Podcasts by BULAQ | بولاق

On Translating Arabic Literature with Robin Moger from 2023-10-12T10:26:41

We talk to Robin Moger about how he became a translator from Arabic and about what has changed in recent years in the field of Arabic literature and translation and what has stayed the same. Mog...

Remembering Hamdi Abu Golayyel from 2023-07-13T07:06:45

Egyptian novelist Hamdi Abu Golayyel died last month at the age of 56. In this episode, we remember Hamdi and his one-of-a-kind literary career, telling the story of Egypt’s laborers, Bedouin, a...

Inside The World of Lebanese Comics with Rawand Issa from 2023-06-15T00:17:17

Comics artist Rawand Issa joins us to talk about her book Inside the Giant Fish (trans. Amy Chiniara, Maamoul Press); her path from journalism to graphic art; artist groups and collecti...

Sawad Hussain’s Translation Advice from 2023-05-11T08:44:31

Translator Sawad Hussain joins us to talk about the challenges of making a living as a translator, the art of co-translation, her focus on Arabic literature from Africa and the Gulf, and the adv...

Sawad Hussain’s Translation Advice from 2023-05-11T08:44:31

Translator Sawad Hussain joins us to talk about the challenges of making a living as a translator, the art of co-translation, her focus on Arabic literature from Africa and the Gulf, and the adv...

Looking Back From Iraq from 2023-04-06T09:19:33

Twenty years after the disastrous and mendacious US invasion of Iraq, we take a look at writing from Iraq: memoirs, poems and blog posts. Shalash the Iraqi is a collection of such posts...

Love and its Discontents from 2023-03-02T08:43:50

We wandered through Arabic poetry and prose to talk about many different forms of literary love: regretful love, unreciprocated love, bad love, vengeful love, liberating love, married love. 

Should You Turn Down That Literary Award? from 2023-02-02T12:37:41

It’s literary prize season! When the Sawiris Cultural Awards were announced at the start of 2023, novelist Shady Lewis Botros turned his novel award down, launching a storm of criticism, defense...

Getting Your Wish from 2022-12-01T07:03:59

Egyptian graphic novelist Deena Mohamed talks about her debut urban-fantasy trilogy Shubeik Lubeik (“Your Wish is My Command”). A product of playful self-translation, it’s coming to English as a...

Yasmin El-Rifae’s Radius from 2022-10-27T01:00

El-Rifae’s book Radius: A Story of Feminist Revolution tells the story of a movement that mobilized in Egypt to protect female protesters from mob sexual attacks in 2012 and 2013. Based on inter...

1001 Nights: A Never Ending Story from 2022-09-30T08:28:17

In this sponsored episode, we talk to Sheikh Zayed Book Award winner Dr. Muhsin Al-Musawi about his life-long scholarship on the 1001 Nights. 

Show Notes:

This podcast is produced in...

End of Summer Reading from 2022-09-15T08:19:05

We’re back to talk about books we read over the summer and books we’re looking forward to this fall. Including poetry from Iman Mersal, Hadiya Hussein’s novel about looking for a lover disappear...

84+ Bonus: Book Quiz from 2022-04-21T01:00

Another of our short book-quiz episodes. Here we give the answer to a question about an Arab poet who emigrated to the US and translated some of the Beat poets. And we ask a question about Oman, wh...

Reading Life Backwards: Omani Novelist Jokha Alharthi from 2022-04-14T01:00

Jokha Alharthi burst to sudden international literary stardom in 2019, when her second novel, Sayyidat al-Qamr (tr. Marilyn Booth as Celestial Bodies), won the International Booker. The novel, tout...

83+Bonus: Book Quiz from 2022-04-07T01:00

All this season, we will be doing short book-quiz episodes with prizes donated by ten distinguished publishers. We give the answer to the question from Episode 82: “The Men Who Swallowed the Sun,” ...

