This distinguished anthology presents for the first time in English travel accounts by Arab writers who have visited America between 1668 and 2009. The view of America which emerges from these accounts is at once fascinating and illuminating, but never monolithic. The writers hail from a variety of viewpoints, regions, and backgrounds, so their descriptions of America differently engage and revise Arab pre-conceptions of Americans and the West. The country figures as everything from the unchanging Other, the very antithesis of the Arab self, to the seductive female, to the Other who is both praiseworthy and reprehensible.
About the Authors/ Editors
Kamal Abdel-Malek is a Professor of Arabic Literature at the American University of Dubai.
Mouna El Kahla, a specialist in language pedagogy, is the coordinator of the Arabic program at the Australian University of Wollongong, the Dubai branch.
Banipal publishes its fortieth issue, and by amazing coincidence the issue celebrates Libyan literature at this extraordinary historical moment of uprising and change in the Arab world, especially in Libya. Page 1 is given over to a statement by hundreds of Arab intellectuals, writers and journalists that is circulating online, a declaration of “full solidarity with the Arab peoples who have gone out into the streets to demand their legitimate rights”.
With 135 pages of terrific reading from both Libya’s foremost and emerging fiction writers, introduced by Omar Abulqasim Alkikli on The Libyan Short Story and Ibrahim Ahmidan on The Libyan Novel, the feature presents a wide range of works by 17 authors from inside and outside Libya, as well as a profile of the pioneer literary figure Ali Mustafa al-Musrati, and other articles.
The hard-hitting and compelling short stories draw on life experiences, on family tales, on loss, emotions and fears, dreams, travelling, exploring different cultures, growing up, relations between the sexes. They also have equally intriguing titles, such as Omar el-Kiddi’s The wonderful short life of the dog Ramadan, Ghazi Gheblawi’s The Rosy Dream, Mohammed al-Asfar’s The Hoopoe, Ahmed Fagih’s pyschological drama Lobsters, Najwa Binshatwan’s His Excellency the Eminence of the Void, Azza Kamil al-Maghour’s The Bicycle, Mohammed al-Arishiya’s The Snake Catcher, Mohammed al-Anaizi’s He was Holding a Rosary. Giuma Bukleb gives us two tales set in North London, while Omar Abulqasim Alkikli and Redwan Abushwesha provide much food for thought with their very short satirical stories.
The excerpts and chapters from novels include Saleh Snoussi’s historical saga, set in Ottoman times, Valley of the Wind, Hisham Matar’s new work, written in English, Anatomy of a Disappearance, Wafa Al-Bueissa’s Hunger has Other Faces, Ibrahim al-Koni’s New Waw, about the winged people – birds of the desert, Mohammed Mesrati’s work-in-progress Mama Pizza, whose hero is Ali Guevara, and Razan Naim Moghrabi’s Women of the Wind, which was longlisted for the 2011 International Prize for Arabic Fiction.
Banipal 40 also includes works by award-winnning authors from Morocco, Oman and Lebanon, respectively Abdelkarim Jouiti, Jokha al-Harthi, Abdo Wazen, plus an in-depth interview with Lebanese novelist Alawiya Sobh.
This distinguished anthology presents for the first time in English travel accounts by Arab writers who have visited America between 1668 and 2009. The view of America which emerges from these accounts is at once fascinating and illuminating, but never monolithic. The writers hail from a variety of viewpoints, regions, and backgrounds, so their descriptions of America differently engage and revise Arab pre-conceptions of Americans and the West. The country figures as everything from the unchanging Other, the very antithesis of the Arab self, to the seductive female, to the Other who is both praiseworthy and reprehensible.
About the Authors/ Editors
Kamal Abdel-Malek is a Professor of Arabic Literature at the American University of Dubai.
Mouna El Kahla, a specialist in language pedagogy, is the coordinator of the Arabic program at the Australian University of Wollongong, the Dubai branch.
The Writers Project of Ghana is pleased to announce that their first anthology of poetry by new Ghanaian writers is off the press and will be available in bookstores soon.
“Look Where You Have Gone to Sit” features the work of nineteen new writers, and presents exciting writing across many different themes.
“Look Where You Have Gone to Sit” was edited by Martin Egblewogbe and Laban Carrick Hill, and published by Woeli Publishing Services in Accra.
Writers Project of Ghana intends to continue their efforts to put out more anthologies of Ghanaian writing. Later this year, they will launch their call for their next anthologies for 2011, which will be released in 2012. They expect to publish an anthology of poetry and another of short stories.
