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FROM ARABIC to ENGLISH: The Challenges & Rewards of Literary Translation
August 1 @ 19:00 - 20:00
Free
English has become the world’s lingua franca — and one of the largest languages for literary work from the Middle East and beyond. Fresh from publishing our double summer fiction issue, The Markaz Review presents five seasoned translators who work to find the best English version of original writing in Arabic: Lina Mounzer, Chip Rossetti, Nada Faris, Zia Ahmed & Rana Asfour.
Join us for this roundtable discussion moderated by Lina Mounzer on Thursday, August 1st at 1pm EST/ 6pm UK/ 7pm CET.
This program is online and free to the public. Don’t miss what promises to be a rich conversation on the art of translation, with all its challenges and rewards. This roundtable is supported by grants from Hawthornden and Open Society Foundations.
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About the speakers:
Lina Mounzer is a Lebanese writer and translator. She has been a regular contributor to the New York Times and her work has appeared in the Paris Review, Freeman’s, Washington Post, and The Baffler, as well as in the anthologies Tales of Two Planets (Penguin 2020), and Best American Essays 2022 (Harper Collins 2022). She is a senior editor at The Markaz Review.
Read her translation of Tarek Abi Samra’s essay, “Flaubert’s Poison Pen” from the Arabic in our latest issue.
Chip Rossetti’s published translations include the novel Beirut, Beirut by Sonallah Ibrahim; the short story collection Animals in Our Days by Mohamed Makhzangi; Utopia by Ahmed Khaled Tawfik; and No Windmills in Basra, by Diaa Jubaili. His translations have also appeared in Asymptote, The White Review, Banipal, and Words without Borders. He has a Ph.D. in modern Arabic literature from the University of Pennsylvania, and has worked in book publishing for over 20 years. He is currently the Editorial Director for the Library of Arabic Literature series published by New York University Press.
Read his translation of Diaa Jubaili’s flash fiction, “The Doll with the Purple Scarf” in our latest issue.
Nada Faris is a writer and literary translator. In 2018, she received an Arab Woman Award from Harper’s Bazaar Arabia for her impact on creatives in Kuwait. She is an Honorary Fellow in Writing at Iowa University’s International Writing Program (IWP) Fall 2013; and an alumna of the International Visitor Leadership Program (IVLP) 2018: Empowering Youth through the Performing Arts. Faris holds an MFA in Creative Writing (Poetry & Literary Translation) from Columbia University. She is the author of multiple books in different genres. Her shorter works have appeared in: The Norton Anthology for Hint Fiction, Gulf Coast Journal, Indianapolis Review, Nimrod, Tribes, One Jacar, The American Journal of Poetry, and more. Lost in Mecca by Bothayna Al-Essa (DarArab, 2024) is Faris’ first literary translation.
Read her translation of Nora Nagi’s short story, “Certainty” in our latest issue.
Zia Ahmed is an American writer and translator from Virginia. He lived in Muscat, Oman, for three years. His work has appeared in The Washington Post, Asymptote Journal, Sard Adabi and Nizwa, Oman’s premier literary magazine. A translation of his Arabic short story “La Takhif” [“Be Not Afraid”] will appear in an upcoming issue of the Denver Quarterly.
Read his translation of Hamoud Saud’s short story, “A Blind Window on Childhood” from the Arabic in our latest issue.
Rana Asfour is the Managing Editor at The Markaz Review, as well as a freelance writer, book critic and translator. Her work has appeared in such publications as Madame Magazine, The Guardian UK and The National/UAE. She chairs the TMR English-language BookGroup, which meets online the last Sunday of every month. She tweets @bookfabulous.
Read her translation of an excerpt from Mohammad Alnaas’s novel “Altercation in Jahannam” in our latest issue.
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