The 2024 Saif Ghobash Banipal Prize for Arabic Literary Translation

In the nineteenth year of the prize there are now 19 entries by 14 different publishers. They comprise ten novels, two short story collections, three poetry collections, two memoirs (one of which is graphic), one literary biography, and one work of YA fiction.

There are 18 authors (ten women and eight men), one of whom has two entries, and 20 translators (11 women, eight men, and one non-binary person), two of whom appear twice. The entries are listed, title first, in alphabetical order by the translator’s surname, or by the first translator’s surname when there are two.

         

Yoghurt and Jam: or How My Mother Became Lebanese by Lena Merhej, translated by Nadiyah Abdullatif and Anam Zafar (Balestier Press)

A Friend’s Kitchen by Al-Saddiq Al-Raddi, translated by Bryar Bajalan and Shook (Poetry Translation Centre)

Sour Grapes by Zakaria Tamer, translated by Alessandro Columbu and Mireia Costa Capallera (Syracuse University Press)

The House of the Coptic Woman by Ashraf El-Ashmawi, translated by Peter Daniel (Hoopoe, an Imprint of AUC Press)

           

Tales of Tangier: The Complete Short Stories of Mohamed Choukri by Mohamed Choukri, translated by Jonas Elbousty (Yale University Press)

History of Ash by Khadija Marouazi, translated by Alexander E. Elinson (Hoopoe an Imprint of AUC Press)

I Will Not Fold These Maps by Mona Kareem, translated by Sara Elkamel (Poetry Translation Centre)

Lost in Mecca by Bothayna Al-Essa, translated by Nada Faris (DarArab for Publishing and Translation)

           

 

Rotten Evidence by Ahmed Naji, translated by Katharine Halls (McSweeney’s)

Poison in the Air by Jabbour Douaihy, translated by Paula Haydar (Interlink Books)

Before the Queen Falls Asleep by Huzama Habayeb, translated by Kay Heikkinen (MacLehose Press)

Edo’s Souls by Stella Gaitano, translated by Sawad Hussain (Dedalus)

 

              

The Djinn’s Apple by Djamila Morani, translated by Sawad Hussain (Neem Tree Press)

The Baghdad Villa by Zuheir El-Hetti, translated by Samira Kawar (Interlink Books)

Traces of Enayat by Iman Mersal, translated by Robin Moger (And Other Stories)

Strangers in Light Coats: Selected Poems, 2014–2020 by Ghassan Zaqtan, translated by Robin Moger (Seagull Books)

 

          

Rose’s Diaries by Reem Al Kamali, translated by Chip Rossetti (ELF Publishing)

The Last Crossing by Badriya Al-Badri, translated by Katherine Van De Vate (DarArab for Publishing and Translation)

An Old Carriage with Curtains by Ghassan Zaqtan, translated by Samuel Wilder (Seagull Books)

 

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The Prize is administered by the UK’s Society of Authors,
alongside nine other literary translation prizes.