Arabic Literature

 Here I put my money where my mouth is - what can be further from Indiana than Arabic literature? Do remember that when my ancestors were illiterate, the Arabs were creating a literature. So  I checked out Arablit when a post from there came through my feedspot.com account. My curiosity has come back to me.

The site describes itself as:

ArabLit, ArabLit Quarterly, and ALQ Books are a translator-centered collective that produces a website, quarterly magazine, and a limited book series focused on Arabic literatures in translation.

We are a crowd-funded collective that is supported by subscribers and, to a lesser extent, advertisers. We are not affiliated with any institution, nor do we receive any institutional support.

 Can we not say of Indiana what the following interview says about Tunisian literature, that we are not attracting attention from the wider world?

Do you think Tunisian literature is sufficiently represented in English translation? What other authors should be translated?

MF: I don’t think that Tunisian literature is well-represented in English translation compared to some other Arab countries like Lebanon, Iraq, Syria, and Palestine. Tunisian novels are not written against the background of wars, suicide bombings, and mass graves. I believe that many publishers are not interested in a normal love story or any story that is not exotic enough for their marketing appetite. The few Tunisian novels which are available in translation made it into English thanks to the prizes that they won, or because of the curiosity the country attracted after the Arab Spring. I am hopeful, however, that the young vibrant translators will be able in the near future to make a strong case to convince publishers about the merits of Tunisian literature, and Maghrebi literature in general.

KM: I don’t know how to judge whether Tunisia is well-represented or not in English translation; it is a small country, though an interesting one in my opinion....

 Miled Faiza and Karen McNeil, ‘On the Merits of Tunisian Literature’

What are the merits of Indiana writers? 

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