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Contributor

William Maynard Hutchins

Portrait of translator William M. Hutchins

Contributor

William Maynard Hutchins

United States

William Maynard Hutchins was born in Kentucky in 1944. He holds degrees from Yale University and the University of Chicago. His first translation from Arabic was published in Playboy in 1975. His most recent publication is a translation of War and Me by Faleeha Hassan.

Articles by William Maynard Hutchins

Mass Grave

By Faleeha Hassan

Our hands could not grip anything as long as their hands gripped our lives.

Translated from Arabic by William Maynard Hutchins

Chicago: Present-Day Paradise, Future Magic

By Mahmoud Saeed

The Iraqi love of water has inspired me to learn about the rivers of every city I visit.

Translated from Arabic by William Maynard Hutchins

Multilingual

Bushrawi . . . Ranjini

By Taleb Alrefai

Mus‘ad, my youngest son, is more than two years old, and I've never seen him.

Translated from Arabic by William Maynard Hutchins

Salman and the Mule Suicides

Mules in this country had become conscientious objectors.

Translated from Arabic by William Maynard Hutchins

A Portal in Space

By Mahmoud Saeed

They were almost at Anwar’s house when the third bomb fell.

Translated from Arabic by William Maynard Hutchins

Multilingual

The Arab Altar

By Abd al-Khaliq al-Rikabi

She exploded, “So why isn’t she pregnant yet?

Translated from Arabic by William Maynard Hutchins

The Mulberry Tree

By Salima Saleh

Muhammad had returned from the dead, resurrected from the bones that had sunk in the well.

Translated from Arabic by William Maynard Hutchins

Your Body Journeyed Off

Your body becomes my carry-on bag.

Translated from Arabic by William Maynard Hutchins

The Ringing Body

By Fatima Yousef al-Ali

I’m passionately in love with your voice . . . only your voice.

Translated from Arabic by William Maynard Hutchins

Declining Freedom

By Wajdi Muhammad Abduh al-Ahdal

The assailant had pulled the niqab from her face during the struggle.

Translated from Arabic by William Maynard Hutchins

Multilingual

Mukhtar

By Mohammed Hasan Alwan

I spent all the funds my mother sent and returned to Riyadh at the end of vacation having slept with the woman fifteen times.

Translated from Arabic by William Maynard Hutchins

Multilingual

Hanzala

By Mohammad Algharbi Amran

You won’t believe me when I tell you that I am meeting my son for the first time.

Translated from Arabic by William Maynard Hutchins

Dolls and Angels

By Elias Farkouh

When Hannan was within a few steps of her house, she saw everything.

Translated from Arabic by William Maynard Hutchins

Multilingual

Founding Fathers

By Fadhil al-Azzawi

Some visitors responded to the waves of the leaders of yesteryear by giving them the finger.

Translated from Arabic by William Maynard Hutchins

from “The Grub Hunter”

By Amir Tag Elsir

Some texts I compose naked in a closed room with the drapes drawn and not a breath of air.

Translated from Arabic by William Maynard Hutchins

from “Kumait”

After reading Crime and Punishment when he was a student he had contemplated killing Umm Husayn.

Translated from Arabic by William Maynard Hutchins

Visiting the Morgue

Yusuf caught a quick look at the box’s label: “Container for Cut-off Ears and Earlobes.”

Translated from Arabic by William Maynard Hutchins

The Psychiatrist

My new position gave me contact with refugees from various communities in Copenhagen. Three municipalities had engaged me to study the cases of ordinary patients or ones whose health conditions were hard…

Translated from Arabic by William Maynard Hutchins

from Cell Block Five

By Fadhil al-Azzawi

It took me some long months to realize that I was incarcerated. My dreams had suddenly ended. Like Zoroaster I awoke from a lengthy slumber to discover rudely and bitterly that justice does not always…

Translated from Arabic by William Maynard Hutchins

Still Life: Scenes in Gaza Time

By Atef Abu Saif

Discovery He discovered suddenly that Gaza had a sea-a big sea too. It was blue-like a dark-colored painting-and in the evening the sun resembled a giant orange plunging into the watery abyss as it disappeared…

Translated from Arabic by William Maynard Hutchins

Sprouts

By Zakariya Tamer

As he did every morning, Bilal al-Dandashi headed to school. Arriving late, he entered trembling from fear of his teacher, whose rebuke would be crude and sarcastic. He discovered, however, that all the…

Translated from Arabic by William Maynard Hutchins

The Right Course

By Ibrahim al-Koni

1The CamelHe adopted the jenny as his mount after a disastrous experience with the malice of camels. In fact, it was the spiteful behavior of this species that drove him to the she-ass. To quench the…

Translated from Arabic by William Maynard Hutchins

The Dark and The Daylight

By Mahmoud El-Wardani

NOTE: Mahmoud El-Wardani (born Cairo, 1950) has published six novels and several collections of short stories. Typically his works are dispassionate and discontinuous depictions of ambiguous, disturbing…

Translated from Arabic by William Maynard Hutchins

Flirting with the Moon

By Haggag Hassan Oddoul

NOTE: Haggag Hassan Oddoul (born Alexandria, Egypt, 1944) an ethnic Nubian author–who writes in Arabic–did construction work on the Aswan High Dam and has served in the Egyptian armed forces…

Translated from Arabic by William Maynard Hutchins

Hameed Nylon

By Fadhil al-Azzawi

Hameed, who had yet to learn the nickname by which he would be known for the rest of his life, entered the house, which emitted a fresh country scent. With his foot, as usual, he shoved open the heavy…

Translated from Arabic by William Maynard Hutchins

A Man’s Staff

By Fatima Yousef al-Ali

I don’t know why I was upset when my husband reached for the stick, grasping it and starting to twist it around. I gave him a warning look, but Ahmad is extremely proficient at avoiding my warning…

Translated from Arabic by William Maynard Hutchins