Bantu Letters, Mpumalanga’s very first indigenous language anthology is brought to you by Ten Workers Media under the direction of Goodenough Mashego. Bantu Letters is a collection of poetry/ written by bantus in Sepulana, isiNdebele and isiSwati languages spoken in the province of Mpumalanga.
The book was launched on April 2 at the Kriel Rugby Fields. For more information, contact goodynuff@thepub.co.za
There is a Place is a riveting collection of poems by ten fertile wordsmiths anchored to the Northern Cape, either as residents or observers. In this slim volume edited by Vonani Bila, the stunning poets seem to concur that the gaping big hole in Kimberley is a painful site that reminds the poor and working class communities of South Africa’s glaring economic inequality and the brutality of Apartheid’s mining industry. The poets recount their memories of the city of Kimberley, the Northern Cape landscape in general and of course the heroic scribe and struggle icon Sol Plaatje in such a breathtaking manner.
Other concerns that worry these young and emerging poets include xenophobia, the worsening of farm worker conditions, domestic cruelty against women and children, foiled reconciliation, corruption in the tender system, HIV/Aids that’s devouring the nation before our eyes and the shameful consumption tendencies of the black petty bourgeoisie who possibly make departed liberation fighters like Steve Biko, Oliver Tambo and Robert Sobukwe turn on their graves.
Although this collection does not pretend to represent the entire body of writing in the Northern Cape, it is fairly the latest mirror of the best new writing sprouting from the creative nucleus of the province. The Department of Sport, Arts and Culture should be congratulated for supporting this noble initiative, and for allowing Room to Read to publish this marvelous book.
What makes this collection exciting is the inclusion of extremely young voices like Gladys Oliphant, Lesego Moitsemang, Nosipho Mtabani and Priscilla Mvelase who have been active participants in the Creative Writing workshops organized by the Department of Sport, Arts and Culture. It is equally rewarding to hear the more formidable voices of David wa Maahlamela, Gontse Chaane, Sabata-mpho Mokae and Mosimanegape Sehako.
There is a Place is available from Room to Read. We hope this book will be made available in all the public libraries in the country.
"This is a well chosen collection of some of the best Arab writers I've come across, with a broad spectrum of themes, well chosen and beautifully rendered into English."—Raja Shehadeh, author of Palestinian Walks
In November 2009, the International Prize for Arabic Fiction organized a workshop for eight critically acclaimed writers from Egypt, Sudan, Tunisia, Lebanon, Saudi Arabia, Yemen, and the United Arab Emirates.
This bilingual volume brings together the pieces produced during this workshop, showcasing the creativity of a younger generation of Arab writers. A range of styles and themes are explored: from Egyptian social realism to a tale from the deserts of Darfur, a grim Tunisian allegory, family drama in Saudi Arabia, and a story about home and exile in Sana’a.
Includes a foreword co-written by Inaam Kachachi, an Iraqi born writer whose debut novel The American Granddaughter was shortlisted for the 2008–2009 International Prize for Arabic Fiction, and the Lebanese author Jabbour Douaihy, whose novel June Rain was shortlisted for the International Prize for Arabic Fiction in 2007–2008.
About the Editors
Peter Clark: Peter Clark is a Middle East specialist, a Trustee of the International Prize for Arabic Fiction and a contributing editor of Banipal. He has translated fiction, history, drama and poetry from Arabic since 1980.
Inaam Karachi: Inaam Kachachi was born in Baghdad in 1952. Her debut novel, 'The American Granddaughter', was shortlisted for the 2008–2009 International Prize for Arabic Fiction.
Jabbour Douaihy: Jabbour Douaihy was born in 1949 in Lebanon. He is the author of a collection of short stories and two novels. Douaihy’s 'June Rain' was shortlisted for the International Prize for Arabic Fiction in 2007–2008.
The Association of Nigerian Authors represents Nigerian creative writers at home and abroad. It was founded in 1981 with the novelist Chinua Achebe as President. Its aims and objectives are to encourage and promote Nigerian literature; to encourage the collection, reading and transcription of oral literature available to the public through translation from the original language into other Nigerian and non-Nigerian languages; and to promote the interest of writers in all that concerns their profession and well-being and to protect their rights as writers.
It produces ANA Review: An Annual Journal of the Association of Nigerian Authors dedicated to scholarly criticism, book reviews, essays, interviews, tributes, travelogues and creative writing.
