BULAQ

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

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.

**37: Disappearing Palestinians** Oct 23, 2019
We talk about two festivals (one long-established, one brand new) that celebrate Palestinian literature; an author who was penalized for supporting BDS; and a book that asks the question: What would happen if Palestinians simply disappeared? (And once again we recorded this episode in the studio of the wonderful Sowt platform in Amman).

Show Notes
Jayne Cortez’s poem “There It Is” was performed by Sapphire at Palfest 2014.
Palfest was re-launched this year with a focus on knowledge production and an emphasis on how Palestine fits within larger struggles against imperialism, racism and economic exploitation.
The first-of-its kind literary festival Palestine Writes will be held in New York in March 2020.
Kamila Shamsie was de-awarded the Nellie Sachs literary prize over her support of the Palestinian BDS (Boycott Divestment and Sanctions) movement. Hundreds of writers signed a statement of solidarity with her.
Benjamin Netanyahu promised further annexations in the West Bank during his last electoral campaign. The details of the Trump administration’s “deal of the century” have yet to emerge.
As the New York Times reported recently, Israel bans Arabic-language books from entering the country.
Ibtisem Azem’s *The Book of Disappearance*was translated from the Arabic by Sinan Antoon.
The Book of Disappearance: A Novel (Middle East Literature In Translation) By Ibtisam Azem

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36: Out of Egypt Oct 09, 2019

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

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

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

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

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

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.

**30: The Case of Alaa al-Aswany** Apr 07, 2019
We talk about the career of the best-selling Egyptian novelist Alaa al-Aswany – who like many other artists is on the outs with the country’s military regime now. Also, about Shakespeare productions and censorship in Gulf countries; and book reviews in the age of online algorithms and the culture of positivity.

Show notes
At the end of February, *Youm7* reported that a lawyer submitted a complaint to the Prosecutor-General (No. 2697 of 2019) against Egyptian novelist Alaa al-Aswany, in which he accused the author of *The Yacoubian Building* and *The So-Called Republic* of spreading false news, as well as cynicism and ridicule of the state’s leaders on social media. This story spread and, in mid-March, *Mesreyoun* reported that a lawyer had filed a complaint with the military prosecutor. It’s still unclear what’s happening; the NGO ANHRI has asked whether political “hesba” lawsuits can now be filed in military courts; there has not yet been an official answer. Thanks to TIMEP for assistance in sorting all this out. (Back in 2013, Al Aswany, like the vast majority of Egyptian artist and intellectuals, justified violence against members of the Muslim Brotherhood and supported their overthrow.)
The actors Amr Waked and Khaled Abol Naga have been prosecuted and smeared recently for speaking out against Egyptian government repression.
Ursula’s “heart-breaking” interview with Sonallah Ibrahim was published in Mada Masr in 2013.
Palgrave Macmillan published Katharine Hennessey’s *Shakespeare on the Arabian Peninsula*in 2018.
And in the last issue Harper’s Christian Lorentzen writes about the art of criticism in the age of algorithms, in “Like This or Die.”
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**29: Not Quite On The Same Page** Mar 17, 2019
In this episode we rave about an Omani novel – a multi-generational saga that is “anti-romantic and anti-nationalistic.” We also discuss a dark family road trip through Syria, and works from Lebanon and Morocco. And we delve into the larger question of how much a writer’s identity and experience gives him or her the right, or the ability, to tell certain stories.

Show notes:
The **Man Booker International announced their 2019 longlist** last Wednesday, and there were two Arabic novels: Jokha al-Harthi’s *Celestial Bodies*, translated by Marilyn Booth, and Mazen Maarouf’s *Jokes for the Gunmen*, translated by Jonathan Wright.
There was also an MBI-longlisted novel set in Morocco that was originally written in Dutch: Tommy Wieringa’s ***The Death of Murat Idrissi,*** translated by Sam Garrett. The translation was reviewed in *The Guardian.*
Khaled Khalifa’s ***Death is Hard Work***, translated by Leri Price,was released in February.
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**28: Sentenced To Hope** Mar 01, 2019
We spend most of this episode discussing the work and life of the Syrian playwright Sa’dallah Wannous, and how strongly it relates to repression, resistance and art in the Arab region today.

SHOW NOTES:
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A new Sa’dallah Wannous reader,***Sentence to Hope***(ed. and trans. Robert Myers and Nada Saab) brings together four translations of plays as well as essays by and interviews with the great Syrian playwright (1941-1996).
Read more about reading Wannous in Syria in Matthew McNaught’s essay “Yarmouk Miniatures” and about Arwa Salih and the Arab left to which he belonged in Ursula’s “Lessons of Defeat: Testimonies of the Arab left.”
The founder of Egypt’s Dar Tanmia Bookshop and Publishing, Khaled Lutfi, was sentenced to five years in a military trial at the beginning of February. A statement of support for Lutfi has been circulating online, in Arabic and English.
The Egyptian novelist Ahmed Naji currently lives in the US after serving two years in jail on indecency charges.
The photographer we mention is Mohamed Abu Zeid – Shawkan – who should never have been jailed in the first place and is currently being held unlawfully beyond his release date.