Mona Kareem on Translation as Kidnapping from 2022-03-31T01:00

Mona Kareem’s essay “Western Poets Kidnap Your Poems and Call Them Translations” lit up debates among translators and poets. In this episode Kareem talks about poetry, the power dynamics of transla...

82+Bonus: Book Quiz from 2022-03-24T01:00

All this season, we will be doing short book-quiz episodes with prizes donated by ten distinguished publishers. We give the answer to the question from Episode 81, “Naguib Mahfouz’s Banned Book” an...

Stealing, Drug-dealing,&the Epic of Egyptian Migration from 2022-03-17T01:00

Two very different Egyptian novels – Hamdi Abu Golayyel’s The Men Who Swallowed the Sun and Mohamed Kheir’s Slipping – both circle around issues of migration in different ways. Abu Golayyel’s Men (...

81+ Bonus: Book Quiz from 2022-03-10T01:00

All this season, we will be doing short book-quiz episodes with prizes donated by ten distinguished publishers. In this bonus episode, we give the answer to the question from Episode 80, “Just Diff...

Naguib Mahfouz's Banned Book from 2022-03-03T01:00

What was so controversial about Children of the Alley, leading to it being banned for years in Egypt and to an attempt on the author's life? How and when was it published, criticized, understood?  ...

80+ Bonus: Book Quiz from 2022-02-24T01:00

All this season, we will be doing short book-quiz episodes with prizes donated by ten distinguished publishers. In this bonus episode, we give the answer to the question from Episode 79, "Not Yet D...

Just Different: Moroccan writer Malika Moustadraf from 2022-02-17T01:00

She was an outsider, an experimenter, a “rebel realist” and a feminist. You may not have read the short stories of Malika Moustadraf (1969-2006), since her work fell out of print after her untimely...

Not Yet Defeated from 2022-02-03T01:00

Egypt’s January 25 revolution was 11 years ago. Since then many of its young leaders have been persecuted and the history of what happened distorted or denied. We look at writing that remembers and...

Best of 2021 from 2021-12-09T11:52

For our end-of-year book list, we made up our own categories -- from “best poet I hadn’t heard of before” ” to “best book about cannibalism” to “best book that lived up to the hype” -- and added a ...

The Book of Travels from 2021-11-25T07:43:32

We talk to scholar Elias Muhanna about translating a magical, delightful eighteenth-century travelogue. In 1707 Hanna Diyab journeyed from his native Aleppo as translator to a rapacious and sometim...

So Kill Them Back! from 2021-11-11T01:00

We look at new writing from Syria and about the experiences of Syrian refugees, including Ramy Al-Asheq’s Ever Since I Did Not Die, a book he categorizes not as poetry or prose but as “pieces of my...

Poems from Palestine from 2021-10-28T09:20

We read from the work of Palestinian poets Maya Abu Al Hayyat, Fady Joudah, Asmaa Azaizeh and Najwan Darwish, who writes: “Death has liberated me/ from the shackles of our small jailers,/ just as p...

Walking Through Fire: A Look Back at Nawal El Saadawi from 2021-10-14T01:00

The Egyptian feminist writer and doctor Nawal El Saadawi always spoke her mind. Her early books were explosive testimonials, based on her medical practice and personal experience, about sexual doub...

Warda: Diary of a Revolutionary from 2021-10-03T07:32:49

Sonallah Ibrahim’s Warda is the story of a female fighter in the 1960s and 70s Dhofar rebellion in Oman, and of the Egyptian intellectual who, decades later, tries to solve the mystery of what happ...

Football Writing: The Passion and the Provocation from 2021-09-16T09:52

Football and Arabic literature haven’t always had an easy relationship. Football has inspired famous authors like Mahmoud Darwish, and anonymous fans who have composed powerful stadium chants. But ...

What You May Have Missed from 2021-09-02T01:00

We’re back! Catch up on everything you missed over the summer, including Women in Translation Month and a Fall reading list full of intriguing new titles.  Show Notes: In our opening, Marcia reads...

