‘A New Year in Gaza’: By Ibrahim Nasrallah The people named in this poem are the writers, painters, and musicians martyred in the genocide. They are only a few of the many artists who were martyred in the past two years of war against Gaza.

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Part Two, Emile Habiby’s ‘The Six-Day Sextet’ Over the next six weeks, we will be publishing installments of Emile Habiby's The Six-Day Sextet, which is available in an open-access, non-commercial translation by Invisible Dragoman. The next installment is set to appear February 16, 2026.

Our search function isn't so fantastic that you can narrow to translated Palestinian fiction (unfortunately, our fault in not categorizing properly) but you can just search "Palestinian" & find plenty of wonderful literary things: arablit.org?s=Palestinian

A mis queridus madrilenyus, por si podéis atender su petición 🙏: Mahmoud es un poeta y editor g/azatí. Entre otras cosas co-editó aquel magnífico cuaderno especial de @arablit.bsky.social sobre G/aza. 👇

Three Arabic Titles Among New ‘PEN Translates’ Winners Organizers today announced winners of the Spring 2026 PEN Translates awards, and among the 18 selected titles were three in Arabic.

An Apology to May Ziadeh A letter from ArabLit editor Ibtihal Rida Mahmood to May Ziadeh (1886-1941).

These "Three #Poems by Nima Hasan" translated by @hudafakhreddine.bsky.social in @arablit.bsky.social are #wow arablit.org/2026/02/05/t...

“A Poem” I committed no sin and yet they carved out of my flesh, out of my life: a loaf of bread, a spoonful of sugar, a homeland that once knew how to sing. Nima Hasan, tr. Huda Fakhreddine arablit.org/2026/02/05/t...

My first interview for @arablit.bsky.social this year is with Sinan Antoon arablit.org/2026/01/26/s...

Another really enjoyable discussion with lots of relatable points. “It’s not imposter syndrome if you are an imposter!” Great on importance of author-translator contact and the potential for “found in translation” #xl8

What a wonderful project!

Three Poems by Nima Hasan "Hold me before the game ends. / Like everything else, / grief needs time / to become a language."

Judges Announce International Prize for Arabic Fiction’s 2026 Shortlist The chair of the judges for the 2026 International Prize for Arabic Fiction, Mohamed Elkadhi, today announced the prize's 2026 vibrant six-book shortlist in Manama, Bahrain.

Part One, Emile Habiby’s ‘The Six-Day Sextet’ Over the next six weeks, we will be publishing installments of Emile Habiby's The Six-Day Sextet, which is available in an open-access, non-commercial translation by Invisible Dragoman. The next installment is set to appear February 9, 2026.

New Poetry in Translation: ‘From a Country That Was’ "The temperature dipped a little / but the country’s still burning—"

Forthcoming February 2026: Thrillers from Algeria, Emerging Voices from Gaza, and More Forthcoming this month: Two criminal investigations from Algeria, an anthology of raw portraits of Gaza from emerging writers, and a new collection of poems by Ghassan Zaqtan.

Omani Literature and the Translator as Intruder  In this “BETWEEN TWO ARABIC TRANSLATORS” conversation, Yasmeen Hanoosh and Zia Ahmed discuss approaching Arabic translation via English and Urdu, the layers of "outsider-ness" in translation, and the boom of narrative fiction in Oman.

Walid Taher Makes Shortlist of 2026 Hans Christian Andersen Award The International Board on Books for Young People today announced the shortlist for the 2026 Hans Christian Andersen Award.

New Short Fiction from Kuwait: ‘The Phone Call’ In this short fiction from Kuwait, the central character and his author are in a standoff over a telephone call.

‘What have I survived’: New Poetry by Mahmoud Alshaer "I survived—came out of yesterday / alive, carried out on the shoulders / of the wind."

Classic Short Fiction: Mohammed Hussein Heikal’s ‘The Second Family’ Short fiction by Mohammed Hussein Heikal (1888 - 1956) about marriage and money in early twentieth century Egypt.

Sinan Antoon’s ‘Of Loss and Lavender’ In this conversation over e-mail, Sinan Antoon talks about the novel, the fraught nature of collective memory, the process of self-translation, and the sort of “security checkpoints” a book must pass through in the process of translation.

‘On the Back of Restless Winds’ In his 2015 autobiography, A Time of Wind, Anxiety, and Freedom (أزمنة الريح والقلق والحرية ), Sudanese scholar Dr. Hayder Ibrahim Ali offers a rare and insightful account of Sudan’s intellectual and political life.