27: Where Do I Start? Feb 11, 2019

What should you recommend to someone who is interested in exploring Arabic literature? We tackle this big question this week; we also talk about the authors short-listed on the International Prize for Arabic Fiction and about North African literature in English translation.

**26: Bad Parents** Jan 26, 2019
We’re back! And ready to talk about two poets who have moved into prose: the Egyptian Iman Mersal and the Palestinian Mazen Maarouf, who have written books that explore the bonds between children and parents, among other things. We also talk about the Cairo book fair’s recent make-over, and about the vibrant but struggling cultural scene in Casablanca.

Show notes
Iman Mersal’s ***How to Mend: Motherhood and Its Ghosts*** was translated by Robin Moger and published by the Kayfa Ta initiative. It’s available from Neel wa Furat and Jamalon and, we hope, from good bookstores everywhere.
Mazen Maarouf’s ***Jokes for the Gunmen,*** winner of the inaugural Almultaqa Prize for the Arabic Short Story, was translated by Jonathan Wright and published by Granta. You can read the story “Portion of Jam,” from the collection, on the Granta website.
The **Cairo International Book Fair** (@cairobookfair), which has moved from the Nasr City Fairgrounds to the exhibition center in New Cairo, runs through February 5. Ursula has written about previous iterations here and here.
***Casablanca, nid d'artistes*** just came out from Malika éditions, ed. Kenza Sefri and Leïla Slimani, featuring profiles and work by 115 artists.
Here is a link to the discussion that got the Moroccan cultural NGO Racines in legal trouble.

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25: Lists! Dec 19, 2018

Ursula and MLQ look back at notable books from 2018 and at reads they are looking forward to catching up on over the holiday break.

Show notes

‘Tis the season for “best of” lists. Ursula wrote about Notable Books of 2018 From and About the Arab Worldin Al-Fanar; a number of them are books we have discussed on the show. One that we haven’t is Casablanca, Nid d’artistes, ed. Leila Slimani and Kenza Sefrioui.
Marcia was still working to compile the “Arab Authors’ Favorites” list that ArabLit runs every year. Early favorites included Mohamed Kheir’s Afalaat al-‘asabie, Muhairi Huwaidi’s Wa Kan al-Bayt Akhi al-Saba’a, and Mohamed Shoair’s Awlad Haretna: Biography of a Forbidden Novel.
We talked about Shoair’s Biography of a Forbidden Novel, which focuses on Naguib Mahfouz’s Children of Our Alley, and the intimidation of other public intellectuals, particularly Nasr Abu Zeid and Farag Fouda. Shoair’s book is dedicated to Taha Hussein and Nasr Abu Zeid.
Yasmine Rashidi wrote in the New York Times about “How Egypt Crowdsources Censorship.”
Nawal Nasrallah was one of the winners of the $2M Sheikh Hamad Award for Translation, based in Qatar, for her translation of the fourteenth-century Egyptian cookbook Treasure Trove of Benefits and Variety at the Table.
And, on December 11, Saudi writer Omaima al-Khamis was announced as the winner of this year’s Naguib Mahfouz Medal for Literature, for her historical novel Voyage of the Cranes over the Agate Cities.

**24: Writing To Remember** Dec 01, 2018
This episode is almost entirely dedicated to the work of the Moroccan film-maker, novelist, artist, and poet **Ahmed Bouanani** – much of which has yet to be released, and much of which was censored or destroyed in his own life.

Show notes
Bouanani’s cult-classic novel *L’hôpital* was re-published in 2012 by DK Editions in Morocco and Editions Verdier in France. Muhammad al-Khudairi’s Arabic translationwas published in 2016. Two of Bounanai’s books have been released this year in English translation: ***The Shutters***(translated by Emma Ramadan) and ***The Hospital***(translated by Lara Vergnaud), both from New Directions Press.
A fragment of Bouanani’s filmwork can be seen online: his film about Casablanca in the 1960s, **“6 et 12”**, is on YouTube, as is a section of ***As-Sarab / Mirage***. The film-maker Ali Essafi’s documentary about Bouanani is entitled Crossing the Seventh Gate.
Touda Bouanani, Ahmed Bouanani’s daughter and a visual artist, has conserved his work and featured it in her own.
Ursula’s piece on Bouanani in the New York Review of Books is unfortunately pay-walled now.
Marcia should have a piece about the discovery of Naguib Mahfouz’s “lost” manuscript,set to be published December 11 by Dar al-Saqi in Lebanon, forthcoming soon in *LitHub*. An extended Q&A with translator Roger Allen, agent Yasmina Jraissati, and manuscript-discoverer Mohamed Shoair will follow on ArabLit. The English translation of what’s being called *The Whisper of Stars* is forthcoming from Saqi Books in 2019.
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**23: Poems That Cross Language and Time** Nov 17, 2018
We overcame communication blocks and interrupting children to speak to the poet Zeina Hashem Beck about how she’s given herself permission to write poems that move between English and Arabic. We also discuss James Montgomery’s heart-breaking essay on grief, memory, trauma and translating a 7th century Arabic poet famous for her elegies.

