''Banipal'' is an independent literary magazine dedicated to the promotion of contemporary

Arab literature Arabic literature ( ar, الأدب العربي / ALA-LC: ''al-Adab al-‘Arabī'') is the writing, both as prose and poetry, produced by writers in the Arabic language. The Arabic word used for literature is '' Adab'', which is derived from a ...

through translations in English. It was founded in

London London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...

in 1998 by

Margaret Obank Margaret Obank is a British publisher, noted for her contribution to the dissemination of contemporary Arabic literature in English translation. Life Obank was born in Leeds. She studied philosophy and literature at Leeds University and linguisti ...

and Samuel Shimon.Banipal magazine profile
/ref> The magazine is published three times a year. Since its inception, it has published works and interviews of numerous Arab authors and poets, many of them translated for the first time into English. It is also co-sponsor of the

Saif Ghobash–Banipal Prize for Arabic Literary Translation The Banipal Prize, whose full name is the Saif Ghobash–Banipal Prize for Arabic Literary Translation, is an annual prize awarded to a translator (or translators) for the published English translation of a full-length literary work in the Arab ...

. As of December 2020, 69 issues of ''Banipal'' were published. Each issue usually focuses on a specific theme, recent issues focusing on

Libyan Demographics of Libya is the demography of Libya, specifically covering population density, ethnicity, education level, health of the populace, economic status, and religious affiliations, as well as other aspects of the Libyan population. The ...

fiction,

Arab American Arab Americans ( ar, عَرَبٌ أَمْرِيكِا or ) are Americans of Arab ancestry. Arab Americans trace ancestry to any of the various waves of immigrants of the countries comprising the Arab World. According to the Arab American Inst ...

authors, Iraqi authors, Literature in

Yemen Yemen (; ar, ٱلْيَمَن, al-Yaman), officially the Republic of Yemen,, ) is a country in Western Asia. It is situated on the southern end of the Arabian Peninsula, and borders Saudi Arabia to the Saudi Arabia–Yemen border, north and ...

Today, Writing in Dutch, etc. The magazine has been praised both by non-Arab and Arab commentators -

Gamal el-Ghitani Gamal al-Ghitani, ( ar, جمال الغيطانى, ; 9 May 1945 – 18 October 2015) was an Egyptian author of historical and political novels and cultural and political commentaries and was the editor-in-chief of the literary periodical ''Akhb ...

James Kirkup James Harold Kirkup, FRSL (23 April 1918 – 10 May 2009) was an English poet, translator and travel writer. He wrote over 45 books, including autobiographies, novels and plays. He wrote under many pen-names including James Falconer, Aditya Jha ...

Anton Shammas Anton Shammas ( ar, أنطون شماس, he, אנטון שמאס; born 1950), is a Palestinian writer, poet and translator of Arabic, Hebrew and English. Biography Anton Shammas was one of six children born to a Palestinian father and a Lebanese ...

among others - for its role in diffusing Arab literature to a wider audience. The Iraqi poet, novelist and translator

Fadhil Al Azzawi Fadhil Al Azzawi (Arabic: فاضل العزاوي ; born 1940 in Kirkuk, Iraq) is an Iraqi writer highly respected in the Arab world, as he has published ten volumes of poetry, six novels, three books of criticism and memoir, and several translat ...

has said:

Contemporary authors featured in ''Banipal''

Abbas Beydhoun Abbas Beydoun (born 1945) is a Lebanese poet, novelist and journalist. He was born in the village of Sur near Tyre in southern Lebanon. His father was a teacher. Beydoun studied at the Lebanese University in Beirut and the Sorbonne in Paris. He w ...

* Abdel Aziz al-Maqalih *

Abdellatif Laâbi Abdellatif Laâbi is a Moroccan poet, journalist, novelist, playwright, translator and political activist, born in 1942 in Fes, Morocco. Laâbi, then teaching French, founded with other poets the artistic journal Souffles, an important literar ...

* Abdelrahman Munif * Abdelwahab Meddeb * Abdullah Laroui * Abdul Kader el-Janabi * Abdu Khal * Abdul Wahab al-Bayati *

Adunis Ali Ahmad Said Esber (, North Levantine: ; born 1 January 1930), also known by the pen name Adonis or Adunis ( ar, أدونيس ), is a Syrian people, Syrian poet, essayist and translator. He led a modernist revolution in the second half of the ...

* Ahmad Ali El Zein *

Ahmad Zein Ahmad Zein (born 1966) is a critically-acclaimed Yemeni writer and journalist, currently living in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. He works for the ''Al-Hayat'' newspaper. He is the author of two novels and two short story collections. The author's work has ...

