New Samih al-Qasim anthology review
The Electronic Intifada, 3rd January 2017 The only two significant bodies of al-Qasim’s poetry available in translation were, until now, Sadder than Water, a fine bilingual edition from Jerusalem-based Ibis … Continue reading
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
Reviewed: ‘La Estrella Invisible’
Electronic Intifada, 17th September 2015 On one level, these are deeply personal poems — intimate, allusive, sometimes subtly erotic. On another, though, the subtitle of the collection betrays the larger … Continue reading
Neoliberalism and higher education: a wee example from Edinburgh
As Isabel Lachenauer, one of the first – and possibly the last – graduates of the University of Edinburgh’s Advanced Arabic masters programme writes: I strongly urge the Head of … Continue reading
New review: Ruth Padel’s ‘Learning to make an Oud in Nazareth’
Electronic Intifada, 24th September 2014 The Holocaust and the extermination of Europe’s Jews usually appear in juxtaposition to the issue of Palestine either in clumsy attempts to equate the two, … Continue reading
New review: Khaled Mattawa on Mahmoud Darwish
Electronic Intifada, 1st July 2014 This isn’t a biography. Although one would be fascinating, Darwish always insisted that his poetry should represent his life story. So this book doesn’t feature … 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
John Glenday, Don Paterson and Isabel Rogers on editing poetry
Over on Isabel Rogers’ blog there is a lovely conversation between the wonderful poet John Glenday and poet-editor Don Paterson. (Disclaimer: I was a fan of Glenday’s writing before he … Continue reading
New review: ‘Nothing More to Lose’
Electronic Intifada, 27th May 2014 With this collection of Najwan Darwish’s poetry — beautifully translated by Kareem James Abu-Zeid — The New York Review of Books has made available to … Continue reading
New review: ‘Dear Darwish’
Electronic Intifada, 23rd May 2014 And the poetry itself is often good — moving, sophisticated. If this were a review solely based on the aesthetic quality of the poetry it … Continue reading
A Bird is Not a Stone
Since it has been one of the consuming passions of the last eighteen months of my life, it seems about time that I post something on here about A Bird … Continue reading
Taha Muhammad ‘Ali reading ‘Revenge’
I’ve lately been reading Adina Hoffman’s incredible biography of the Palestinian poet Taha Muhammad ‘Ali, entitled My Happiness Bears No Relation to Happiness. Here’s footage of the late, great poet … Continue reading
Rant of the week: academic book pricing
Meet the current object of my affections: This little hottie is Like Joseph in Beauty, a book on a Yemeni poetry form called Humayni. Fairly obscure stuff, I grant you, … Continue reading
Poetry from Iraq and Scotland
Sabreen Kadhim, a young poet from Baghdad who very much dispels any myths linking poetry with dowdiness and cardigans, was supposed to appear at Reel Iraq earlier this year. However, … Continue reading
Maxine Peake performs the Masque of Anarchy
This year’s Manchester International Festival feels somehow genuinely exciting and energising, full of interesting ideas about how art (in its broadest definition) can be challenging and innovative, but also approachable … Continue reading
Marcel Khalife at the Barbican
Marcel Khalife’s style of big-act, traditional Arabic music performance isn’t particularly my kind of thing, but when I saw he was performing in London I figured that he’s the kind … Continue reading
Sarah Irving 