This year, the preface to ANA Review was written by Hyacinth Obunseh. The new issue features poetry by Dumbiri Frank Oboh, Tade Ipadeola, Ahmed Maiwada, Henry Ajumeze, Benjamin Ubiri, Aj. Daggar Tolar, Akunna Vivian Fadola; and short stories by Alpha Emeka and Olubunmi Julius-Adeoye.
A Keele University lecturer has released a book promoting new Kenyan writers and their work.
Man of the House and other new short stories from Kenya is the fourth in CCC Press’s series of World Englishes Literature Fiction, which aims to promote emerging writers unknown in the West.
Edited and introduced by Keele University’s Dr Emma Dawson, Man of the House and other new short stories from Kenya will be published on January 31.
The 15 stories in the collection tackle themes including politics, reality television, love, family, identity, and money. Writers include Mukumu Muchina, Shalini Gidoomal and Rasna Warah.
Dr Dawson appeared on breakfast television in Kenya to call for stories for the anthology and was inundated with submissions from new and established writers. She also worked with publishing house and writers’ collective Storymoja in Nairobi, and gave lectures at the University of Nairobi and Moi University in Eldoret.
“It’s an exciting time for Kenyan writing,” says Dr Dawson. “Everyone is talking about a revival in the African literature scene and Kenya is producing more new writing than other East African countries. They’ve come through their election strife and there’s now a burst of people expressing the new Kenya.”
Stories from Dr Dawson’s anthologies of works from Nigeria, Uganda and Kenya have been submitted for the prestigious Caine Prize for African Writing.
She is currently editing an anthology of short stories from Malaysia, to be published later this year as part of the same series, and is also working on a book called Reading New India, which will be published by Continuum in summer next year to celebrate 65 years of India’s independence.
* Man of the House and other new short stories from Kenya, edited with an introduction by Emma Dawson, is published by CCC Press, priced £12.99.
“Best European Fiction is an exhilarating read.”—Time
The launch of Dalkey’s Best European Fiction series was nothing short of phenomenal, with wide-ranging coverage in international media such as Time magazine, the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Chicago Tribune, Financial Times, and the Guardian; glowing reviews and interviews in print and online magazines such as the Believer, Bookslut, Paste, and the Huffington Post; radio interviews with editor Aleksandar Hemon on NPR stations in the US and BBC Radio 3 and 4 in the UK; and a terrific response from booksellers, who made Best European Fiction 2010 an “Indie Next” pick and created table displays and special promotions throughout the US and UK.
For 2011, Aleksandar Hemon is back as editor, along with a new preface by Colum McCann, and with a whole new cast of authors and stories, including work from countries not included in Best European Fiction 2010.
About the Editor
Aleksandar Hemon is the author of The Question of Bruno, Nowhere Man, and The Lazarus Project, which was a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award in 2008. Born in Sarajevo, Hemon visited Chicago in 1992, intending to stay for several months. While there, Sarajevo came under siege, and he was unable to return home. Hemon wrote his first story in English in 1995. He was awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship in 2003 and a “Genius Grant” from the MacArthur Foundation in 2004. He lives in Chicago with his wife and daughter.
In June 2010, the editors of The New Yorker announced to widespread media coverage their selection of “20 Under 40”—the young fiction writers who are, or will be, central to their generation. The magazine published twenty stories by this stellar group of writers over the course of the summer. They are now collected for the first time in one volume.
The range of voices is extraordinary. There is the lyrical realism of Nell Freudenberger, Philipp Meyer, C. E. Morgan, and Salvatore Scibona; the satirical comedy of Joshua Ferris and Gary Shteyngart; and the genre-bending tales of Jonathan Safran Foer, Nicole Krauss, and Téa Obreht. David Bezmozgis and Dinaw Mengestu offer clear eyed portraits of immigration and identity; Sarah Shun-lien Bynum, ZZ Packer, and Wells Tower offer voice-driven, idiosyncratic narratives. Then there are the haunting sociopolitical stories of Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, Daniel Alarcón, and Yiyun Li, and the metaphysical fantasies of Chris Adrian, Rivka Galchen, and Karen Russell.
Each of these writers reminds us why we read. And each is aiming for greatness: fighting to get and to hold our attention in a culture that is flooded with words, sounds, and pictures; fighting to surprise, to entertain, to teach, and to move not only us but generations of readers to come. A landmark collection, 20 Under 40 stands as a testament to the vitality of fiction today.
About the Editor
Deborah Treisman has been the fiction editor of The New Yorker since 2003, and was deputy fiction editor for five years prior to that.
