Margaret Obank is a British publisher, noted for her contribution to the dissemination of contemporary
Arabic 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 ...
in English translation.
Life
Obank was born in
Leeds
Leeds () is a city and the administrative centre of the City of Leeds district in West Yorkshire, England. It is built around the River Aire and is in the eastern foothills of the Pennines. It is also the third-largest settlement (by populati ...
. She studied philosophy and literature at
Leeds University
, mottoeng = And knowledge will be increased
, established = 1831 – Leeds School of Medicine1874 – Yorkshire College of Science1884 - Yorkshire College1887 – affiliated to the federal Victoria University1904 – University of Leeds
, ...
and linguistics at
Birkbeck College
Birkbeck, University of London (formally Birkbeck College, University of London), is a public university, public research university, located in Bloomsbury, London, England, and a constituent college, member institution of the federal Universit ...
. She worked in teaching and in printing and publishing for many years. Along with her husband, the
Iraqi author
Samuel Shimon Samuel Shimon (born 1956 in Al-Habbaniyah, Iraq) is an Iraqi writer and journalist of Assyrian descent. He left Iraq in 1979 with dreams of becoming a director in Hollywood, and has since then lived in Damascus, Amman, Beirut, Nicosia, Aden, Cairo, ...
, Obank was the driving force behind the creation of ''
Banipal
''Banipal'' is an independent literary magazine dedicated to the promotion of contemporary Arab literature through translations in English. It was founded in London in 1998 by Margaret Obank and Samuel Shimon. The magazine is published three tim ...
'' magazine, a journal exclusively devoted to publishing English translations of modern Arabic literature. The first issue of ''Banipal'' was published in February 1998, and as of 2011, there have been 42 issues.
Obank has also established:
* the Banipal Trust for Arab Literature (which administers the
Banipal Prize
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 ...
for literary translation),
* the Banipal-Arab British Centre Library of Modern Arab Literature, and
* Banipal Books.
Obank is a trustee of the
Arabic Booker Prize
The International Prize for Arabic Fiction (IPAF) ( ar, الجائزة العالمية للرواية العربية) is the most prestigious and important literary prize in the Arab world.
Its aim is to reward excellence in contemporary Arabic ...
, and she is also involved with
CASAW
The Centre for the Advanced Study of the Arab World (CASAW) (Arabic: مركز الدراسات المتقدمة للعالم العربي) is a government funded, research based initiative which claims to be at the forefront of UK expertise in ...
.
References
External links
Interview with Margaret Obank
English publishers (people)
Alumni of the University of Leeds
Living people
Year of birth missing (living people)
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