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**BULAQ**

BULAQ is a podcast about contemporary writing from and about the Middle East and North Africa. We talk about books written in Aleppo, Cairo, Marrakech and beyond. We look at the Arab region through the lens of literature, and we look at literature — what it does, why it matters, how it relates to society and history and politics — from the point of view of this part of the world. BULAQ is co-produced by ArabLit and The Arabist and is hosted by Ursula Lindsey and M Lynx Qualey.

Latest Episodes:

**40: The Revolution While Dreaming** Dec 04, 2019
Show notes

We talk about a newly released collection of five compelling and highly quotable interviews with the great late Palestinian poet Mahmoud Darwish, titled *Palestine as Metaphor,* translated by Amira El-Zein and Carolyn Forché. We also talk about recent protests in Lebanon and how they are being written about in Lebanese and international media, as well as the frightening day when the independent Egyptian news site *Mada Masr’s* officeswere raided and editors detained. (All of *Mada’s* staff has now been released). This episode was partly recorded and produced in the offices of the Sowt network.

**SHOW NOTES**
The Great Lebanese Ponzi Scheme by Lina Mounzer
The Lebanese Street Asks: ‘Which Is Stronger, Sect or Hunger?’ by Ursula Lindsey
On Power, Machines, and Departures: Running *Mada Masr* in Today’s Egypt by Lina Attalah.
A few things you might like to know about us, by Lina Attalah
*Palestine as Metaphor*by Mahmoud Darwish, tr. Amira El-Zein and Carolyn Forché
Palestine as Metaphor By Mahmoud Darwish In the Presence of Absence By Mahmoud Darwish Memory for Forgetfulness: August, Beirut, 1982 (Literature of the Middle East) By Mahmoud Darwish
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**39: Writers Are Not Magic** Nov 20, 2019
Show notes

In the first half of the episode, we paid tribute to Jordanian poet, activist, novelist, travel writer, and editor Amjad Nasser (1955-2019), who died at the end of October. In the second, we talked about the political space occupied by Moroccan-French writers Tahar Ben Jelloun and Leïla Slimani, particularly in the wake of the trial against—and pardon of—Moroccan journalist Hajar Raissouni over an alleged abortion. What is a writer’s responsibility in a society, or between societies? And what about those of us who talk about, report on, and frame literature? (This episode partly recorded and produced in the offices of the Sowt network).

SHOW NOTES
*A short English-language tribute* to Amjad Nasser on ArabLit, and a longer one in Arabic on 7iber.
Nassar’s recent poems are available on Facebookbutnot yet in translation.Other poems have been translated by Sinan Antoon and Fady Joudahand by the Poetry Translation Center.
The letter in *Le Monde,* co-composed by Slimani, « Nous, citoyennes et citoyens marocains, déclarons que nous sommes hors la loi,» and also the pieces about Slimani in *The New Yorker*and *LitHub*. Since we aired the episode, another fawning profile of Slimanihas been published in Le Monde.
Tahar Ben Jelloun, writing in *Le Point*: “Vous, obscurantistes, êtes en train de prendre le Maroc de la modernité en otage.”
Also the criticism of both writers by Omar Brousky in *Orient XXI.*
Ursula’s editorial in the New York Timesabout the Hajar Raissouni case.
Ben Jelloun’s *On Terrorism: Conversations with My Daughter*will be coming to English in February 2020.
Land of No Rain By Amjad Nasser The Perfect Nanny: A Novel By Leila Slimani

38: "Insufficiently Westernized" Nov 06, 2019

Show notes

We discuss two novels set in Iraq -- one featuring a despondent policeman, and one featuring a determined grandma and her donkey. Also, how John Updike once dismissed the great Saudi writer Abdelrahman Mounif as "insufficiently Westernized" to write a novel.

36: Out of Egypt Oct 09, 2019

Show notes

Ursula & MLQ open the new season of BULAQ -- recorded in Amman, under the auspices of the Sowt network -- with a focus on Egypt.

