New Review: Gilgamesh’s Snake and Other Poems
The Bottle Imp, 16th June 2016 Ghareeb Iskander’s own transformation of the Gilgamesh epic into a modern poem draws the original’s grandeur down to the personal scale, without rendering it … Continue reading
New review: ‘Curse of the Achille Lauro’
Electronic Intifada, 26th August 2015 In 1985 four Palestinian commandos booked passage on an Italian cruise liner, the Achille Lauro. According to their plan, they should have remained undercover, acting … Continue reading
Gulf War One and the BBC’s banned songs
As the result of a Twitter conversation with SOAS’ David Wearing which started with the 39 Steps and worked its way through the works of John Buchan, Greenmantle, BBC Radio … Continue reading
Nothing more violent than silence
A couple of years ago I had the honour of being invited to speak at Manchester’s beautiful John Rylands Library (the beautiful Victorian original on Deansgate, not the concrete monstrosity … Continue reading
We’re all doomed, I tell you…
I don’t usually write things like this. In fact, I spend a lot of time telling Husband to shut up when he writes/rants on about it. I nearly throttled him … Continue reading
Rant warning: on capitalism, the Western media and different types of explosions
It is a commonplace which has, in a few days, spread from the leftist Twittersphere to the liberal media (hell, even Owen Jones is doing articles on it now) to … Continue reading
‘Perhaps This Poem Has No End’: Reel Iraq in Edinburgh
My guest blog for ArabLit on Saturday’s ‘Found in Translation’ Iraqi/Scottish poetry event at the Scottish Poetry Library: Despite Sabreen Kadhim’s absence, we did get one of her poems, “on … Continue reading
Sabreen Kadhim and the halfwits at the UK Border Agency
I’ve had occasion to get all irate and ranty about the impact of the UK Border Agency on art in this country before. Sadly, the cluelessly racist pairing of the … Continue reading
New article: ‘Poets of Protest’ reviewed
Electronic Intifada, 28th February 2013 “All revolutions begin as poetry. Poetry and protest are inseparable twins,” says Yehia Jaber. He should know. A former fighter whose memories include patrolling the … Continue reading
Call for stories: Iraq in the future
Via Arablit, here’s a call from Manchester’s Comma Press for short stories by Iraqi writers imagining what the country will look like in 2103. The deadline is 1st June 2013 … Continue reading
Burning books [1]
The ‘Inventory of Al-Mutanabbi Street’ commemorates the bombing in 2007 of the famous booksellers’ street of Baghdad. Thirty people were killed, a hundred injured, and hundreds if not thousands of … Continue reading
New article: Hassan Blasim’s ‘The Iraqi Christ’ reviewed
ArabLit, 4th January 2013 “It is possible to whistle through these stories, enjoying their dry wit, breakneck pace and wildly careening references as they veer from 1001 Nights to Real … Continue reading
New article: Khyam Allami interviewed
The Arab Review, 12th June 2012 “Allami – raised in Syria and London, of Iraqi origins – is hard to pin down. His projects range from debut album Resonance/Dissonance (nominated … Continue reading
Sarah Irving 