Show notes:
**Zeina Hashem Beck**is a Lebanese poet who lives in Dubai. She won the 2016 May Sarton New Hampshire Poetry Prize for her second full-length collection, *Louder than Hearts* (April 2017) as well as the 2016 Rattle Chapbook Prize for *There Was and How Much There Was*, chosen by Carol Ann Duffy, as well as many more prizes you can read about on her website.
The first of her new “duet poems,” which weave together separate and distinct threads of Arabic and English, appeared in *The Lifted Brow*, with more forthcoming in *The Adroit* and *Modern Poetry in Translation*.
She read the poem **“Blue / أزرق.”**
James Montgomery, author-translator of ***Loss Sings***, is Sir Thomas Adams’s Professor of Arabic at Cambridge. This collection of Montgomery’s meditations is twined with translations of seventh-century poet al-Khansa’. It is part of **The Cahier Series**published by Sylph Editions in collaboration with The American University of Paris.
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22: Returns And Beginnings Nov 04, 2018

In this episode we talk about recent developments in Cairo, kids’ literature in Arabic, Naguib Mahfouz, and the launch of Marcia’s new project, the literary magazine ArabLit Quarterly.

Show notes

It was at the October 22 outreach symposium in Cairo that MLQ launched “ArabKidLitNow!” – a collective for the promotion of Arabic children’s literature in translation. The website is arabkidlitnow.com.
We mention the extraordinary work of the Egyptian Mada Masr news site, including this ground-breaking story.
At the website, you can learn about the titles that won this year’s Etisalat Award for Arabic Children’s Literature, the top regional award for Arabic kid lit, including Koozy(about losing your kitty), Think of Others(an illustrated version of Mahmoud Darwish’s famous poem), and Mama, My Classmate, a chapter book about the narrator’s mom coming to learn English with her in class. The YA prize went to Walid Daqqa, a 57-year-old Palestinian writer who’s been behind bars since the age of 25, called The Secret of Oil.
Ursula’s long-awaited essay “The World of the Alley: Naguib Mahfouz’s Cairo,” finally appeared in The Nation. Ursula talked about reading Gamal al-Ghitani’s Meetings with Mahfouz, how al-Ghitani brought her to meet the master, and Mahfouz’s iron habits.
MLQ talked about the Fall 2018 debut of ArabLit Quarterly, set for a November 15 release. The theme of the first-ever ArabLit-affiliated magazine is “beginnings.” Those who want to be subscribers can do so through Patreon; otherwise, a storefront will be ready on November 15.
Finally, we circled back to Cairo and the lovely coffee-table book Khatt: Egypt’s Calligraphic Landscape, out in September from Saqi.

**21: Interview with Ganzeer** Oct 20, 2018
This week we talk to an old Cairo friend, acclaimed Egyptian artist Ganzeer, about art, propaganda, publishing and how much damn work it is to put out a graphic novel.

Show notes
The work of artist and writer Ganzeer can be found at **ganzeer.com**, **thesolargrid.net**, and **timesnewhuman.com**. You can sign up for his newsletter at **restrictedfrequency.com**and follow his YouTube channel, **Ganzeer Says**.
The first four chapters of ***The Solar Grid***are available for download at **thesolargrid.net**, and his earlier collaboration, ***The Apartment at Bab El-Louk***(written by Donia Maher, co-illustrated by Ahmed Nady, translated by Elisabeth Jaquette), is available from Darf Publishers and online.
The new ***Epic of Gilgamesh***graphic novel was translated by Kent Dixon and illustrated by Kevin Dixon.
The Rusumat comix platform, featuring works in Arabic and in English, is at **rusumat.co**.

**Buy on thesolargrid.net**

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20: Stolen in Translation Sep 23, 2018

We talk about looking down on dialect; passing literary theft off as “salvation”; the beginning of awards season; a book that is a fragmented portrait of Jerusalem; and our fellow podcasters in the region.

Show notes

The controversy over the appearance ofsome darija (Moroccan colloquial) words in a Moroccan school textbook reached the highest levels of government.
Since we recorded Episode 20, Israel’s Resling Publishing has pulled a short-story collection, Horreya,in which they published women’s short stories translated from Arabic to Hebrew. Resling’s statement says that they are investigating the matter. The cover image, by the Lebanese cartoonist Hasan Bleibel, was also taken without permission, and the artist was not credited for his work. Earlier, Resling’s chief editor, Idan Zivoni, gave a statement that was translated and posted on Hyperallergic.
The shortlist for the first-ever ArabLit Story Prize was announced September 15; longlists for the major French literary prizes have also appeared. Moroccan author Meryem Alaoui made the Goncourt longlist with her La verite sort de la bouche du cheval, andSyrian novelist Samar Yazbek made the Prix Femina longlist with Khaled Osman's translation of her المشّاءة, translated to La Marcheuse in the French, and working title The Blue Pen in English.
The work of postcard-like fragment-stories set in Jerusalem is Mahmoud Shukair’s Jerusalem Stands Alone, which has recently been translated by Nicole Fares for Syracuse University Press.
We also mention some other great podcast networks in the region: Sowt from Jordan and mstdfr from Saudi Arabia.

19: Back To School Sep 09, 2018

This was our back to school episode, informed by the scholarship of Erin Twohig and Ursula’s “Hard Lessons: North African Writers on Education” at al-Fanar. We particularly talked about Mohamed Nedali’s Grâce à Jean de la Fontaine, a satiric and scathing account of the life of a schoolteacher in Morocco, and also Radwa Ashour’s writing on education, in her The Journey (translated by Michelle Hartman) and her later Spectres (translated by Barbara Romaine).