This episode's reading is from Yasmine Zohdi's translation of Muhammad al-Haj's Sawiris-winning Nobody Mourns the City's Cats, available in the Summer 2019 issue of ArabLit Quarterly.
Azzurra Meringolo Scarfoglio’s book of interviews with Egyptian exiles is Fuga dall’Egitto (“Escape from Egypt”).
Ursula reviewed Peter Hessler’s The Buried: An Archaeology of the Egyptian Revolution,in the New York Review of Books.
More than 2,000 Egyptians have been detained in a massive sweep of arrests following a new series of protests across the country; among the detainees is Egyptian novelist Muhammad Aladdin, whose charming revolution story, "Season of Migration to Arkadia," is available in Humphrey Davies' translation.
Marcia guest-edited the last issue of Words Without Border, focused on Arabic humor.

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35: Trash Talk Jul 20, 2019

Show notes

In our last episode before half our team moves and we take a summer break, we discuss a brilliant essay on the downsides of being a professional translator; the Shubbak literary festival; and our plans for the future.

Show Notes

We read from Lina Mounzer’s ”Trash Talk: On Translating Garbage,” which recently appeared on the Paris Review and struck a nerve among translators, editors, and various other word-jobbers. You can also another essay of Mounzer’s on life as a translator: “War in Translation: Giving Voice to the Women of Syria.”

The literary strand of the Shubbak Festival took place at the end of last June in London; there was some discussion online of the first panel on feminism. You can also get panelist and graphic novelist Deena Mohamed’s Shubeik Lubeikonline.

During our summer hiatus, please take share Bulaq with a friend. Also, if you are so inclined, share your feedback with us on our Twitter handle @bulaqbooks: What was your favorite episode? What would you like to hear more of? Are there particular topics, essays, or books that you think would make for an interesting discussion on Bulaq? What else, if anything, would you like to tell us?

34: Invisibility Jun 23, 2019

Show notes

We have novelist Ruqya Izzidien as our guest on this episode, to discuss her debut novel The Watermelon Boys, her blog Muslim Impossible and the need for more narratives in English that accurately reflect Arab and Muslim voices and history. We also talk about George Orwell’s 1939 essay “Marrakech.”

33: Our Women on the Ground Jun 10, 2019

Show notes

We spend most of today’s episode talking about a forthcoming collection of essays by female journalists from the region. Guilt, anger, recklessness, determination. There are many different and movingly honest takes on reporting while Arab and female.

SHOW NOTES

Omani novelist Jokha al-Harthi and translator Marilyn Hacker won the 2019 Man Booker International with Celestial Bodies (Sayyidat al-Qamr). We talked about the book on Episode 29 and MLQ spoke to al-Harthi and Booth the morning after their win, and an edited Q&A was published on Qantara. Also: more on the Omani writers al-Harthi recommends you read.
Ursula’s piece about Sa’adallah Wannous, “Coup de Théâtre,” is in the NYRB. The great playwright’s daughter, Dima Wannous, is also an acclaimed novelist and will be appearing at this year’s Shubbak Festival. Her novel The Frightened is expected in 2020 in Elisabeth Jaquette’s English translation.
Our Women on the Ground: Essays by Arab Women Reporting from the Arab World, ed. Zahra Hankir, will be published August 6, 2019, when an audiobook version, read by Soneela Nankani, will also be available. Among the many brilliant contributors is Lina Attallah, who both MLQ and Ursula have worked with variously at Al-Masry al-Youm, the Egypt Independent, and her current iconic, fearless, and relentlessly experimental project, Mada Masr.

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32: Work-lit Balance May 19, 2019

Show notes

This week we talk about how MLQ’s latest passion project, the Arab Lit Quarterly, and the ups and downs of making a living (sort of) writing about books.

31: This Takes the Prize May 06, 2019

Show notes

MLQ is back from Abu Dhabi, and we talk about the recently awarded International Prize for Arabic Fiction — and an unfortunate controversy this year, involving leaks, no-shows, and calls for prosecution — and the book fair. We also share excerpts from the winning book and from several of the short-listed ones.

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