Articles by Andre Naffis-Sahely

There Is No Escape from Hope: A Memoir of Reading Naguib Mahfouz

October 4, 2011

The Coffeehouse by Naguib Mahfouz. Translated by Raymond Stock. American University in Cairo Press, 145pp, £16.99 April 2011, ISBN 9789774163517 Reading Naguib Mahfouz in my teenage years was a singular education. I had read a few of his most popular titles—Children of the Alley (1959), The…...read more »

Poeboes Podcast with Daniel Hahn

March 24, 2011

Daniel Hahn (1973 - ) is a British writer, editor and translator from the Portuguese and Spanish. His translations include works by José Eduardo Agualusa, José Luís Peixoto and José Saramago. In 2007, his translation of Agualusa's The Book of Chameleons was awarded the…...read more »

A Confucian Celerity: On “Angina Day: Selected Poems” by Günter Eich

January 13, 2011

Throughout his years of exile, Bertolt Brecht carried little with him: his manuscripts, his smoker's paraphernalia, and a black scroll containing a painting of Confucius, which he would hang somewhere near his desk by the window. East Asian themes had always fascinated Brecht. In 1950, he published…...read more »

Poeboes Podcast with Samuel Shimon

May 10, 2010

Samuel Shimon (1956 - ) is an Assyrian writer, filmmaker, editor and anthologist. Born in Al-Habbaniyah, Iraq, he left his country in 1979. Over the years, he has lived in Damascus, Amman, Beirut, Nicosia, Aden, Cairo, Tunis, and Paris, and finally London, where he currently resides. He is the assistant…...read more »

Poeboes Podcast with Fiona Sampson

March 6, 2010

Fiona Sampson (1968 - ) has published five collections of poetry, including, most recently, Common Prayer (2007), short-listed for the T.S. Eliot Prize. Editor of Poetry Reviews ince 2005, Sampson is also an accomplished musician, translator and academic. She won the Newdigate…...read more »

Poeboes Podcast with Jamie McKendrick

January 14, 2010

In the latest in his Poeboes podcast series for Words without Borders, André Naffis speaks to poet and translator from the Italian Jamie McKendrick. Jamie McKendrick (1955 - ) lives in Oxford and has published five collections of poetry. He edited The Faber Book of 20th Century Italian Poems in…...read more »

Poeboes Podcast: Michael Schmidt

December 2, 2009

In the latest installment of his Poeboes Podcast series for WWB, André Naffis speaks to poet, critic, novelist, and publisher Michael Schmidt. Michael Schmidt, O.B.E., FRSL, (1947 - ) poet, critic, novelist and publisher, is also a Professor of Poetry at the University of Glasgow in Scotland.…...read more »

Poeboes Podcast: Aamer Hussein

October 16, 2009

This month, Andre Naffis brings us the third installment in his Poeboes series of podcasts for the WWB blog. In his latest dispatch. Andre speaks to writer Aamir Hussein. Aamer Hussein (1955– ), was born in Karachi, Pakistan and moved to London at the age of 15. He writes short stories and novellas,…...read more »

Poeboes Podcast: Mark Ford on Translation

August 17, 2009

Words without Borders is delighted to bring you the second installment in our series of podcasts produced by Andre Naffis. In his Poeboes series for WWB, Naffis speaks to writers and poets from around the world and feature clips of them reading from their work. In his latest dispatch. Andre speaks to…...read more »

Poets, Eunuchs, and Pricks

July 30, 2009

When Apollonius and his disciple Damis paid a visit to Rhodes in the winter of 68 AD, they stopped by the Colossus where the young man asked his mentor if society could aspire to anything greater. Apollonius replied: "Yes ... a man who has acquired wisdom through innocence." Philostratus, who noted that…...read more »

Poeboes Podcast—Breyten Breytenbach

June 17, 2009

Words without Borders is delighted to announce the debut of an ongoing series of podcasts produced by Andre Naffis. In his Poeboes series for WWB, Naffis will speak to writers and poets from around the world and feature clips of them reading from their work. South African poet Breyten Breytenbach reads…...read more »