by Abir Hamdar Abir Hamdar, The Female Suffering Body: Illness and Disability in Modern Arabic Literature. Syracuse: Syracuse University Press, 2014. Jadaliyya (J): What made you write this book? Abir Hamdar (AH): The whole project was triggered by a question from a friend. She was suffering from a chronic illness…
by Alia Mamdouh, translated by Peter Theroux A strong-willed girl’s life in 1950s Baghdad, depicted by an award-winning Iraqi writer. Mamdouh, winner of the 2004 Naguib Mahfouz Prize for Literature, employs shifts of narrative perspective and a sophisticated technique in this affectionate but critical dissection of her culture. Huda, at…
First session of the Reading Club organized by Casa Árabe and the Balqís Bookshop in the year 2017. At this session, to be held on March 22, the work Naphtalene: A Novel of Baghdad, by Alia Mamdouh, will be read and commented on. The gathering will be directed and moderated…
IPAF IN NUMBERS Established: 2008 Prize money: $50,000 (Dh183,650) for winners and $10,000 for those on the shortlist. Winning novels: 13 Shortlisted novels: 66 Longlisted novels: 111 Total number of novels submitted: 1,780 Novels translated internationally: 66 The best of Arabic literature will be celebrated online this week. After the…
An Iraqi novelist has won the 11th Naguib Mahfouz medal for literature. Awarded by the American University in Cairo, Egypt, the prize went to Alia Mamdouh for her fifth novel, Al-Mahbubat (The Loved Ones), first published by al-Saqi Books in 2003. The audience at the award ceremony on Saturday, which…
BY Megan Marz Naphtalene, the first novel by an Iraqi woman to be published in the United States, has taken a long time to arrive here. A small Cairo press first published Alia Mamdouh’s second novel in 1986, just a few years after her controversial first novel, Leila and the…
Challenges Facing Arab Women Writers
Beyond_Autobiography
by Sawad Hussain Sawad Hussain reviews a Jordanian LGBT runaway bestseller, finally available in English translation Fadi Zaghmout’s The Bride of Amman (translated into English by Ruth Ahmedzai Kemp) is a bold, charged novel detailing the struggle Jordanians face in abiding societal strictures on sexual orientation and gender identity. The…
June 5, 2012 by Caroline Wilkinson Alia Mamdouh’s novel Naphtalene is a coming-of-age story set in 1950s Iraq. Huda is a nine-year-old girl who runs through the streets with boys, jumping “over the gutters and the children.” She is “anarchy, insolence, and violence.” Her actions disrupt order on many levels,…
by Gwen Glazer, Communications March 8, 2017 For over a century, International Women's Day has been observed on March 8 — and this year, we've compiled 365 books by women authors from across the globe to keep the celebration going all year long. This list includes a vast range of…
August 3, 2017 The grey skies and chilly nights make winter the ideal time to sit by the heater and spend time with some good feminist literature. This list is a mix of old and new, local and international, niche and bestseller – but they’re all moving portraits of what…
