Looking at Arabic Fiction in Translation

By Chip Rossetti

Saddam City published by Saqi Press

The January 18 issue of the New Yorker has a great piece by Claudia Roth Pierpont (already available online) on Arabic novels in translation: I worked with some of these authors during my time at the American University in Cairo Press, so it’s a pleasure to see the New Yorker giving this growing literary landscape some well-deserved attention.

As a translator of Arabic fiction myself, I was glad that Pierpont gave credit to outstanding translators such as Marilyn Booth, Humphrey Davies and Elliott Colla for making these novels accessible to the English-language world.

Additionally, Al-Ahram Weekly has an interview with Mark Linz, Director of the American University in Cairo Press (and my former boss), on being an American publisher in the Arab world, the challenges of the book business in the Middle East, and his long experience in publishing.