The discussion also veered slightly to the interview and mixtape with Ma3azef magazine co-founder Ma’an Abu Taleb on Bidoun.

Ursula’s summer reading included Mustafa Khalifa’s devastating novel The Shell, based on his experiences in Syria’s Tadmor prison, in which he reclaims and re-inscribes humanity. It has been translated to English by Paul Starkey.

The death of V.S. Naipaul led to several interesting conversations about his work and legacy. Here is one, between Nikil Saval and Pankaj Mishra in n+1.

And here is a piece by Teju Cole from a few years back about meeting the writer.

Finally, Kuwaiti readers are pushing back against censorship -- you can follow the online part of the campaign at #ممنوع_في_الكويتand #صور_كتاب_ممنوع_في_مكتبتك. MA student Abrar Alshammari is writing up a longer essay on the current situation for Arablit, but for background, 'It's like they were selling heroin to schoolkids': censorship hits booksellers at Kuwait book fair at The Guardian and Leading Kuwaiti Writers Saud Alsanousi and Bothayna al-Essa on Pushing Back Against a Season of Censorship at ArabLit.

18: Is It a Beach Book? Jul 14, 2018

In our last episode before a summer hiatus, we discuss a graphic novel about the life and art of the stars of Arab music and cinema; Egyptian writer Radwa Ashour’s memoir of studying at university in the United States in the 1970s; and the Moroccan writer Ahmed Bouanani’s novel The Hospital, out in English (alongside a new poetry collection, The Shutters) after nearly falling into oblivion.

17: “Neo-Assyrian Trolls” Jul 01, 2018

Karl Sharro spoke about Karl ReMarks’ new book, And then God Created the Middle East and Said ‘Let There Be Breaking News’ (and Analysis). The book is forthcoming July 9.

Boyd Tonkin’s The 100 Best Novels in Translation was released June 21. The two Arabic novels that made the list were Tayeb Salih’s Season of Migration to the North, translated by Denys Johnson-Davies, and Naguib Mahfouz’s Cairo Trilogy, translated by William Maynard Hutchins, Olive E. Kenny, Lorne M. Kenny, and Angele Botros Samaan. The translation was overseen by Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis, along with Martha Levin, and their notes on the manuscript can be found at the Lilly Library Manuscript Collections.

You can read the Amazon press release online about how the mega-corporation has (finally) launched some 12,000 Arabic ebooks into the Kindle system. You can find and purchase them on Amazon.com.

**16: Pick Your Team** Jun 16, 2018
In which Ursula and Marcia discuss how much innocence American can claim when abroad, and the urge to write expatriate diaries in one’s twenties; they also talk about the new collection Marrakech Noir; and about the never-ending debate over Classical versus Colloquial Arabic.

Show notes:
Ursula’s “**Innocence Abroad**” responds primarily to Suzy Hansen’s *Notes on a Foreign Country: An American Abroad in a Post-American World.*
M ***arrakech Noir***, ed. Yassin Adnan,is the third Arab city to join the Akashic Books series, following *Beirut Noir* and published simultaneously with *Baghdad Noir.* The Marrakesh collection features stories by lesser-known writers like Hanane Derkaoui, whose “A Way to Mecca” has some particularly fun moments, as well as heavyweights like Mahi Binebine, Mohammed Achaari, and Fouad Laroui—whose short-story collection *The Curious Case of Dassoukine's Trousers* was translated by Emma Ramadan. Fouad and Emma **previously talked with MLQ** about the collection and about writing in Moroccan Arabic.
Hossam Abouzahr, who runs the excellent “Living Arabic” project, also wrote “**Standard Arabic is on the Decline: Here’s What’s Worrying About That**.” In part, it responds to Elias Muhanna’s much-discussed *New Yorker* essay on “Translating ‘Frozen’ into Arabic.”
Jeremy Harding wrote in the *LRB* about **writing workshops in Gaza** and elsewhere in Palestine.
Two fun, **free Arabic-learning apps for young children**are “Antura and the Letters” and “Feed the Monster.” The Etisalat Prize for Arabic Children’s Literature also recognizes a “digital book app” category each year.
Mohamed al-Bisatie’s World Cup novel is *Drumbeat*. James Murua first had the idea of creating a writers’ team for the World Cup, using the hashtag #AfricanWriterWorldCupSquad.
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**15: Alexandria When?** Jun 01, 2018
Inspired by a fiery essay by an Egyptian professor, Ursula and MLQ discuss cosmopolitanism, nostalgia, and literary representations of the city of Alexandria. Marcia also talks about three new books – from Iraq, Southern Sudan and Lebanon/London. She loved two of them.

