Banipal 70 - Mahmoud Shukair, Writing Jerusalem is a rich issue of diverse authors and literary news to inspire and enthuse you in this continuing time of Covid-19.

The main feature on Palestinian author Mahmoud Shukair is a gift to the great Jerusalemite on his 80th birthday - which took place in March this year - with articles, short stories, reviews of his two collections in English translation, and his trilogy of novels of Jerusalem family life.

Two recent Arabic novels are reviewed and excerpted: At Rest in the Cherry Orchard by Iraqi author Azher Jirjees, and No One Prayed over Their Graves by Syrian author Khaled Khalifa. Also included, a memorable short story "A Bicycle Brings an Old Comrade" by Egyptian author Hassan Abdel Mawgoud.

Lebanese author Alawiya Sobh talks to Katia al-Tawil about her latest novel To Love Life, with three chapters excerpted.

Guest writer is Gibraltarian poet and translator Trino Cruz, working in both Spanish and English, with selected poems from The Fertile Shore.

Plus an interview with the editors of the Maktoob project, which translates and publishes Arabic literature in Hebrew.

About the Author
Samuel Shimon was born into a poor Assyrian family in Iraq in 1956. He left his country in 1979 to go to Hollywood and become a film-maker, travelling via Damascus, Amman, Beirut, Nicosia, Cairo and Tunis. In 1985 he settled in Paris as a refugee. He began writing autobiographical short stories in 1979, which were published in Arab newspapers, and poetry in 1985. In Paris his small press, Editions Gilgamesh, published a number of volumes of poetry and fiction by Arab authors including two collections of his own, Old Boy and Rain of my Mother's Letters. In 1996 he moved to London, where he has lived ever since, working as a journalist. His passion for literature led him in 1998 to co-found Banipal magazine of modern Arab literature in English translation, which became internationally renowned. He is currently editor-in-chief of the Spanish edition of Banipal magazine, which he set up in 2020. A profile in the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung in 2003 described him as "the Initiator" and "a tireless missionary for literary matters". In 2005 his autobiographical novel An Iraqi in Paris was published in Arabic, with a limited edition in English translation published the same year. A continuing best-seller in Arabic, described as "a manifesto of tolerance", it is published in Moroccan, Lebanese and Egyptian editions. In 2002, he founded and edited the hugely popular Arabic literary website www.kikah.com for a number of years, then, in 2013 started Kikah Arabic magazine for international literature (both closed due to lack of funding). He also edited A Crack in the Wall (2000), poems by sixty Arab poets from the last two decades of the 20th Century, was editor of Beirut39: New Writing from the Arab World (2010), and the short story collection Baghdad Noir (2018).


Book Information
ISBN 9781913043209
Author Samuel Shimon
Format Paperback
Page Count 224
Imprint Banipal Publishing
Publisher Banipal Books
Weight(grams) 352g