arabic

  • Coffee Corner

    Coffee Corner

    Bushra al-Maqtari on how Sana’a, Yemen, has changed. Translated by Sawad Hussain.

  • Ancient Magic vs. Modern Magic: Raphael Cormack in Conversation with Rana Haddad

    Rana Haddad and Raphael Cormack on holy men, charlatans, and how ‘East’ and ‘West’ saw each other.

  • When I Walk in Gaza, I Put My Hands in My Pockets

    Ahmad Bassiouny writes from Gaza. Translated by Ibrahim Fawzy.

  • From Ajdabiya to Rome

    From Ajdabiya to Rome

    Najwa Bin Shatwan on her geographic and writerly journey. Translated by Sawad Hussain.

  • The Epoch of Human Shame: An Interview with Samar Yazbek

    Samar Yazbek on conflict, imagination and literature in Syria. Translated by Leri Price.

  • It's all in a name

    Co-written with Andrea C. Hoffmann, translated from German by Shaun Whiteside. The weather is bad as we stand outside Sherbrooke town hall. The rain is pouring down – as it does so often in my new home, Canada, which is in every respect the opposite of my old one. All my friends have come. It…

  • It’s all in a name

    Co-written with Andrea C. Hoffmann, translated from German by Shaun Whiteside. The weather is bad as we stand outside Sherbrooke town hall. The rain is pouring down – as it does so often in my new home, Canada, which is in every respect the opposite of my old one. All my friends have come. It…

  • Five years on from the historic events of Tahrir Square, writer and psychiatrist Basma Abdel Aziz reflects on the many names of the Egyptian revolution, and her hopes for the future.

  • Boualem Sansal charts the history of Algeria and how it ties into the history of free expression in his country

  • Life in War

    Nayrouz Qarmout follows her short story for PEN Atlas with a gripping diary piece from the heart of the conflict in Gaza

  • Samar Yazbek, journalist, author and winner of an English PEN Writers in Translation award, returns our attention to Syria, the cynicism of the regime, the influence of outside powers, and how these combine at a great cost to the people

  • In a moving piece for PEN Atlas, Khaled Khalifa writes about the hypocrisy of the intelligentsia, the context of the Syrian revolution, and the task of imagining the world that will come after.

  • ​PEN Atlas editor Tasja Dorkofikis interviews Hassan Blasim about his new collection of short stories, ​The Iraqi Christ, ​winner of a 2012 Writers in Translation award; his experience of censorship; and the importance of films for his work

  • ​PEN Atlas editor Tasja Dorkofikis interviews Hassan Blasim about his new collection of short stories, ​The Iraqi Christ, ​winner of a 2012 Writers in Translation award; his experience of censorship; and the importance of films for his work

  • Following on from her piece for the English PEN magazine, Samar Yazbek ​describes the dangerous, often fatal struggle of capturing the truth of the Syrian revolution