Show notes:
May Hawas’s essay **How Not to Write on Cosmopolitan Alexandria** takes as its starting point Lawrence Durrell’s *Alexandria Quartet* and particularly the first book, *Justine.*
The renowned poetry of **Constantine P. Cavafy** has shaped Alexandria’s literary image and aura. **Ibrahim Abdelmeguid** is perhaps Egypt’s best-known Alexandria-focused author (read his ***No One Sleeps in Alexandria***, for instance, trans. Farouk Abdel Wahab), although Naguib Mahfouz’s *Miramar* may the best-known book set in the city. Other major Alexandrian writers include Alaa Khaled and the late Edwar al-Kharrat. Bahaa Abdelmeguid’s *St. Theresa*, trans. Chip Rossetti, is, in part, about the 1960s expulsions from Alexandria. MLQ admits to not being a fan of Youssef Ziedan’s *Azazeel*, sorry.
Marwan Hisham’s memoir-reportage *Brothers of the Gun*, with art by Molly Crabapple, came out May 15. It details life under the Islamic State in Raqqa and covers, from a quite different point of view, some of the same ground as **Dunya**Mikhail’s *The Beekeper*, which we discussed in Episode 8.
Hanan al-Shaykh’s *The Occasional Virgin*, trans. Catherine Cobham, comes out June 15.
Stella Gaitano’s *Withered Flowers*, trans. Anthony Calderbank, is available in bookshops in Juba, South Sudan. We’ll also see if we can convince them to make it more widely available.
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**14: Less Cute and Safe** May 18, 2018
We discuss Marcia’s recent interviews with professors teaching Arabic literature in translation; an essay by Lebanese novelist Rabih Alameddine’s in which he picks apart “world literature” and foreign writers – such as himself – who act as “tour guides”; and a book that is an ambitious overview of modern art in the Arab world.

Show notes
An **overview of the “Teaching with Arabic Literature in Translation” series** appeared on the website al-Fanar. The whole series – which will consist nineteen interviewsas of May 21 – can be found on ArabLit. The series will go on hiatus over the summer, but will hopefully be spun into a stand-alone resource.
**Rabih Alameddine’s**“**Comforting Myths: Notes from a Purveyor**”and takes us from Superman to Joseph Conrad to “the cute other,” with stops at Tayeb Salih’s *Season of Migration to the North,* translated by Denys Johnson-Davies, Hisham Matar’s *The Return,* and one of Alameddine’s own novels, which a 2008 *New York Times* reviewcalled “a bridge to the Arab soul.” As Alameddine has said elsewhere: “What the fuck is the Arab soul?”
***Modern Art in the Arab World: Primary Documents***, co-edited by Anneka Lenssen, Sarah Rogers, and Nada Shabout, is forthcoming June 5 from Duke University Press. The selection of texts, many appearing for the first time in English translation, includes “manifestos, essays, transcripts of roundtable discussions, diary entries, letters, and the guest-book comments[.]” Some can be read online.
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**13: Cancel Everything** May 06, 2018
Ursula and Marcia talk about the novel *Tales of Yusuf Tadros* – about a Coptic Christian and aspiring artist living in the provinces -- and the playful, genre-bending *Kayfa Ta* (“How To”) series. They also discuss sexism in literature and whether we can do without the Nobel Prize for Literature.

Show notes
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The **Center for Translation Studies**at The American University in Cairo will be celebrating its tenth anniversary in 2020, and to commemorate nine years of CTS lectures—MLQ gave one in 2013—the head of the center, Dr. Samia Mehrez, is bringing together an anthology of essays. The book will be coming out from AUC Press in English, and an Arabic edition will follow.
The winner of the **International Prize for Arabic Fiction**was Palestinian-Jordanian novelist Ibrahim Nasrallah’s ***Dog War II***. MLQ had predicted a win for Aziz Mohammed’s *The Critical Case of ‘K,’* so her streak of incorrect IPAF predictions is unbroken. You can read excerpts from all six shortlisted books in English translation and an additional one from *Dog War II*from Wen-chin Ouyang.
The Naguib Mahfouz Medal-winning ***Tales of Yusuf Tadros***, by Adel Esmat, tr. Mandy McClure, is available from Hoopoe Fiction. You can read an extract of the translation online.
The **Nobel Prize for Literature** has been cancelled for 2018. Tim Parks suggests “The Nobel Prize for Literature Is a Scandal All by Itself” and Ron Charles, at the *Washington Post,* suggests “The Nobel Prize in literature takes a year off. Let's make it two.” Also: “Junot Díaz withdraws from Sydney Writers' festival following sexual harassment allegations.”
You can find the **Kayfa Ta** project’s Arabic originals and English translations at kayfa-ta.com. That’s where you can download a PDF of Haytham al-Wardani’s *How to Disappear* translated by Jennifer Peterson and Robin Moger, or in the Arabic.Iman Mersal’s *How to Mend: On Motherhood and Its Ghosts* is also available in Arabic. Robin Moger’s English translation should be forthcoming somewhere this year.

**12: All Over The Map** Apr 23, 2018
In this episode, we talk about debates surrounding Western military intervention in Syria; about Arab American writer Randa Jarrar and her Twitter rant against the late Barbara Bush; and about whether there is any alternative to the term “Arab world.” Also Ursula has a squeaky chair.

