Most recent articles by Marcia Lynx Qualey
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Book review: a ″Banthology″ of short stories
Framing the dangerous nations
Born in a difficult space, this seven-story collection celebrates the work of prose artists from Somalia, Syria, Yemen, Iran, Sudan, Libya, and Iraq – the seven nations on Donald Trump′s January 2017 travel-ban diktat. Marcia Lynx Qualey read the book
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Book review: Donia Maher′s ″The Apartment in Bab El Louk″
Chronicling a neighbourhood
Donia Maher′s award-winning graphic novel ″The Apartment in Bab El Louk″, featuring the combined talents of prominent Egyptian artist Ganzeer, political cartoonist Ahmed Nady and gifted translator Elisabeth Jaquette is a collaborative tour-de-force. Marcia Lynx Qualey read the book
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Book review: ″Refugees Worldwide: Literary Reportage″
Hierarchies of the destitute
The fourteen essays featured in ″Refugees Worldwide: Literary Reportage″ delve deep into the nature of refugee status, charting uniquely individual lives and deconstructing the sense of a collective identity. Marcia Lynx Qualey read the book
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Osama Alomar
″The Teeth of the Comb & Other Stories″: A touch of Aesop
A literary immigrant in strange clothes, Osama Alomar′s ″The Teeth of the Comb & Other Stories″ perches brightly and uneasily at the edge of the English-language landscape. It′s the second collection by the U.S.-based Syrian writer to make its way from Arabic into English. Marcia Lynx Qualey read the book
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Book review: Badriah Albeshr′s ″Hend and the Soldiers″
In fear of the fury
Badriah Albeshr′s ″Hend and the Soldiers″ created a small uproar in Saudi Arabia when it was first published in Arabic in 2006. Much of Saudi women′s literature at the time was shrugged off as chick lit. Yet, shuttling between chatty romance, political commentary and a stylised literary work, ″Hend and the Soldiers″ struck a nerve. Marcia Lynx Qualey read the book
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Book review: Mazen Kerbaj′s ″Beirut won′t cry″
″Bombs pass and we bark″
Eleven years ago, Mazen Kerbaj wrote and drew his newly published ″Beirut Won′t Cry″ in an existential and creative flurry that began on 14 July and ended on 27 August 2006. The first entry in this six-week memoir is headlined ″Bang? Blog!″ If the ″bang″ was the question, says Marcia Lynx Qualey, then this blog-to-book was Kerbaj′s answer
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Interview with Lebanese poet Zeina Hashem Beck
Our broken languages
Lebanese poet Zeina Hashem Beck talks to Marcia Lynx Qualey about her work in the spaces between languages, communities and political factions. She writes in English, yet her poetry is so infused with Arabic that it becomes its own, liminal language
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Non-fiction: ″Scents & Flavors: A Syrian Cookbook″
Muslim master chefs
This latest in historical culinary literature is guaranteed to appeal to avid collectors and adventurous chefs alike. As Marcia Lynx Qualey discovered, ″Scents & Flavors: A Syrian Cookbook″, presented side by side in English and Arabic, has much to tempt and inspire even relatively inexperienced 21st century cooks
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Waguih Ghali′s diaries
The writer′s torment
Following his suicide in 1969, the private diaries of Egyptian writer Waguih Ghali, known for his one best-selling novel, ″Beer in the Snooker Club″, were preserved. Surviving only as copies, they were made available through Cornell University in 2014. May Hawas has now deciphered Ghali′s sometimes drunken scrawl and compiled his journals into two eminently readable volumes. Marcia Lynx Qualey read the first
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Book review: Kamal Ruhayyim′s ″Menorahs and Minarets″
The unchangeable past
A haze of nostalgia pervades ″Menorahs and Minarets″ (2017), the third and final novel in an ambitious trilogy by Egyptian author Kamal Ruhayyim. All three books have now been ably translated into English by Sarah Enany. Marcia Lynx Qualey has the details
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″Songs and Stories for Syrians″
Bridging the cultural gap
This February, a community centre in south-western England hosted a pioneering ″Songs and Stories for Syrians″: a weekend of art, literature and music not only for the enjoyment of Syria′s youngest refugees, but also for the English children who will live and learn alongside them. Marcia Lynx Qualey has the details
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Arab teens and Young Adult literature
The new wave
The last decade or so has seen a huge increase in the amount of Young Adult literature being published in Arabic. Slowly but surely, writes Marcia Lynx Qualey, well-crafted books aimed at teens are making their way into bookshops, libraries and schools