Iman Mersal: Books You Need To Read&Need to Write from 2021-08-12T01:00

Iman Mersal’s work spans poetry and scholarship, personal essay and biography. In 2021, Mersal received the Sheikh Zayed Book Award for her deeply insightful prose work In the Footsteps of Enayat a...

Impostures: A Rogue’s Many Tales from 2021-07-15T01:00

The Maqamat of Al-Hariri is a story collection from 11th century Iraq that showcases the Arabic language’s dazzling, disorienting possibilities. Michael Cooperson received the 2021 Sheikh Zayed Boo...

Driss Chraibi’s Portrait of an Angry Young Man from 2021-07-01T01:00

This episode focuses on Driss Chraibi’s The Simple Past (Le Passé Simple), a Moroccan novel about a very angry young man in revolt against his father’s tyranny and the hypocrisies of his colonial e...

A Conversation in Cairo About Making Art Under Pressure from 2021-06-17T01:00

We recorded this episode in Cairo with author, translator, and Mada Masr culture editor Yasmine Zohdi. We talked about making art in difficult and precarious times; how to acknowledge the political...

Karl Sharro Only Takes Soccer Seriously from 2021-05-20T01:00

We talk to humorist Karl Sharro about the origins story of his Twitter alter-ego Karl ReMarks and about finding the ideal online nemesis. Marcia takes issue with a new book listing the “hundred bes...

The Interesting Case of a Saudi Novel from 2021-05-06T08:52

In Aziz Muhammad’s The Critical Case of a Man Named K, an unnamed narrator is diagnosed with leukemia. His 40-week journal, shaped by his readings of Kafka, Thomas Mann, Ernest Hemingway and Jun'ic...

Aftershocks from 2021-04-22T01:00

An earthquake inspired Mohammed Khaïr-Eddine’s Agadir, published in French in 1967 and translated to English by Jake Syersack and Pierre Joris. Part playtext, part novel, part political essay, part...

Women In Love and In Lust from 2021-04-08T01:00

We Wrote in Symbols: Love and Lust by Arab Women Writers brings together fiction and poetry by more than 70 women over a span of more than 1500 years. Editor Selma Dabbagh talks about why it’s hard...

We Read Ramallah from 2021-03-25T02:00

The Book of Ramallah collects stories set in and around Palestine’s administrative capital, which, Maya Abu Al-Hayat writes in her introduction, “represents this mirage, this glimmer of hope that i...

Reading and Writing Behind Bars from 2021-03-11T08:54:19

“Writer, criminal, and ex-journalist” Ahmed Naji released two books in 2020: the speculative fiction novel (??????? ??????) AndtheTigers to My Room (2020) and the nonfiction work (??? ?????) Rotten...

Midnight in Cairo from 2021-02-24T22:00

Raph Cormack is author of the soon-to-be-released Midnight in Cairo: The Divas of Egypt’s Roaring ‘20s, which chronicles the lives of many of Egypt’s biggest stars of the early twentieth century. ...

Sex&Second Chances from 2021-02-10T22:00

Emma Ramadan translated two Moroccan novels in 2020: A Country for Dying by Abdellah Taïa&Straight from the Horse’s Mouth by Meryem Alaoui. They are very different books but they both feature sex w...

Cairo Modern: The Unstable City from 2021-01-27T22:00

We take a look at a new book about the architecture of twentieth century Cairo, and discuss the Egyptian capital’s past, present and future, and the way writers have shaped our view of it.   Show ...

Getting Away With Murder from 2021-01-14T11:11

Our guest this week was once told there were no Algerian crime novels. She begs to differ. We discuss the many examples of the genre and its evolution in Algeria, Morocco and Egypt.  Show Notes:Na...

