahmed Fagih and Anatomy of a Disappearance by Hisham Matar
Susannah Tarbush: One Day in April by Jad El Hage
Books in Brief
The Hashish Waiter, The Traveler and the Innkeeper, So You May See, Sabra Zoo, Abduction, Professor Hanaa, The Last Storytellers, The Granta Book of the African Short Story, The Present Tense of the World, Mediterraneans/ Méditerranéenes: Our Mothers, Disordered World: Setting a New Course for the Twenty-first Century
Last Page: Najwa Binshatwan - Letter from Benghazi
The translators in Banipal 42 from Arabic are:
Thomas Aplin, Ali Azeriah, Fadhil al-Azzawi, Allison Blecker, Issa J Boullata, Charis Bredin, Raphael Cohen, Reem Ghanyem, Camilo Gomez-Rivas, Ghenwa Hayek, William M Hutchins, Khalid al-Masri, Robin Moger, John Peate, Chip Rossetti, Sophia Vasalou
The translators from German are:
Stephen Brown, Ken Cockburn, Katy Derbyshire, Rachel McNicholl, Simon Pare, Stefan Tobler
The writers and book reviewers are:
Peter Clark, Nasser al-Dhaheri, Norbert Hirschhorn, Alice Johnson, Adel Khozam, Shaker Noori, Margaret Obank, Susannah Tarbush