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Contributor

Iman Mersal

Portrait of Iman Mersal
Copyright © Bertrand Gaudillère
Contributor

Iman Mersal

Iman Mersal is an Egyptian poet, essayist, translator and literary scholar, and Associate Professor of Arabic Language and Literature at the University of Alberta, Canada. She is the author of five books of Arabic poetry, selections from which have been translated into numerous languages. In English translation, her poems have appeared in The New York Review of BooksParnassusParis ReviewThe NationAmerican Poetry Review, among others. A selection of Mersals poetry, entitled These Are Not Oranges, My Love, translated by the poet Khaled Mattawa, was published in 2008 (Sheep Meadow Press- NYC). Another selection is forthcoming in Spring 2022 from Farrar, Straus and Giroux, translated by Robyn Creswell. Her most recent publications include Kayfa Taltaim: An al-Umuma wa Ashbahiha (Kayfa Ta and Mophradat, 2017), translated into English by Robin Moger as How to Mend: Motherhood and its Ghosts (Kayfa Ta and Sternberg Press, 2018). Fi Athar Enayat al-Zayyat  (In the Footsteps of Enayat al-Zayyat, 2019) has been translated into French by Richard Jacquemond, as Sur les traces d’Enayat Zayyat, Actes Sud. The book was awarded the prestigious Shaykh Zayed award for literature in 2021.

Articles by Iman Mersal

In Perfect Happiness
By Iman Mersal
Before I sleepI will take the phone to bedand talk to them about many thingsto make sure they are really there,that they have dates for the weekend,and enough securitythat makes them fear old ageand makes…
Translated from Arabic by Khaled Mattawa
He Marks the Weak Point
By Iman Mersal
Of course,the concrete pillars are not lacking in delicacy,and the columns of old houses are a nostalgia all their own.He added that he marks the weak pointand distributes its weight among the relatively…
Translated from Arabic by Khaled Mattawa
Sometimes Wisdom Possesses Me
By Iman Mersal
One day wisdom will possess me / and I will not go to the party.
Translated from Arabic by Khaled Mattawa
Learn
I Look Around Me
By Iman Mersal
With the alertness of a creatureexpecting its demiseI usually look around me.Perhaps that is whymy neck has a strengththat does not match my body,and what is surprisingis that I do not foresee live bulletsfrom…
Translated from Arabic by Khaled Mattawa
Things Elude Me
By Iman Mersal
One day I will pass by/ the house that used to be my home.
Translated from Arabic by Khaled Mattawa
Learn
Amina
By Iman Mersal
My perfect friend,/ why don't you leave now.
Translated from Arabic by Khaled Mattawa
Learn
I Have A Musical Name
By Iman Mersal
Maybe the window I sat byforetold an unusual glory.I wrote on my notebooks:Iman . . .A student at: Iman Mersal Elementary School.Neither the teacher's rodnor the laughs that leapt from the desks at…
Translated from Arabic by Khaled Mattawa
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