A Thousand And One Dreams from 2020-12-17T13:04

Poet, artist and translator Yasmine Seale is at work on a fresh translation of the Thousand and One Nights. Show Notes: An abbreviated version of The Nights will be coming out in Fall 2021, in Sea...

Paranormal from 2020-12-03T08:11:18

The adaptation of the Egyptian writer Ahmed Khaled Tawfik’s hugely popular horror/fantasy series into the Netflix show Paranormal has excited and in some cases disappointed the writer’s avid fan ba...

Book Club: Season of Migration to the North from 2020-11-18T22:00

By listener demand, we re-read Season of Migration to the North, the 1966 classic by the Sudanese novelist Tayeb Salih. Its unnamed narrator returns to his village “on a bend of the Nile” after bei...

Love and Silence: Rediscovering Enayat El Zayat from 2020-11-05T07:31:22

We’re re-running one of our favorite episodes. In 1993, the Egyptian poet and writer Iman Mersal picked up an unknown novel by a forgotten writer from the 60s. And so began her long wanderings in s...

The Pillar of Salt from 2020-10-21T21:00

We discuss the classic 1953 novel by the Jewish Tunisian Francophone writer Albert Memmi, who died this year. This sharp and beautiful book is many things: a coming of age story, an account of colo...

Revolt Against the Sun from 2020-10-08T10:11

Nazik al-Mala’ika was an Iraqi woman poet of great influence and renown through the 1940s, 50s and 60s. She pioneered new poetic forms and re-invented a heritage of feminine, emotional, elegiac poe...

Trailer: Fall 2020 Season of BULAQ from 2020-09-24T13:48

Ursula Lindsey and Marcia Lynx Qualey discuss books from across the Arab region and new translations from Arabic.  

The Cat Is Out of The Bag from 2020-09-24T12:28

This episode looks at the Fall 2020 issue of ArabLit Quarterly, which focuses on cats: in contemporary Arabic stories, in erotic poetry, in medieval scholarship, in Egyptian art, in Palestinian pol...

Ten out of Ten from 2020-09-11T14:16

  We only took a one month break but there are so many new (and a few old) books to talk about! We put together a list of ten titles of interest to start out the Fall with. 1) Etel Adnan's Shiftin...

Women in Translation: The Frightened Ones from 2020-08-26T21:00

  We talk about the Syrian writer Dima Wannous’ haunting novel The Frightened Ones, translated by Elisabeth Jacquette. It’s a book about fear, panic and anxiety -- in one’s body and society, betwe...

Women in Translation: Reporting While Arab and Female from 2020-08-12T21:00

  We talk about a collection of essays by female journalists from the region. Guilt, anger, recklessness, determination. There are many different and movingly honest takes on reporting while Arab ...

Talking Shit from 2020-07-29T21:00

  Beirut writer Lina Mounzer reads from her essay “Waste Away: Notes on Beirut’s Broken Sewage System.” We discuss the current situation in Lebanon and literature that looks at the worlds beneath ...

Murder, They Wrote from 2020-07-16T07:01

Our guest this week was once told there were no Algerian crime novels. She begs to differ. We discuss the many examples of the genre and its evolution in Algeria, Morocco and Egypt.  Show Notes:Na...

Widows, Conmen and Crimes from 2020-07-02T12:49

  We discuss a book that tells the stories of women who rallied to ISIS; one that focuses on a Franco-Moroccan family grappling with the end of colonialism; and a picaresque, satirical novel  from...

Tazmamart from 2020-06-18T09:38

  We talk about Morocco’s most infamous secret prison; about fathers and sons; about survivors who tell their stories and writers who borrow (or steal?) them. Show Notes:  Johanna Sellman “Memoir...

Kitchen Talk from 2020-06-04T08:10

  In this episode we explore the relationship between cooking and writing. With special guest Anny Gaul, we talk about the origins of national dishes such as couscous and koshary; medieval Arabic ...