Lamia Ziadé’s ‘Rue de Phénicie’ Lebanese artist and writer Lamia Ziadé’s fifth illustrated book for adults, Rue de Phénicie, (Phoenicia Street), is a work of intellectual rigor and personal honesty. It’s a story that begins with finding hedonistic joy in Paris grows progressively more complicated…

We have gotten a lot of new subscribers in the last few days. Naturally, we do not expect small publishing houses / scouts / agents to pay. But if your publishing house CAN afford a subscription, it will help us improve what we offer. arablit.substack.com

An excerpt from the extraordinary literary memoir "The Fire: The Tale of a Child Who Has Not Yet Burned," by Mohammad Abdo Najari. A story to turn your heart inside out. arablit.org/2026/01/15/t...

Max Weiss on Translating the Gaza Doctor’s Words for the Times, and the Paper’s Failure to Cover His Abduction and Torture lithub.com/how-the-new-...

‘The Tale of a Child Who Has Not Yet Burned’ This excerpt comes from the first chapter of the extraordinary literary memoir The Fire: The Tale of a Child Who Has Not Yet Burned, by Mohammad Abdo Najari, published in Damascus by Dar al-Hassad in 1996.

Canadian publishers, this is for you: Our Jan 2026 newsletter ("Writing in Arabic, Living in Canada") is coming tomorrow. If you're not yet a subscriber, it'll be at: arablit.substack.com. Special thanks this month to Badar Salem, Chloe Bordewich, & Mennan Salih.

’48 kg’: Creating Life from a Desire to Diminish and Fade Away Gaza-based Palestinian writer Husam Maarouf responds to Batool Abu Akleen's '48 kg.'

Two (Communist) Poems by Saadi Youssef "I’ve said it before, and I say it now on this London evening / before it’s too late: / I am the last communist!"

Mohammed el-Makki Ibrahim and the Homeland as Beloved For Sudanese readers living through the current crisis, the following lines by the late Mohammed el-Makkī Ibrahim resonate with striking immediacy, even though they were written in the 1980s. Beneath the layers of grief, a restrained optimism…

Congratulations to Marilyn Booth for winning the 2025 Banipal prize for her translation of Honey Hunger by Zahran Alqasmi. I reviewed Honey Hunger in @irishtimes.com last February.

Congratulations to Marilyn & Kay. Couldn't believe this was Marilyn's first Banipal win. arablit.org/2026/01/07/m...

What does it mean to archive during a livestreamed and unfolding genocide in Gaza? How do we address the act of archiving as a productive and imaginative process that responds to destruction and erasure? Join us on 21 January to discuss: www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/archiving-...

Marilyn Booth Wins 2025 Banipal Prize Although Kay Heikkenen has previously won the Banipal (for her translation of Huzama Habayeb's Velvet) this was, surprisingly, the first time Marilyn Booth has won the prize.

On January 17: www.instagram.com/p/DTImY_yk4Ib/

Beautiful review, incredible book, brilliant translation. arablit.org/2026/01/06/s...

Songs of the Unspeakable When can loss that never ends be said to have happened? When will absence finally finish arriving? Who is the self if left partial, displaced from identity to be found neither here nor there? And if loss defines us, when may we be ourselves?

Forthcoming 2026: Arabic Literature in Translation An ongoing list of Arabic literature in translation forthcoming in 2026.

We'll have a "Arabic literature in English translation forthcoming 2026" list on Monday, Jan 5 so please let us know what we're missing before then.

Classic Short Fiction: ‘On New Year’s Eve’ What happens on New Year's Eve when a conservative (and naive) father comes to his son's front door, in Cairo, and hears something he never expected? A holiday classic from Egyptian writer Ibrahim Abdelkader Al-Mazni (1889–1949).

It's hard to feel much of anything at the end of this year apart from burnt down to the marrow, angry and grieving, but also still fiercely loving the work of our writers & translators. Deepest affection for all of you.

No year’s round-up from me. Just the words I wrote this year that I needed most to write. Published in @arablit.bsky.social’s series “Grief in Letters” in memory of surgeon Dr Adnan al-Bursh, who was abducted by the IDF 2 years ago, before Israel brutally murdered him arablit.org/dear-dr-adna...

What We Published in 2025 What we've published this year.

Shortlist Announced for Bait AlGhasham DarArab International Translation Prize Today, the Bait AlGhasham DarArab International Translation Prize announced its 2026 shortlists in three categories: Translators, Authors, and Omani Publications. 

‘A Plot in the Making’ New short fiction by the relentlessly creative Palestinian writer Nasser Rabah.

Books as Breath: Gaza’s Living Story Salah and Abdullah's small bookshop in Nuseirat is a testament to the power of literature. A model of Palestinian endurance.

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