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Against the Grain: Writing from the Shubbak Festival

July 2017

In this collection, originally featured in the July 2017 issue of Words Without Borders, we present work by writers appearing in London’s Shubbak festival of contemporary Arabic culture.

Writing Against the Grain

By Alice Guthrie

The writers here are pushing the boundary of the known and working against the grain of the status quo.

Reflections on the President’s Discourse

By Basma Abdel Aziz

This demonstrates how overwhelmingly crude his rhetoric is.

Translated from Egyptian Arabic by Elisabeth Jaquette

My Grandfather and Sitt Biba

By Mohammed Abdelnabi

I was convinced that I really had caused the death of the one I loved most.

Translated from Arabic by Nariman Youssef

Ali Muhsin Market

By Nadia Al-Kokabany

He tossed and turned in his bed, trying to wrest those hours from his memory.

Translated from Arabic by Thoraya El-Rayyes

The Veil: An Extremely Short Play

By Mansour Bushnaf

The men pull dollar bills out of their pockets and throw them at the women’s heads.

Translated from Arabic by Kareem James Abu-Zeid