Ahmed Fagih Ahmed Ibrahim al-Fagih (Arabic: أحمد إبراهيم الفقيه ''’áħmad 'Ibrāhīm al-faqīh'') (December 28, 1942 – April 30, 2019) was a Libyan novelist, playwright, essayist, journalist and diplomat. He began writing short stories ...

Ahmed Bouzfour Ahmed Bouzfour ( ar, أحمد بوزفور) (born 1940s, in Taza) is a Moroccan novelist. Biography Born in the early 1940s near to Taza, Bouzfour received his primary education and learned the Qur'an in a Quranic school. He then studied at th ...

* Ahmed Rashid Thani *

Ala Hlehel Ala Hlehel (born 1974) is a Palestinian writer. He was born in Jesh, Galilee. He studied at the University of Haifa, and went on to work in both print and broadcast media in Haifa. Trained as a scriptwriter in Tel Aviv, he has written stage plays ...

Alawiyya Subh Alawiya Sobh (Arabic: علوية صبح) (born 1955) is a Lebanese writer and author. Biography Born in Beirut, Sobh studied English & Arabic Literature at the Lebanese University. Upon graduation in 1978, she pursued a career in teaching. She ...

Albert Cossery Albert Cossery (3 November 1913 – 22 June 2008) was an Egyptian-born French writer. Although Cossery lived most of his life in Paris and only wrote in the French language, all of his novels were either set in his country of birth, Egypt, or in ...

* Ali al-Domaini * Ali al-Kasimi *

Ali al-Muqri Ali al-Muqri (Arabic: علي المقري) (born in Taiz) is a Yemeni novelist and writer. Two of hisnovels - ''Black Taste, Black Odour'' and ''The Handsome Jew'' - have been long-listed for the Arab Booker Prize. He has also been awarded the F ...

* Ali Mohammed Zayd * Amjad Nasser *

* Aroussia Naluti * Aziz Chouaki *

Badr Shakir al-Sayyab Badr Shakir al Sayyab ( ar, بدر شاكر السياب) (December 24, 1926 in Jaykur, near Basra – December 24, 1964 in Kuwait) was a leading Iraqi poet, well known throughout the Arab world and one of the most influential Arab poets of all ti ...

* Baha Eddine Taoud * Bassam Frangieh * Bassam Shamseldin * Bensalim Himmich *

Denys Johnson-Davies Denys Johnson-Davies (Arabic: دنيس جونسون ديڤيز) (also known as Abdul Wadud) was an eminent Arabic-to-English literary translator who translated, ''inter alia,'' several works by Nobel Prize-winning Egyptian author Naguib Mahfouz, Su ...

* Diya al-Jubaily *

Driss Chraïbi Driss Chraïbi (July 15, 1926 – April 1, 2007) was a Moroccan author whose novels deal with colonialism, culture clashes, generational conflict and the treatment of women and are often perceived as semi-autobiographical. Born in El Jadida an ...

* Edward al-Kharrat *

Edward Said Edward Wadie Said (; , ; 1 November 1935 – 24 September 2003) was a Palestinian-American professor of literature at Columbia University, a public intellectual, and a founder of the academic field of postcolonial studies.Robert Young, ''White ...

Elias Khoury Elias Khoury ( ar, إلياس خوري; born 12 July 1948) is a Lebanon, Lebanese novelist, and prominent public intellectual. Accordingly, he has published myriad novels related to literary criticism, which have been translated into several fore ...

Etel Adnan Etel Adnan ( ar, إيتيل عدنان; 24 February 1925 – 14 November 2021) was a Lebanese-American poet, essayist, and visual artist. In 2003, Adnan was named "arguably the most celebrated and accomplished Arab American author writing today" ...

* Ezzat el-Kamhawi * Fadhil al-Azzawi * Fady Joudeh * Fathi Abul Nasr * Ferial Ghazoul * Fuad al-Takarli *

Ghalib Halasa Ghalib Halasa (Arabic: غالب هلسا; December 3, 1932 – December 17, 1989) was a Jordanian novelist, short story writer, literary critic, translator, and political activist. He was a prominent literary figure in the Arabic-speaking world d ...

* Ghassan Zaqtan * Ghazi Algosaibi *

Habib Abdulrab Sarori Habib Abdulrab Sarori (born 1956) is a Yemeni computer scientist and novelist. He was born in Aden and pursued higher studies in France, obtaining a master's degree in Informatics from the University of Paris 6 in 1983, followed by a PhD from the ...