Locked-In Lit from 2020-05-21T12:12

We talk about a few new books — ones that provide a welcome escape, and ones that seem particularly daunting — and about how hard it is to write, read, think and imagine the future right now.  Sho...

Cold Trail from 2020-05-07T15:08

  In 1993, the Egyptian poet and writer Iman Mersal picked up an unknown novel by a forgotten writer from the 60s. And so began her long wanderings in search of Enayat El Zayat. El Zayat killed he...

Tight Spaces from 2020-04-22T23:22

???????? ??? ??????? ??? ??? http://aj.audio/click  We discuss an acclaimed novel set during the first Palestinian Intifada and one inspired by a tiny, legendary bookstore in Algiers. Show Notes: ...

Sentence to Hope from 2020-04-09T04:00

???????? ??? ??????? ??? ??? http://aj.audio/click  We spend most of this episode discussing the work and life of the Syrian playwright Sa’dallah Wannous, and how strongly it relates to repression...

A Woman Shaped by Fear from 2020-03-26T15:17

  We talk about the Syrian writer Dima Wannous’ haunting novel The Frightened Ones, translated by Elisabeth Jacquette. It’s a book about fear, panic and anxiety -- in one’s body and society, betwe...

The Shape of Cairo from 2020-03-11T22:00

We take a look at a new book about the architecture of twentieth century Cairo, and discuss the Egyptian capital’s past, present and future, and the way writers have shaped our view of it.   Show ...

Bulaq: trailer from 2020-02-27T11:13

BULAQ is a podcast about contemporary writing from and about the Middle East and North Africa. We talk about books written in Aleppo, Cairo, Marrakech and beyond. We look at the Arab region through...

Little Magazines from 2020-02-27T10:46

???????? ??? ??????? ??? ??? http://aj.audio/click  We talk about the landscape and history of independent publishing in the region, our own experiences working for and launching publications, the...

The Not So Simple Past from 2020-02-11T22:00

???????? ??? ??????? ??? ??? http://aj.audio/click  This episode focuses on Driss Chraibi’s The Simple Past (Le Passé Simple), a Moroccan novel about a very angry young man in revolt against his f...

The Elephant Is The Room from 2020-01-29T09:44

We recorded this episode in Cairo with author, translator, and Mada Masr culture editor Yasmine Zohdi. We talked about making art in difficult and precarious times; how to acknowledge the political...

Writing to Remember from 2020-01-14T22:00

This episode is dedicated to the work of the Moroccan film-maker, novelist, artist, and poet Ahmed Bouanani – much of which has yet to be released, and much of which was censored or destroyed in hi...

Work-Lit Balance from 2020-01-03T17:00

We talk about passion projects, the value of intellectual labor, and the ups and downs of making a living (sort of) writing about books.

Top Five from 2019-12-18T11:18

We discuss some of our favorite books from the past year, and some titles we’re excited to get our hands on soon.  Show Notes    Our Women on the Ground: Essays by Arab Women Reporting from the Ar...

The Revolution While Dreaming from 2019-12-04T17:16

We talk about a newly released collection of five compelling and highly quotable interviews with the great late Palestinian poet Mahmoud Darwish, titled Palestine as Metaphor, translated by Amira E...

Writers Are Not Magic from 2019-11-20T15:04

In the first half of the episode, we paid tribute to Jordanian poet, activist, novelist, travel writer, and editor Amjad Nasser (1955-2019), who died at the end of October. In the second, we talked...

"Insufficiently Westernized" from 2019-11-06T16:00

We discuss two novels set in Iraq -- one featuring a despondent policeman, and one featuring a determined grandma and her donkey. Also, how John Updike once dismissed the great Saudi writer Abdelra...

Disappearing Palestinians from 2019-10-23T13:05

We talk about two festivals (one long-established, one brand new) that celebrate Palestinian literature; an author who was penalized for supporting BDS; and a book that asks the question: What wou...

