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Palestinian Territory, Occupied

The twelve books featured in the list, in three rows of five
12 Translators Recommend Women in Translation
By Words Without Borders
For Women in Translation Month, a dozen translators recommend recent favorite books written and translated by women.
A black-and-white portrait of Mosab Abu Toha
The City and the Writer: In Gaza with Mosab Abu Toha
By Nathalie Handal
Gaza is the soil where the tree of my consciousness and enlightenment has grown.
Portrait of author Karim Kattan
Photo: R Topakian
The City and the Writer: In Jericho with Karim Kattan
By Nathalie Handal
In a world of enforced transparency and readability, Jericho provides lush and deep gardens where no one can find you.
An old, sepia toned photograph of a young girl
Photo by Robin Myers
Hosts and Guests
By Robin Myers
Translation, an obsessive interpretive art in which the boundaries between guest and host are tenderly and strenuously unstable, is my constant companion while I learn what it means to build a life in a country and culture different from the one I was…
Multimedia
The covers of the books featured in the list
World Kid Lit: The Best of 2022
By Jackie Friedman Mighdoll, Johanna McCalmont & Claire Storey
Join the editors of the World Kid Lit blog on a tour of their favorite international children’s books of 2022, from picture books to YA fiction and graphic novels.
The covers of the ten books featured in the gift guide
Your 2022 Holiday Gift Guide to Reading in Translation
By Isabella Corletto
Ten recent books in translation that the readers in your life are sure to enjoy this holiday season.
The covers of the books featured in the Watchlist
The Watchlist: November 2022
By Tobias Carroll
Tobias Carroll recommends exciting new books in translation from Denmark, Argentina, Palestine, Mexico, and Poland.
The Monastery of Saint Naum
Fif' from Paris, France, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons
Near the Shrine of Saint Naum
By Najwan Darwish
I stood in the red church, / its tiny domes like buds / blossoming in stone
Translated from Arabic by Kareem James Abu-Zeid
MultimediaMultilingual
The covers of all the books featured in the list
12 Global Children’s Books for History Lovers
By Ruth Ahmedzai Kemp
In celebration of #WorldKidLitMonth, Ruth Ahmedzai Kemp recommends 12 international books for young readers with an interest in world history.
July 2022 Poetry Collection Feature
8 Poetry Collections in Translation to Read in 2022
By Words Without Borders
Recent and forthcoming poetry in translation from Mexico, South Korea, Croatia, Haiti, and more.
The book covers of Policing the City, Scattered All Over the Earth, Palestine +100, The Way Spring...
The Watchlist: March 2022
By Tobias Carroll
Tobias Carroll recommends noteworthy new books translated from Arabic, Chinese, Danish, French, and Japanese.
Time-Travelers, Fisherwomen, and Sleuths: Arabic Young Adult Literature
By Elisabeth Jaquette
While Arabic publishing has historically focused on literature for adults and young children, recent years have seen an increasing number of titles aimed at a young adult readership.
Mossy rocks at the edge of the coastline in Gaza
Photo by Emad El Byed on Unsplash
Against the Tide
By Taghreed Najjar
A young woman defies societal expectations to become Gaza’s first fisherwoman in this excerpt from Taghreed Najjar’s YA novel Against the Tide.
Translated from Arabic by Elisabeth Jaquette
Thunderbird
By Sonia Nimr
“It seems that Noor set fire to another student’s backpack.”
Translated from Arabic by M. Lynx Qualey
The Appearance of the Dragon, and His Disappearance
By Hooda El Shuwa
Khidr stepped out onto the street and was filled with an extraordinary horror.
Translated from Arabic by M. Lynx Qualey
University Student
By Sahar Khalifeh
I was a woman: young, alone, divorced, left without a guardian or virtue, meaning that in society’s eyes I was an easy target.
Translated from Arabic by Sawad Hussain
Beyond Representation: Life Writing by Women in Arabic
By Sawad Hussain & Nariman Youssef
One cannot write about real-life experiences from the place of the “I” without laying claim to a place in the world.
The World at Home: US Writing in Translation
By Susan Harris
This issue is not a departure but a continuation.
from “The Book of Disappearance”
By Ibtisam Azem
We inherit memory the way we inherit the color of our eyes and skin.
Translated from Arabic by Sinan Antoon
MultimediaMultilingual
“It’s Us and Them”: Writing from and about Divided Countries
By Susan Harris
In the current environment of relentless political strife . . . debate deteriorates into name-calling; partisans morph into zealots, complex issues are reduced to binary terms, and hostility seethes just beneath the surface.
Crime in Ramallah: Noor’s Story
By Abbad Yahya
There were a lot of weapons being brandished, a lot of threats being shouted, and there was a lot of waiting around. The intifada uprising shifted from the streets onto the TV.
Translated from Arabic by Ruth Ahmedzai Kemp
MultimediaMultilingual
The Shape of Time: New Palestinian Writing
By Nathalie Handal
To comprehend Palestinian literature, we must have an idea of what it is to be Palestinian today.
A Map of Jerusalem
By Sousan Hammad
Memory—they tell me—has no translation.
Writing the Lives of Gaza: Video Interview with Atef Abu Saif
By Luisa Leme & Atef Abu Saif
Palestinian writer Atef Abu Saif reads from his work.