* Habib Selmi *

Habib Tengour Habib Tengour (born March 29, 1947) is a French-Algerian poet, sociologist and anthropologist. He was born in Mostaganem in eastern French Algeria in 1947. The Tengour family moved to France when Habib was five years old, and he grew up there in ...

* Haifa Bitar * Halim Barakat *

Hanan al-Shaykh Hanan al-Shaykh ( ar, حنان الشيخ; born 12 November 1945, Beirut) is a Lebanese author of contemporary literature. Biography Hanan al-Shaykh was born Beirut, Lebanon, in 1945, into a strict Shi'a family. Her father and brother exerte ...

* Hani al-Raheb * Hassan Abdulrazzak *

Hassan Daoud Hassan Daoud (Arabic: حسن داوود) (born 1950) is a Lebanese writer and journalist. Originally from the village of Noumairieh in southern Lebanon, he moved to Beirut as a child with his family. He studied Arabic literature at university. D ...

* Hassan Nasr *

Hassouna Mosbahi Hassouna Mosbahi ( ar, حسونة المصباحي) (born 1950 in Dhehibat, Kairouan) is a Tunisian author, literary critic and freelance journalist. Biography Hassouna Mosbahi was born in 1950 in the village of Dhehibat in the governorate of ...

Hoda Barakat Hoda Barakat ( ar, هدى بركات) (born 1952) is an award-winning Lebanese novelist. She lived most of her early life in Beirut before moving to Paris, where she now resides. She has published six novels, two plays, a book of short stories, a ...

* Huda Ablan * Hussain al-Mozany * Huzama Habayeb *

Ibrahim Nasrallah Ibrahim Nasrallah ( ar, إبراهيم نصر الله; 2 December 1954), the winner of the Arabic Booker Prize (2018), was born in 1954 to Palestinian parents who were evicted from their land in Al-Burayj, Palestine in 1948. He spent his child ...

* Ibtisam Abdallah *

Inaya Jaber Inaya Jaber ( ar, عناية جابر; 1958 – 10 May 2021) was a Lebanese writer, journalist, artist and singer. She has published nine collections of poetry and one collection of short stories. She lived in Beirut. Biography Jaber was born ...

Ines Abassi Ines Abassi (born 1982) is a Tunisian poet and journalist. She has published two volumes of poetry to date, both of which have received regional literary awards. She also spent a six-month residency in Seoul and wrote ''Tales of the Korean Scheher ...

Issa J Boullata Issa J. Boullata (‎; February 25, 1929 – May 1, 2019) was a Palestinian scholar, writer, and translator of Arabic literature. Biography He was born in Jerusalem on February 25, 1929 during the British Mandate of Palestine. He obtained ...

* Jalil al-Qaisi *

Jamal Mahjoub Jamal Mahjoub (born London 1966) is a mixed-race writer of British and Sudanese parents. He writes in English and has published eight novels under his own name. In 2012, Mahjoub began writing a series of crime fiction novels under the pseudonym ...

* Jamila Omairah * Kadhim Jihad * Kamal Abdellatif *

Kamal Ruhayyim Kamal Ruhayyim (Arabic: كمال رحيم) (born 1947) is an Egyptian writer. He obtained a doctorate in law from Cairo University, before pursuing a career in law enforcement (police and Interpol). As an author, he is best known for the Galal tril ...

Khaled Mattawa Khaled Mattawa (born 1964) is a Libyan poet, and a renowned Arab-American writer, he is also a leading literary translator, focusing on translating Arabic poetry into English. He works as an Assistant professor of creative writing at the Univers ...

* Khalid Albudoor * Khulood Al Mu’alla * Lamia Makaddam *

Lisa Suhair Majaj Lisa Suhair Majaj (born 1960) is a Palestinian-American poet and scholar. Born in Hawarden, Iowa, Majaj was raised in Jordan. She earned a B.A. in English literature from American University of Beirut and an M.A. in English Literature, an M.A. ...

Luay Hamza Abbas Luay Hamza Abbas (born 1965) is an Iraqi writer. He now teaches literary criticism at Basra University. Abbas has published several volumes of short stories and one novel. In 2010, the National Endowment of the Arts awarded a grant to academic ...

* Lutfiya al-Dulaimi * Mahdi Issa al-Saqr * Mahmood Abdel Wahab *

Mahmoud Darwish Mahmoud Darwish ( ar, محمود درويش, Maḥmūd Darwīsh, 13 March 1941 – 9 August 2008) was a Palestinian poet and author who was regarded as the Palestinian national poet. He won numerous awards for his works. Darwish used Palestine ...

