In which Marcia talks about her difficulties being interviewed; we discuss genre (sci-fi, fantasy, and especially noir) writing in Arabic; and we question whether translation into English “empowers” women writers from the Arab region.

Show notes

• The Asymptote interview with MLQ, conducted by Claire Jacobson.
• On voices at various margins: Midaq Alley, by Naguib Mahfouz (recently re-translated by Humphrey Davies); Kamal Ruhayyim’s Muslim Jew trilogy (tr. Sarah Enany); the film Marock; The Others by Seba al-Herz.
• There is a video of Adam Talib‘s talk “Translating for Bigots” on YouTube:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aANKpO4zmGA
• Baghdad Noir, ed. Samuel Shimon, is forthcoming from Akashic Books later this year. You can already get Tehran Noir, ed. Salar Abdoh, who has a story called “Baghdad on Borrowed Time” in Baghdad Noir.
• More on noir: The Thief and the Dogs, Naguib Mahfouz, tr. M.M. Badawi and Trevor Le Gassick, revised by John Rodenbeck; Vertigo by Ahmed Mourad, tr. Robin Moger; Metro, by Magdy Shafie, tr. Chip Rossetti; the noir of Algerian-French author Jérémie Guez; Apartment at Bab el-Louk, by Donia Maher, ill. Ganzeer and Ahmed Nady, tr. Elisabeth Jaquette; the films The Nile Hilton Incident and Casanegra; Abdelilah Hamdouchi’s detective series, published by Hoopoe.
• You can also listen to Jonathan Guyer’s The Strange Case of the Arabic Whodunnit on BBC4.
• Iraq + 100, ed. Hassan Blasim, is available from Comma Press in the UK and Tor in the US.
• “Saudi discovers science fiction” or “L’Arabie saoudite découvre la science-fiction” appears on Orient XXI.
• See more about Osama Al Muslim’s Basateen Arabistan at GoodReads.
• The novel HWJN, by Yasser Bahjat and Ibrahim Abbas, is available in English and Arabic.
• You can read Maysaa Alamoudi’s Mimosa in Arabic.