Multimedia
Long Distance
By Rodrigo Hasbún
“You’re not going to fool around with your friend’s girlfriend.”
Translated from Spanish by Sophie Hughes
Multilingual
Solitary Confinement on the Seventh Floor
By Mazen Maarouf
One day / I’ll tear off my lips / and eat them / like candy.
Translated from Arabic by Kareem James Abu-Zeid & Nathalie Handal
Both Freedom and Constraint: An Interview with Randa Abdel-Fattah
By Nathalie Handal
The older I get, the more I realize how hybridized my cultural identity is.
“Your Baby”
By Asmaa Alghoul
The phantoms behind the white sheet were moving more quickly now.
Translated from Arabic by Kareem James Abu-Zeid
Multilingual
A Knockout Punch
By Eyad Barghuthy
It was in New York that he learned the real ways of boxing.
Translated from Arabic by Kareem James Abu-Zeid
Multilingual
Life in Mount Carmel
By Najwan Darwish
Their poems reach me from their temple
Translated from Arabic by Kareem James Abu-Zeid & Nathalie Handal
Father My Unborn Son
By Yahya Hassan
A Stone-Age hand a paperback Koran
Translated from Danish by Kuku Agami & Al Agami
Nom de Guerre: Butterfly
By Ahlam Bisharat
It terrified me to hear the words “honor” and “flesh” in the same sentence.
Translated from Arabic by Nashwa Gowanlock
A Stray Bullet
By Mazen Maarouf
a stray bullet / veered slightly off course
Translated from Arabic by Kareem James Abu-Zeid & Nathalie Handal
Multilingual
Downtown
By Mazen Maarouf
I roll my pierced heart / across the bedcover
Translated from Arabic by Kareem James Abu-Zeid & Nathalie Handal
Multilingual
On Death
By Mazen Maarouf
But we run up against / the stone slab over our bodies
Translated from Arabic by Kareem James Abu-Zeid & Nathalie Handal
Multilingual
Poets of Protest
By Words Without Borders
Words Without Borders introduces Manal Al-Sheikh and Mazen Maarouf, two poets living in exile in Scandinavia.
The Tragedy of Narcissus The Comedy of Silver
By Mahmoud Darwish
They returned…
Translated from Arabic by Fady Joudah
Parting, a scene
By Dvorah Baron
. . . then the sun began to set.
Translated from Hebrew by Tsipi Keller
Nora in Wonderland
By Hassan Khader
“Like many Arab novelists and poets, he has turned to the essay.”—Ahdaf Soueif
Translated from Arabic by the author
The Eternal Invalid and the Beloved
By Hanoch Levin
A young man, an eternal invalid, loved a girl, but she was merely fond of him.
Translated from Hebrew by Jessica Cohen
The Shoes
By Nassar Ibrahim
Perhaps it is merely a clever joke, but it has become a story, everybody's story.
Translated from Arabic by Taline Voskeritchian
Still Life: Scenes in Gaza Time
By Atef Abu Saif
He discovered suddenly that Gaza had a sea-a big sea too.
Translated from Arabic by William Maynard Hutchins
Is This Home?
By Zakaria Mohammad
For the Israelis, these hours were needed so that each and every returnee would understand the truth they wanted understood: you are coming to place yourself under our heel.
Translated from Arabic by Michael K. Scott
Transformations in Palestinian Literature
By Faisal Darraj
Others have been obliged to live the lives of impossible citizenship, since the Arab who lives on the Land of Israel can never be the equal of an Israeli citizen.
Translated from Arabic by Michael K. Scott
My City’s Ceiling Is Too Tight
By Hala Shurouf
O my city . . . Be a little larger / so that I may see my shadow free / on the sidewalks
Translated from Arabic by Issa J. Boullata
Diary
By Mahmoud Darwish
If you were told: you're going to die here this evening What would you do in the remaining time?
Translated from Arabic by John Berger & Tania Tamari Nasir
A Lady Who Does Not Resemble Me
By Hala Shurouf
She opens the window to the friendly morning / and tempts its birds
Translated from Arabic by Issa J. Boullata
Silence
By Adania Shibli
“Her narrative voice resonates with the inner geographies of the Palestinian space.”—Anton Shammas
Translated from Arabic by Randa Jarrar
Longing Inspired by the Law of Gravity
By Fadwa Touqan
I miss the company of books / Their consolation through trouble and joy
Translated from Arabic by Chris Millis & Tania Tamari Nasir
House Work
By Mahmoud Darwish
-1-How oftendid I go in the morning to Thursday’smarket. I bought our house supplies,and chose an orchid and mailed the letters.A rain made me wet and filled me with the scent of oranges.Did you…
Translated from Arabic by Fady Joudah
Omega: Definitions
By Zeina B. Ghandour
I don't usually talk about my religion.
Jameel Bouthaina, and I
By Mahmoud Darwish
She grows old, my friend, outside the heart / in others' eyes.
Translated from Arabic by Fady Joudah
From “Picture, Icon, Old Testament”
By Sahar Khalifeh
You should have been my son, he would say sadly. You're the artistic one.
Translated from Arabic by Marilyn Booth