* Mahmoud Shukair * Mai Ghoussoub * Miled Faiza *

Miral al-Tahawy Miral al-Tahawy (Arabic: ميرال الطحاوي), also known as Miral Mahgoub, is an Egyptian novelist and short story writer. She comes from a conservative Bedouin background and is regarded as a pioneering literary figure. The ''Washington Pos ...

* Mohamed al-Bisatie *

Mohamed Choukri Mohamed Choukri (Arabic: محمد شكري, Berber languages, Berber: ⵎⵓⵃⴰⵎⵎⴻⴷ ⵛⵓⴽⵔⵉ) (15 July 193515November 2003, was a Moroccan author and novelist who is best known for his internationally acclaimed autobiography ''Fo ...

Mohamed Salah al-Azab Mohamed Salah El Azab ( ar, محمد صلاح العزب; born 19 September 1981) is an Egyptians, Egyptian writer and novelist. Early life He was born in Cairo. He has published several novels and short story collections, and has won multiple aw ...

* Mohammad al-Maghut * Mohammad al-Qaood * Mohammad al-Shaibani * Mohammad Ali Farhat * Mohammad Khodayyi * Mohammed Al-Harthi *

Mohammed Bennis Mohammed Bennis ( ar, محمد بنيس; born 1948) is a Moroccan poet and one of the most prominent writers of modern Arabic poetry. Since the 1970s, he has enjoyed a particular status within Arab culture. Muhsin J al-Musawi states that "Bennis� ...

Mohammed Khaïr-Eddine Mohammed Khair-Eddine ( zgh, ⵎⵓⵃⵎⵎⴰⴷ ⵅⴰⵢⵔ ⴷⴷⵉⵏ; ar, محمد خير الدين) (1941 – November 18, 1995) was a Moroccan poet and writer. He was among the most famous Moroccan Berber literary figures of the 20th ...

* Mohammed Mustagab * Mohammed Zefzaf * Mohja Kahf * Mona Yahia * Mouayed al-Rawi * Nabila al-Zubair * Nadia Alkowkobani *

Naguib Mahfouz Naguib Mahfouz Abdelaziz Ibrahim Ahmed Al-Basha ( arz, نجيب محفوظ عبد العزيز ابراهيم احمد الباشا, ; 11 December 1911 – 30 August 2006) was an Egyptian writer who won the 1988 Nobel Prize in Literature. ...

* Najwa Barakat * Nassif Falak *

Nazih Abu Afash Nazih is both a given name and a surname. It is an Arabic origin word, (Arabic: نزيه). Notable people with the name include: Given name * Nazih Abu Afach (born 1946), Syrian poet and painter * Nazih Ayubi (1943–1995), Egyptian writer * Nazi ...

Nazik al-Malaika Nazik al-Malaika ( ar, نازك الملائكة; 23 August 1923 – 20 June 2007) was an Iraqi poet. Al-Malaika is noted for being among the first Arabic poets to use free verse. Early life and career Al-Malaika was born in Baghdad to a cult ...

* Nazum al-Obeidi * Nirvana Tanoukhi *

Nizar Qabbani Nizar Tawfiq Qabbani ( ar, نزار توفيق قباني, , french: Nizar Kabbani; 21 March 1923 – 30 April 1998) was a Syrian diplomat, poet, writer and publisher. He is considered to be Syria's National Poet. His poetic style combines sim ...

Nouri al-Jarrah Nouri al-Jarrah (Arabic Arabic (, ' ; , ' or ) is a Semitic language spoken primarily across the Arab world.Semitic languages: an international handbook / edited by Stefan Weninger; in collaboration with Geoffrey Khan, Michael P. Streck ...

Nujoom Al-Ghanem Nujoom Alghanem (born 24 October 1962) is an Emirati poet, artist and film director. She has published eight poetry collections and has directed more than twenty films. Alghanem is active in her community and is considered a well established writ ...

* Ounsi el Hage * Paul Chaoul *

Qassim Haddad Qassim Haddad (born 1948) is a Bahraini poet, particularly notable within the Arab world for his free verse poetry. His poems have been translated in several languages including German, English and French. Biography Qassim Haddad was born in Bah ...

Rabee Jaber Rabee Jaber ( ar, ربيع جابر; born 1972) is a Lebanese novelist and journalist, born in Beirut, Lebanon. Life Jaber studied Physics at the American University of Beirut (AUB). He is also editor of ''Afaaq'' (in Arabic آفاق meaning ...

Rachid al-Daif Rashid El Daif (Arabic: رشيد الضعيف) (or Rasheed Al-Daif, Rachid El-Daïf, Rachid Al-Daif) (born 6 August 1945) is a Lebanese poet and novelist. He has been translated into 14 languages. He has been referred to as "the Arab world's answe ...