Show notes
At the recent Yale symposium on translation, Samah Salim discussed the relationship between translator, text, and paratext in “Paratext and Political Translation,” with a focus on the introduction, footnotes, and glossary of her translation to **Arwa Salih’s** ***The Stillborn***. Kamran Rastegar talked about **“Translational Infidelity: Paul Bowles’ notes on For Bread Alone.”**
If you are near Princeton on April 23 at 4:30, do come hear MLQ speak about **“Shifting Local, Regional, and International Pressures on Arabic Literature.”**
The winner of the **International Prize for Arabic Fiction** will be announced Tuesday, April 24. MLQ’s prediction of Aziz Mohammed’s *The Critical Case of K* as the winner will almost certainly not come true.
*A Tree Whose Name I Don't Know*, by Golan Haji,tr. Haji & Stephen Watts, was a favorite of MLQ’s that did not make the recent Best Translated Book Award poetry longlist.
***Tales of Yusuf Tadros,*** by Adel Esmat, tr. Mandy McClure, has just been released in English and MLQ was hoping it will receive some prize attention.
Leila al-Shami, co-editor of *Burning Country: Syrians in Revolution and War,* is author of “**The Anti-Imperialism of Idiots**.”
**Randa Jarrar** is the author of *A Map of Home* (2008), *Him Me Muhammad Ali* (2016) and a handful of tweets about the late Barbara Bush’s legacy that were turned into a major trolling campaign and news story. She teaches at Fresno State, where President Joseph Castro has suggested the university is investigating her tweets, which, he has alleged, “wasn’t just a free speech issue.”
In “**Can Muslim Feminism Find a Third Way**?” Ursula writes about the resignation of Asma Lamrabet, a well-known Moroccan feminist, from her position at the Mohammedan League of Scholars. Lamrabet was also discussed in Episode 2.
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**11: Stillborn in Egypt, Fractured in Palestine** Mar 31, 2018
We spend most of this episode talking about two books: the late Arwa Salih’s *Stillborn,* a memoir of and reckoning with her time as a leftist student militant in Egypt in the 1970s; and Rabai al-Madhoun’s novel *Fractured Destinies --* about lives constrained, conflicted and divided in Palestine.

Show notes
**Arwa Salih’s** ***The Stillborn***, tr. the brilliant Samah Salim and published by Seagull Books as part of their “Arab List,” curated by Hosam Aboul-ela.
Rabai al-Madhoun’s International Prize for Arabic Fiction-winning *Fractured Destinies*(published in Arabic as called *Destinies: Concerto of the Holocaust and the Nakba*), tr. Paul Starkey, and extends the universe of Walid al-Dahman who first appeared in IPAF-shortlisted *The Lady from Tel Aviv*, tr. Elliott Colla.
The claustrophobia was reminiscent of Mohammed Sabaaneh’s collection of political cartoons ***White and Black***.
For books in a constellation around *The Stillborn,* we mentioned: Waguih Ghali’s *Beer in the Snooker Club*, Naguib Mahfouz’s *Adrift on the Nile*, tr. Frances Liardet, Youssef Rakha’s *Crocodiles*, tr. Robin Moger,and Mohammed Rabie’s *Otared*, tr. Moger.
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**10: Noir Is The New Black** Mar 18, 2018
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.
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9: On Good Bad Reviews Mar 03, 2018

In which we discuss the validity and necessity of the negative review (or what we like to simply call critical engagement); how rare it is to find negative reviews these days; and the shift that has seen Western reviewers of Arabic literature move from one extreme to another. But is it more condescending to dismiss outright or to offer all-around encouragement?

Show notes

Hisham Aidi's lovely portrait and critical re-evaluation of Juan Goytisolo was published by MERIP “Juan Goytisolo: Tangier, Havana and the Treasonous Intellectual.” For non-subscribers (and everyone should consider supporting this excellent publication!), a version can be found on academia.edu. And here is Aidi’s piece in The Nation: “Is Morocco Headed Toward Insurrection?”
Ursula also recommends Aidi’s Rebel Music(2014) which she wrote about here.
Rafia Zakaria penned “In Praise of Negative Reviews.” It references both Elizabeth Hardwick’s “The Decline of Book Reviewing,” which ran in Harper’s in 1959 and Kristina Marie Darling’s more recent “Readerly Privilege and Textual Violence: An Ethics of Engagement.”
Marcia has written on Arablit about John Updike’s infamous dismissal of Abdelrahman Munif’s Cities of Salt, from a time when negative reviews of Arabic literature were more than common.
The International Prize for Arabic Fiction (“Arabic Booker”) shortlist was announced on February 21. The biggest controversy was around the inclusion of Shahed al-Rawi’s The Baghdad Clock, which is forthcoming in translation by Luke Leafgren in May (US) and June (UK).

8: Escape Acts Feb 17, 2018

Ursula and MLQ discuss a moving new book documenting the suffering and the resourcefulness of Yazidi women taken captive by Daesh, and the efforts to help them escape; and the perversely dull newspaper columns of the great Egyptian novelist Naguib Mahfouz.

