Street mural for Grenfell Tower, with poem by Ben Okri, North Kensington, London, image courtesy of IranWire and #PaintTheChange.
London-based writer Malu Halasa canvasses the Middle Eastern and…
Arabic Literature
April 19, 2021
August 31, 2020Yasmine Seale is a writer and literary translator living in Istanbul. Her essays, poetry, visual art, and translations from Arabic and French have appeared widely, including in Harper’s,…
August 10, 2020Richard van Leeuwen is a senior lecturer in Islamic studies at the University of Amsterdam. This year, he won the 2020 Sheikh Zayed Book Award in the Arabic Culture in Other Lan…
July 31, 2015Laila Lalami. Her newest novel The Moor's Account has been longlisted for the 2015 Man Booker Prize. News, Reviews, and Interviews The Man Booker Prize announced its 2015 longlist th…- February 6, 2015News, Reviews, and Interviews Up at Words Without Borders this week, Suzanne Jill Levine remembers all of the times she sat down to dinner with Pablo Neruda over his lifetime…
- January 23, 2015News, Reviews, and Interviews This week, author Valeria Luiselli sat down with NPR to talk about why she chooses to have her work translated, despite being bilingual. (Luiselli’s fort…
- June 6, 2014News, Reviews, and Interviews The current state and future of Israeli literature (and much of its politics) was showcased at this year’s International Writers Festival, held May 22 in…
May 30, 2014This week, the world said good-bye to Maya Angelou, beloved author and poet. You can read a tribute to her, which includes photos of her visit to Oklahoma for the 1986 Neustadt Festival, at the W…
April 25, 2014This week was full of celebrations, once again. Though we said goodbye to Gabriel García Márquez, literary readers, writers, and publishers around the globe celebrated his exceptional life. We also c…
April 11, 2014Sherman Alexie in a video interview with Poets & Writers Between lit prize announcements and several very exciting upcoming events, this week was an exhilarating one! Make sure to pay ex…
March 14, 2014Photo by Matt Douma. Neustadt juror Krys Lee is one of two authors honored with an American Academy of Arts and Letters, read more about Neustadt Prize-related news in the Neustadt Lit Links. This we…
February 21, 2014Photo by Fake Plastic Breno/Flickr This week’s lit links run the gamut of news: from new intellectual discussions to a campaign that wants to put poetry on the moon, we’ve got this week covered.…
January 24, 2014Fun Finds: Watch the video of 14,000 Latvians who formed a human chain to deliver books to a new library. News, Reviews, and Interviews Liu Xia, wife of Nobel Peace Prize laureate Li…
January 15, 2014The 3D printed cover to Chang-rae Lee's book On Such a Full Sea This week we said goodbye with sadness to both Amiri Baraka and Juan Gelman, two poets who recently passed away. But we also h…- January 10, 2014This week’s links are filled with both the positive and the negative. New books, new opportunities, and new discoveries make up this week’s positives, but great losses to language and literature simul…
- January 3, 2014We’re back! We hope you had a wonderful holiday and a great start to 2014. Below, catch up on all the literary news and tidbits you might have missed while celebrating. News, Reviews, and Inte…
- December 6, 2013This week was all about new works and translations emerging out of the blue. First, new stories by J. D. Salinger appeared on a filesharing site and subsequently went viral. Then, previously unknown t…
- November 22, 2013Hollywood celebrities pass away in groups of three, they say; in the literary world, this phenomenon seems to happen in pairs. This past week, we said goodbye to two more literary figureheads: first,…
- November 15, 2013Now that we’re nearing the end of the year, it’s time once again for people to debate the future of the book publishing industry. Will print publishing be totally replaced by digital publishing and eb…
- November 8, 2013Welcome back to another edition of Friday Links! Last week, we were busy celebrating the 2013 Neustadt Festival with our amazing jurors and visiting authors. We also announced the next Neustadt laurea…
- August 30, 2013As we celebrate the launch of the September issue this week, we aim to bring your attention to LGBT-related news from around the world, particularly as it relates to literature. You’ll find an article…
- August 2, 2013This week was all about new translations. Pieces by Jorge Luis Borges and César Aira were published this week, and forthcoming titles, including the much anticipated Library of Arabic Literature serie…
- July 26, 2013There was much talk of the need for various revolutions within the literary world this week, including for modern poetry (again) and for quietness. Also new this week are several literary prize announ…
- June 28, 2013From the protests in Turkey to graduation speeches in the U.S., this week’s lit links cover a lot of ground. We’ve also included several upcoming events and dates we think you should be aware of, so m…
- June 21, 2013What an exciting week for WLT! As you know (or will find in the links below), we recently announced the jurors of the 2014 Neustadt Festival. You can expect the Neustadt Prize finalists annou…
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Top row (left to right): Santiago Acosta, Chantha Nguon, Rina Garcia Chua. Bottom row: Erica N. Cardwell, Leila Guerriero, Pádraig Ó…
In the Beginning the Word
worldlittoday · In The Beginning The Word by Rachel Tzvia Back
1
the word was
unverbed unruled just birthed
before bird…
Background photo by Sved Oliver / Adobe StockA Visitor from Hell
A resident of Hell, I’ve been sitting here,
Lord,
for years.
Do I not deserve
to be…
Courtesy of University of New Mexico Press / Stock.adobe.comThe Orphan (Isaac Luria)
what is the matter? why do you
always pursue me as an enemy?/…