* Rachida Lamrabet *

Rafik Schami Rafik is the given name of: *Rafik Al-Hariri (1944–2005), business tycoon, former Prime Minister of Lebanon *Rafik Bouderbal (born 1987), French-born Algerian player currently playing for ES Sétif in the Algerian Championnat National *Rafik Deg ...

Ramsey Nasr Ramsey Nasr (born 28 January 1974, Rotterdam) is a Dutch author and actor of mixed descent, half Palestinian, half Dutch. He was '' Dichter des Vaderlands'' (Poet of the Fatherland; an unofficial title for the Dutch poet laureate) between Januar ...

Rasha Omran Rasha Omran ( ar, رشا عمران) is one of the most important Syrian poetesses, author of seven collections of poems and an anthology of Syrian poetry. Biography Born in Tartus, Syria, in 1964 into a family of artists, Rasha Omran is the d ...

* Rashad Abu Shawar * Sa'adallah Wannus *

Saadi Youssef , native_name_lang = , pseudonym = , birth_name = , birth_date = , birth_place = Abu Al-Khaseeb, Iraq , death_date = , death_place = London, England , resting_place = , occupation = , ...

* Said al-Kafrawi * Saif al-Rahbi * Salah Hassan *

Salim Barakat Salim Barakat ( ar, سليم بركات, ku, Selîm Berekat) (born 1 September 1951 in Qamishli) is a Kurdish-Syrian novelist and poet. He was brought up in Qamishli in northern Syria and spent most of his youth there. In 1970 he moved to Damasc ...

* Salwa al-Neimi * Samar Yazbek * Samir Albufattah *

Samir Naqqash Samir Naqqash ( he, סמיר נקאש, ar, سمير نقاش; 1938 in Baghdad – 6 July 2004, in Petah Tikva) was an Israeli novelist, short-story writer, and playwright who immigrated from Iraq at the age of 13. Biography Samir Naqqash was bo ...

* Saniya Salih * Sargon Boulus * Sawsan al-Areeqi * Shawqi Shafiq *

Tahar Ben Jelloun Tahar Ben Jelloun ( ar, الطاهر بن جلون; born in Fes, Morocco, 1 December 1944) is a Moroccan writer. All of his work is written in French although his first language is Darija. He became known for his 1985 novel ''L’Enfant de Sab ...

Tayeb Salih Tayeb Salih ( ar, الطيب صالح, aṭ-Ṭayyib Ṣāliḥ; 12 July 1929 – 18 February 2009) was a Sudanese writer, cultural journalist for the BBC Arabic programme as well as for Arabic journals, and a staff member of UNESCO. He is best k ...

Turki al-Hamad Turki al-Hamad ( ar, تركي الحمد, ) is a Saudi Arabian political analyst, journalist, and novelist, best known for his trilogy about the coming-of-age of Hisham al-Abir, a Saudi Arabian teenager, the first installment of which, ''Adama'', ...

Vénus Khoury-Ghata Vénus Khoury-Ghata (born 1937 in Bsharri, Lebanon) is a French-Lebanese poet and writer. Early life Venus Khoury-Ghata was born into a Maronite family, the daughter of a soldier that spoke French and a mother that was a peasant. She is the old ...

* Wacini Laradg *

Wajdi al-Ahdal Wajdi al-Ahdal (Arabic::ar: وجدي الأهلي , وجدي الأهلي) (born 1973) is a Yemeni novelist, short story writer and playwright. Laureate of the International Prize for Arabic Fiction (IPAF) in 2008, is known for his Contemporary ...

Wilfred Thesiger Sir Wilfred Patrick Thesiger (3 June 1910 – 24 August 2003), also known as Mubarak bin Landan ( ar, مُبَارَك بِن لَنْدَن, ''the blessed one of London'') was a British military officer, explorer, and writer. Thesiger's trav ...

Yasmine Khlat Yasmine Khtat (born February 13, 1959) is a Lebanese actress, film director, translator and novelist. She was born in Ismailia, Egypt, grew up in Lebanon and studied film theory in the University of Paris 3. Work As an actress *1984:'' Dreams o ...

* Yasser Abdel Baqi *

Yasser Abdel Hafez Yasser Abdel Hafez (Arabic: ياسر عبد الحفيظ), (born 1969) is an Egyptian novelist and journalist. He was born in Cairo and studied law at Ain Shams University. He has worked as a journalist for the Arabic-language literary journal Akh ...

* Youssef Rakha * Yusef Habshi al-Ashqar * Zakariyya Tamer

References

{{Reflist

External links

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