Out of Egypt from 2019-10-09T08:27

Ursula&MLQ open the new season of BULAQ -- recorded in Amman, under the auspices of the Sowt network -- with a focus on Egypt. This episode's reading is from Yasmine Zohdi's translation of Muhamm...

Trash Talk from 2019-07-20T21:02

In our last episode before half our team moves and we take a summer break, we discuss a brilliant essay on the downsides of being a professional translator; the Shubbak literary festival; and our p...

Invisibility from 2019-06-23T18:33

We have novelist Ruqaya Izziddien as our guest in this episode, to discuss her debut novel The Watermelon Boys, her blog Muslim Impossible and the need for more narratives in English that accuratel...

Our Women on the Ground from 2019-06-10T15:18

We spend most of today’s episode talking about a forthcoming collection of essays by female journalists from the region. Guilt, anger, recklessness, determination. There are many different and movi...

This Takes the Prize from 2019-05-06T17:02

MLQ is back from Abu Dhabi, and we talk about the recently awarded International Prize for Arabic Fiction — and an unfortunate controversy this year, involving leaks, no-shows, and calls for prosec...

The case of Alaa al-Aswany from 2019-04-07T21:39

We talk about the career of the best-selling Egyptian novelist Alaa al-Aswany – who like many other artists is on the outs with the country’s military regime now. Also, about Shakespeare production...

Not Quite On The Same Page from 2019-03-17T21:03

In this episode we rave about an Omani novel – a multi-generational saga that is “anti-romantic and anti-nationalistic.” We also discuss a dark family road trip through Syria, and works from Lebano...

Sentenced to Hope from 2019-03-01T21:11

We spend most of this episode discussing the work and life of the Syrian playwright Sa’dallah Wannous, and how strongly it relates to repression, resistance and art in the Arab region today. SHOW N...

Where Do I Start? from 2019-02-11T16:47

What should you recommend to someone who is interested in exploring Arabic literature? We tackle this big question this week; we also talk about the authors short-listed on the International Prize ...

Bad Parents from 2019-01-26T17:46

We’re back! And ready to talk about two poets who have moved into prose: the Egyptian Iman Mersal and the Palestinian Mazen Maarouf, who have written books that explore the bonds between children a...

Lists! from 2018-12-19T07:50

Ursula and MLQ look back at notable books from 2018 and at reads they are looking forward to catching up on over the holiday break. Show notes ‘Tis the season for “best of” lists. Ursula wrote ab...

Poems That Cross Language and Time from 2018-11-17T19:53

We overcame communication blocks and interrupting children to speak to the poet Zeina Hashem Beck about how she’s given herself permission to write poems that move between English and Arabic. We al...

Returns And Beginnings from 2018-11-04T21:43

In this episode we talk about recent developments in Cairo, kids’ literature in Arabic, Naguib Mahfouz, and the launch of Marcia’s new project, the literary magazine ArabLit Quarterly.Show notes  ...

Interview with Ganzeer from 2018-10-20T21:24

This week we talk to an old Cairo friend, acclaimed Egyptian artist Ganzeer, about art, propaganda, publishing and how much damn work it is to put out a graphic novel. Show notes The work of arti...

Stolen in Translation from 2018-09-23T21:53

We talk about looking down on dialect; passing literary theft off as “salvation”; the beginning of awards season; a book that is a fragmented portrait of Jerusalem; and our fellow podcasters in the...

Back To School from 2018-09-09T17:32

We talk about the relationships between education and literature; about a devastating entry in the prison memoir genre, from Syria; about the legacy of V.S. Naipaul; and about why Kuwait is the wor...

Is It a Beach Book? from 2018-07-14T07:54

In our last episode before a summer hiatus, we discuss a graphic novel about the life and art of the stars of Arab music and cinema; Egyptian writer Radwa Ashour’s memoir of studying at university ...

