Arabic Literature

[Syrian author Khaled Khalifa. Image from Author]By Soraya Morayef Jadaliyya, 8 July 2014 [Last month, the Syrian novelist Khaled Khalifa visited London to promote ‘Syria Speaks’, an anthology of short stories, poems, articles and visual art collected as a response to the Syrian regime’s crackdown on dissident voices since the 2011 Syrian uprising. As one of the most powerful and prominent writers in Syria, Khalifa continues to live in Damascus – despite being attacked and beaten by regime thugs at a funeral in 2012, despite his hugely popular books being banned, and despite the very real risk that dissident voices face when they criticise Assad’s regime.

BY MLYNXQUALEY on APRIL 20, 2015 Samah Selim spoke at Cairo University last Thursday, at a talk moderated by Nada Abdel Sobhi, on “Why We Transate: Some Notes on Love, Loss, and Longing.” Mona Elnamoury was there:By Mona ElnamouryIn her talk at Cairo University last Thursday, Samah Selim charmed the audience with her hearty genuine talk about translation and love. Selim came to talk about translation in general as well as her current project: Arwa Saleh’s non-fiction book Al-Mubtasarun: dafatir wahda min gil al-haraka al-tullabiyya, which was published in 1997, the same year its author took her life.