Show notes

Dunya Mikhail’s The Beekeeper: Rescuing the Stolen Women of Iraqis coming out in March 27, 2018 from US publisher New Directions and as The Beekeeper of Sinjar from the UK’s Serpent’s Tail in August 2018. Both were translated by Dunya Mikhail and Max Weiss.
Les Revenants: Ils étaient partis faire le jihad, ils sont de retour en Francewas written by David Thomson and won the Prix du livre Albert Londres in 2017.
Historian Omar Mohammed is the force behind Mosul Eye, an independent writer who documented what was happening in Mosul during Daesh’s occupation. He wrote anonymously for three years before revealing his identity in December 2017 and can still be followed at @MosulEye and @omardemosul. One of Mosul’s libraries re-opened this month.
Omar Mohammed was interviewed by Al Fanar’s Gilgamesh Nabeel.
The Casablanca International Book Fair is going on now through Feburary 18, with Egypt as a guest of honor.
Theshockingly dull collectionEssays of the Sadat Era: The Non-fiction Writing of Naguib Mahfouz: Volume IIwas recently released by The Gingko Library and is being distributed in the US by the University of Chicago Press.

**7: Soft Power** Feb 02, 2018
We discussed our recent readings. This includes some early foreign reporting on Morocco, which is both vivid and prejudiced; a moving account of the way Moroccan political prisoners clung to their memories and their words and refused to be fully “disappeared” during the country’s decades of repression; and a collection of beautifully translate and unusual folktales, shared by Lebanese women with each other. We also discussed the Cairo Book Fair, whose official theme this year is “Soft Power…How?”

Show notes
Walter Harris’s (1866-1933) *Morocco That Was* is the book Ursula is considering “hate-teaching”. Harris was a British journalist and socialite who worked as a correspondent for *The Times.* The book can be read
***The Performance of Human Rights in Morocco*by Susan Slyomovics** looks at the words (literary and otherwise) that sent Moroccans to jail during the Hassan II years; the attempts to make peoples and their stories disappear; and the words that eventually exposed the terrible abuses of the “Years of Lead.”
**The Return** by Hicham Matar explores secret prisons in Libya under Ghaddafi, in search of a trace of the author’s kidnapped father.
*Pearls on a Branch,* by Najlaa Khoury, tr. Inea Bushnaqis forthcoming from Archipelago books March 2018. This ridiculously delightful folktale collection is based around work Khoury collected in Lebanon during the civil war, many of which became stage productions. A collection of them was published in Arabic in 2014, and soon they’ll be available in Bushnaq’s fun, luminous, inventive translation.
***Moroccan Folktales,*** ed. Jilali El Koudia, translated by Jilali El Koudia and Roger Allen with a critical analysis by Hasan M. El-Shamy, is newly available as a paperback from Syracuse University Press this February 2018.
The Cairo Book Fair runs this year through February 10, 2018.
“**The Rise and Fall of Egyptian Arabic**” can be found on *The Economist.*
Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah El Sisi’s ominous recent speech. Sisi is running for a second term against just one other candidate, who turns out to be a great fan of his.

"He had electoral tendencies and wanted to nominate himself.
But, thank God, he's back to feeling better!!"@abdalla_cartoon in today's Al-Masry Al-Youm, the privatey-owned Egyptian paper, where the jokes on the forthcoming presidential balloting have been riotous. pic.twitter.com/snyE7NKeqv
— Jonathan Guyer (@mideastXmidwest) January 30, 2018

6: Court Jesters and Black Mirrors Jan 20, 2018

In this episode we discuss Moroccan literature about the country’s “years of lead” and its formidable and ruthless former king Hassan II; and about the relationship between humour, fear and power. We look at literary awards and what they are good for, and why Arablit has decided to create a new award. And we ask: how much contemporary Arabic literature is “dystopian”?

Show notes

Youssef Fadel’s “Moroccan trilogy” will appear from Hoopoe Fiction. They have already brought out A Beautiful White Cat Walks with Me(translated by Alexander Elinson) and A Rare Blue Bird Flies with Me(translated by Jonathan Smolin), and Elinson is at work on the novel Farah, which would translate to Joy, but will instead be translated as A Shimmering Red Fish Swims with Me.
Mahi Binebine’s Le Fou du Roi(The King’s Fool) is, like A Beautiful White Cat Walks with Me, inspired by the figure of Hassan II’s court jester, Binebine’s father, as well as Binebine’s brother, who was imprisoned in the infamous Tazmamart prison. Aziz Binebine is one of a number of former Tazmamart prisoners to have written memoirs. His is Tazmamort.
Yassin Adnan’s Hot Marocwas longlisted for the 2017 International Prize for Arabic Fiction and is currently being translated by Alexander Elinson.
The ArabLit Story Prize is currently raising funds for its first edition.
The International Prize for Arabic Fiction (IPAF) released its 2018 longlist on Wednesday, January 17. Many of the novelists are well-known authors; eight have been on previous IPAF longlists. The longlisted novel The Baghdad Clock, by Shahad El Rawi, has already been translated by Luke Leafgren and will appear in April from Oneworld. Amjad Nasser’s Here is the Rosehas been longlisted; his previous novel, Land of No Rain, was beautifully translated by Jonathan Wright. The shortlisted The Frightened Ones, by Dima Wannous, is already out in Italian translation, Quelli che hanno paura.
Sonallah Ibrahim’s famous refusal of the Arab Novel Award from the Egyptian Ministry of Culture is discussed in this profile.
Yasmine Seal’s article, “After the Revolution,” about three Egyptian novels she considers dystopian, in Harpers’ magazine.
It was Robin Moger who asked us to stop describing so much Arabic literature as “dystopian.” The (maybe-sometimes-dystopias) discussed were Basma Abdel Aziz’s The Queue, translated by Elisabeth Jaquette; Ezzedine Choukri Fishere’s No Exit; Mohamed Rabie’s Otared, translated by Robin Moger; Ahmed Naji’s Using Life, translated by Ben Koerber; Nael El-Toukhy’s Women of Karantina, translated by Robin Moger; and Ahmed Khaled Towfiq’s Utopia, translated by Chip Rossetti.

