Twenty years after the disastrous and mendacious US invasion of Iraq, we take a look at writing from Iraq: memoirs, poems and blog posts. Shalash the Iraqi is a collection of such posts – a satirical, surreal, and affecting panorama in life in a Shia suburb of Baghdad in the early years of the occupation. 

Show Notes:

An excerpt from Gaith Abdul-ahad’s memoir A Stranger In Your Own City ran recently in the Guardian

Shalash The Iraqi, trans. Luke Leafgren, is a collection of blog posts written in 2005-2006 

An excerpt from Faleeha Hassan’s memoir War and Me, tans. William Hutchins ran on Arablit.org.

The Book of Trivialities, by Majed Mujid, trans. Kareem James Abu-Zeid

The only English-language collection of Sargon Boulous’ self-translated poetry is Knife Sharpener from Banipal Books. You can find a list of his poems available online here.