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In Celebration of International Women’s Day: Egyptian Women Writers
Huda Shaarawi is at center. Clearly, it’s time to take a hard look at gender relations. I have a piece in Al Masry Al Youm today that looks at different strands of Egyptian feminism (and alternatives...
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Which Five of the ’100 Most Powerful Arab Women’ Are Authors?
This list came out earlier in the month, but it didn’t occur to me that any of the women on Arabian Business’s rundown of the “100 most powerful Arab women of 2011” might be novelists or poets. But...
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‘Revolutionary’ Chick Lit, Erotic Theology, and the Future of the Saudi Novel
Raja Alsanea, often praised/blamed for starting it all with her novel Girls of Riyadh. Anglos have long been charged by a belief in Arab (hyper)sexuality. As Edward Said nods at in his pioneering...
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Should There Be an ‘Orange Prize’ for Arab Women Writers?
This is what you win if you get the Orange prize. Well, this and £30,000. Yesterday, I noted that the big controversy (so far) in the 2012 International Prize for Arabic Fiction (IPAF, “Arabic Booker”)...
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New Work by Egypt’s (Revolutionary) Women Writers
From the march, photo by Sarah Carr. In celebration of yesterday’s women’s march (and its male supporters, who I’m sure will happily read women) I wanted to mention a few new works by Egypt’s...
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Why Would Kate Chopin Want to Participate in the IPAF ‘Nadwa’?
ArabLit contributor Mona Elnamoury reflects on what Kate Chopin would’ve gained from the International Prize for Arabic Fiction-sponsored “nadwas,” or writers’ retreats, and what a modern Arab ”Kate...
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Six Arab Novelists on Why They Write
During recent visits to Jordan and Syria, Boston librarian Diane D’Almeida (pictured) videotaped short interviews with a dozen different Arab authors. She also has since interviewed a dozen...
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A Google Doodle for May Ziadeh
Tell me, O tell me! by the planets that are above Who is the heavenly herald who is the dove That thrilled to our midst from yon horizon and sea To cry live Egypt live independent and free -Jawdat R....
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Call for Submissions (Creative & Critical) from Arab Women
Inanna Publications has sent out a call for its new anthology, scheduled for publication in the fall of this year. The book, called Min Timeh: Arab Feminist Reflections on Identity, Resistance, and...
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Salwa Bakr on ‘Women and Arabic Literature’
Novelist Salwa Bakr spoke to CASA students this past week about women and Arabic literature, beginning with the 1980s, when, “Every day you would open the window and find a female author writing a new...
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International Women’s Day: Great Arab Women and Their Writing, in Sixes
This is the International Women’s Day issue. So, I know, it should be 8s, since this is the 8th. Maybe next year: By Egyptian artist Mai Refky. SIX POEMS & PROSE EXCERPTS By ARAB WOMEN WRITERS:...
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Where Are the Women in (Arabic) Translation?
In a recent dispatch for Words Without Borders, translator Alison Anderson asked: ”Where are the Women in Translation?“ Two years ago, when Michael Orthofer at the Literary Saloon estimated the...
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Translating for Bigots
Adam Talib recently gave a talk at the American University in Cairo on “Translating for Bigots.” Talib, who is working on his fourth translated novel, posed the question — how should one translate for...
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The Year of Reading (Arab) Women
I feel rather lukewarm about this “Year of Reading Women,” despite an earnest belief that women’s books are (generally speaking) not taken as seriously as men’s: Joanna Walsh’s “year of reading women”...
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IPAF 2014: Lady Writers, Experimentation, and the Possibility of ‘Pure’...
7iber’s Siwar Masannat was present at the February 10 shortlist announcement for the International Prize for Arabic Fiction. She writes about the possibilities and im-possibilities of judging novels...
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On Translating ‘A’ishah al-Ba’uniyyah, Perhaps Arabic’s Most Prolific...
Th. Emil Homerin, author of the recently-published The Principles of Sufism, has long been interested in the work of ‘A’ishah al-Ba’uniyyah, who is perhaps the most prolific and prominent woman who...
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An Unnecessary Listicle: 7 Saudi Women Writers in Translation
Perhaps the most cringe-worthy part of ABC Family’s “Alice in Arabia” announcement was its creator’s apparent assertion that she had written the show not just for the fame and fortune (a motive we can...
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‘Whenever I Think of Writing…I Remember Radwa Ashour’
On March 22 and 23, Ain Shams University’s Department of English Language and Literature held a two-day conference in honour of Professor Radwa Ashour. Contributor Amira Abd El-Khalek reports from the...
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Gulf Women’s Writing: On Slavery, Migrant Labor, and Statelessness
On Nov. 10, Mona Kareem will give a talk at Binghamton University on how Gulf women writers adopt — or challenge — nationalist narratives: How, Kareem asks, do women writers deal with blacks, migrants,...
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Arab Women Writers Recommend Their Favorite Arab Women Writers
In 2014, ArabLit did a very popular “Year of Reading Arab Women.” A number of readers asked for a follow-up in 2015. Here, nine acclaimed Arab women writers choose favorite novels by other Arab women...
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