5: Sacred Cows Jan 05, 2018

In this episode of BULAQ we highlight several new and forthcoming translations from Arabic to English. We also discuss the newly translated Concerto Al Quds by the renowned Syrian poet Adonis, as well as Adonis’ own status as an artist and public intellectual, and his stance on religion and revolution.

Show notes

ArabLit’s list of works forthcoming in translation Winter-Springis available online. Do keep in mind that, with smaller publishers, release dates can shift.

Banthology, ed Sarah Cleave, part of Comma Press’s “banned nations showcase,” is appearing this January 2018 in the UK, and from Deep Vellum in the US in March. The stories are by Anoud (Iraq), Wajdi al-Ahdal (Yemen), Ubah Cristina Ali Farah (Somalia), Najwa Bin Shatwan (Libya), Rania Mamoun (Sudan), Fereshteh Molavi (Iran) & Zaher Omareen (Syria).

The Iraqi author Hassan Blassim has published several collections of stories with Comma Press, and edited the collection Iraq +100.

Frankenstein in Baghdad, by Ahmed Saadawi, translated by Jonathan Wright, is forthcoming from Penguin Random this month, as we celebrate the 200-year anniversary of the publication of Frankenstein. It won the 2014 International Prize for Arabic Fiction.

Arwa Salih’s Stillborn,translated by Samah Selim, is forthcoming from Seagull Books this month.

Jabbour Doauihy’s Printed in Beirutis forthcoming from Interlink this March, in Paula Haydar’s translation. His great liar-narrator referred to is Eliyya in June Rain (also translated by Haydar)and the Christian-Muslim confusion is in his Homeless, sometimes translated as Chased Away.

Pearls on a Branch: Tales From the Arab World Told by Women, collected by Najla Jraissaty Khoury, translated by Inea Bushnaq, is forthcoming from Archipelago. Used copies of Bushnaq’s delightful Arab Folktales, published in 1986, can still be found.

Concerto al-Quds, by Adonis, translated by Khaled Mattawa, was released this month by Yale University Press. Two essays we mentioned were “The Man Who Remade Arabic Poetry,” by Robyn Creswell, and Sinan Antoon’s “The Arab Spring and Adonis’s Autumn.” You can also read Kareem James Abu-Zeid’s response to Antoon’s essay, and Antoon’s critique of Mattawa’s previous translation, Adonis: Selected Poems.

4: No Happy Endings Dec 23, 2017

In this episode, we look back at 2017 about talk books published in the past year: notable books, favorite books, books we felt were overlooked, books we don't quite agree on, and books we can't wait to read. We also discuss how not to write about "discovering" Arabic and the Arab world.

Show notes

ArabLit's "Arab Authors' Favorites of 2017" list is available online. Some of the most frequently mentioned books on the list were works of non-fiction: Haitham al-Wardany's Book of Sleep, Iman Mersal's How to Heal: Motherhood and Its Ghosts, and Charles Aql's Coptic Food.
A translation of Mersal's book was funded by Mophradat as part of their Kayfa Ta series and brought to English-language life by Robin Moger, although the publisher is still TBA.
Maan Abu Taleb's All the Battles was also translated by Robin Moger.
Zeina Hashem Beck's poetry collection Louder than Hearts was one of MLQ's biggest discoveries of 2017.
Ezzedine Choukri Fishere's Embrace at Brooklyn Bridge, translated by John Peate, was one of the underappreciated novels of 2017. Fishere's Exit Door has been signed by Hoopoe Fiction, and an excerpt from Fishere's 2017 novel All That Rot, translated by Jonathan Smolin, appeared at Words Without Borders.
Omar al-Akkad's American War has already been translated to Arabic and published by the UAE-based Rewayat.
American War was on the list of 2017 books of note Ursula made for the web site Al Fanar. Also on the list, Bad Girls of the Arab World, a collection of scholarly writing and essays edited by Nadia Yaqub and the late Rula Quawas, published by University of Texas Press.
Mustafa Khalifa's devastating prison novel The Shell has been translated by Paul Starkey and was published by Interlink.
"The Fine Art of Learning to Say Nothing in Arabic," by Adam Valen Levinson, excerpted from the Abu Dhabi Bar Mitzvah and recently published on LitHub, has come in for considerable criticism online.
On the other hand, there is writing about learning Arabic that we have loved: "Matthew McNaught's Yarmouk Miniature," published in N+1; Amitav Ghosh's In an Antique Land; and I.Y. Kratchovsky's wonderful Among Arabic Manuscripts, translated from the Russian by Tatiana Minorsky.
The Naguib Mahfouz Medal for Literature was presented on December 11 to Palestinian novelist, poet, and short-story writer Huzama Habayeb, for her 2016 novel Velvet. You can read a short profile and interview with the author in The National.