"Neo-Assyrian Trolls" from 2018-07-01T16:22

We talk to humorist Karl Sharro about the origins story of his Twitter alter-ego Karl ReMarks and about finding the ideal online nemesis. Marcia takes issue with a new book listing the “hundred bes...

Pick Your Team from 2018-06-16T18:45

In which Ursula and Marcia discuss how much innocence American can claim when abroad, and the urge to write expatriate diaries in one’s twenties; they also talk about the new collection Marrakech N...

Alexandria When? from 2018-06-01T20:31

Inspired by a fiery essay by an Egyptian professor, Ursula and MLQ discuss cosmopolitanism, nostalgia, and literary representations of the city of Alexandria. Marcia also talks about three new book...

Less Cute and Safe from 2018-05-18T16:46

We discuss Marcia’s recent interviews with professors teaching Arabic literature in translation; an essay by Lebanese novelist Rabih Alameddine’s in which he picks apart “world literature” and fore...

Cancel Everything from 2018-05-06T10:28

Ursula and Marcia talk about the novel Tales of Yusuf Tadros – about a Coptic Christian and aspiring artist living in the provinces -- and the playful, genre-bending Kayfa Ta (“How To”) series. The...

All Over The Map from 2018-04-23T12:51

In this episode, we talk about debates surrounding Western military intervention in Syria; about Arab American writer Randa Jarrar and her Twitter rant against the late Barbara Bush; and about whet...

Stillborn in Egypt, Fractured in Palestine from 2018-03-31T21:45

We spend most of this episode talking about two books: the late Arwa Salih’s Stillborn, a memoir of and reckoning with her time as a leftist student militant in Egypt in the 1970s; and Rabai al-Mad...

Noir Is The New Black from 2018-03-18T13:51

In which Marcia talks about her difficulties being interviewed; we discuss genre (sci-fi, fantasy, and especially noir) writing in Arabic; and we question whether translation into English “empowers...

On Good Bad Reviews from 2018-03-03T22:25

In which we discuss the validity and necessity of the negative review (or what we like to simply call critical engagement); how rare it is to find negative reviews these days; and the shift that ha...

Escape Acts from 2018-02-17T19:23

Ursula and MLQ discuss a moving new book documenting the suffering and the resourcefulness of Yazidi women taken captive by Daesh, and the efforts to help them escape; and the perversely dull newsp...

Soft Power from 2018-02-02T21:03

We discussed our recent readings. This includes some early foreign reporting on Morocco, which is both vivid and prejudiced; a moving account of the way Moroccan political prisoners clung to their ...

Court Jesters and Black Mirrors from 2018-01-20T13:34

In this episode we discuss Moroccan literature about the country’s “years of lead” and its formidable and ruthless former king Hassan II; and about the relationship between humour, fear and power. ...

Sacred Cows from 2018-01-05T23:08

In this episode of BULAQ we highlight several new and forthcoming translations from Arabic to English. We also discuss the newly translated Concerto Al Quds by the renowned Syrian poet Adonis, as w...

No Happy Endings from 2017-12-23T15:13

In this episode, we look back at 2017 about talk books published in the past year: notable books, favorite books, books we felt were overlooked, books we don't quite agree on, and books we can't wa...

Palestinian literature: regrets, tough choices and teen adventures from 2017-12-08T20:22

President Trump just recognized Jerusalem as the capital of Israel – a move that acknowledges only a single Israeli narrative. We discuss Palestinian writers and how they write about their relation...

Know Your Audience from 2017-11-24T16:50

In which we discuss the fictional underworlds of Rabee Jaber and other Lebanese novelists; and explore Saudi poetry, from a new translation of a famous pre-Islamic collection to the satirical poems...

Belonging to Oneself from 2017-11-08T21:28

In the midst of a crackdown on gay men in Egypt, we discuss Mohammed Abdel Nabi’s novel about being gay in Cairo, In The Spider’s Room. Also: a portrait of a love-hate relationship with a Cairo nei...