Yasmine Seale (b. 1989) is a British-Syrian writer and literary translator who works in English, Arabic, and French. She is the first woman to translate the entirety of ''

The Arabian Nights ''One Thousand and One Nights'' ( ar, أَلْفُ لَيْلَةٍ وَلَيْلَةٌ, italic=yes, ) is a collection of Middle Eastern folk tales compiled in Arabic during the Islamic Golden Age. It is often known in English as the ''Arabian ...

'' from French and Arabic''.'' In addition to her written work, she also speaks publicly and gives workshops on theory and practice of English-Arabic translation. In 2020, she received the Queen Mary ''

Wasafiri ''Wasafiri'' is a quarterly British literary magazine covering international contemporary writing. Founded in 1984, the magazine derives its name from a Swahili word meaning "travellers" that is etymologically linked with the Arabic word "safari" ...

'' New Writing Prize for Poetry. As of 2021, she is working on a translation of

Abd al-Ghani al-Nabulsi Shaykh 'Abd al-Ghani ibn Isma′il al-Nabulsi (an-Nabalusi) (19 March 1641 – 5 March 1731), was an eminent Sunni Muslim scholar, poet, and author on works about Sufism, ethnography and agriculture. Family origins Abd al-Ghani's family descen ...

's early 18th-century work "Perfuming Humanity by Interpreting Dreams." She is also translating the work of

Al-Khansa Tumāḍir bint ʿAmr ibn al-Ḥārith ibn al-Sharīd al-Sulamīyah ( ar, تماضر بنت عمرو بن الحارث بن الشريد السُلمية), usually simply referred to as al-Khansāʾ ( ar, الخنساء, links=no, meaning "snub-n ...

Critical reception

Robyn Creswell Robyn Creswell is an American critic, scholar and translator. Life He graduated from Brown University in 1999 and gained a doctorate in comparative literature from New York University in 2011. In addition to teaching comparative literature at ...

writes in ''

The New York Review ''The New York Review of Books'' (or ''NYREV'' or ''NYRB'') is a semi-monthly magazine with articles on literature, culture, economics, science and current affairs. Published in New York City, it is inspired by the idea that the discussion of i ...

'' that Seale's translation of ''The Thousand and One Nights'' "has a texture – tight, smooth, skillfully patterned – that make previous versions seem either garish or slightly dull by comparison."

Personal life

Seale was raised in Europe and grew up speaking English, Arabic, and French.Smith, Wendy. "RETRANSLATING 'ALADDIN': Yasmine Seale's new translation of the classic tale reveals its surprising depth." ''Publishers Weekly'', vol. 265, no. 43, 22 Oct. 2018, pp. 38+. Her mother is Syrian, and her father is Tunisian-Russian and was raised in the United Kingdom. She previously lived in

Istanbul Istanbul ( , ; tr, İstanbul ), formerly known as Constantinople ( grc-gre, Κωνσταντινούπολις; la, Constantinopolis), is the List of largest cities and towns in Turkey, largest city in Turkey, serving as the country's economic, ...

and is currently based in

Paris Paris () is the capital and most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), making it the 30th most densely populated city in the world in 2020. S ...

Partial list of works

Poetry

* "Conventional Wisdom" (winner of the 2020 Queen Mary Qasafiri New Writing Prize)

Translation

* ''Aladdin: A New Translation'' (edited by Paulo Lemos Horta, 2018) * ''The Annotated Arabian Nights: Tales from 1001 Nights'' (edited by Paulo Lemos Horta, with foreword by Omar El Ekkad and afterword by Robert Irwin, 2021) * "The Gap" by Maya Abu al-Hayyat (short story) (published in ''All Walls Collapse: Stories of Separation'', edited by Will Forrester and Sarah Cleave, 2022) * ''Agitated Air: Poems After Ibn Arabi'', with Robin Moger (ed. Dominic Jaeckle, 2022)

Essays and articles

* "The Travels of a Master Storyteller," ''

The Paris Review ''The Paris Review'' is a quarterly English-language literary magazine established in Paris in 1953 by Harold L. Humes, Peter Matthiessen, and George Plimpton. In its first five years, ''The Paris Review'' published works by Jack Kerouac, Philip ...

,'' May 2021 (first published as foreword to Elias Muhanna's translation of

Hanna Diyab Antun Yusuf Hanna Diyab ( ar, اَنْطون يوسُف حَنّا دِياب, Anṭūn Yūsuf Ḥannā Diyāb; born ''circa'' 1688) was a Syrian Maronite writer and storyteller. He is the origin of the famous tales of '' Aladdin'' and ''Ali Baba ...

's ''The Book of Travels'') * "After the Revolution: Three novels of Egypt's repressive present," ''

Harper's Magazine ''Harper's Magazine'' is a monthly magazine of literature, politics, culture, finance, and the arts. Launched in New York City in June 1850, it is the oldest continuously published monthly magazine in the U.S. (''Scientific American'' is older, b ...

'', January 2018 * "Camera Ottomana," on Ottoman photography, ''FRIEZE,'' September 2015 * "Q v. K," on Turkish alphabet politics, ''

LRB LRB may refer to: * Love Runs Blind, a Bangladeshi rock band * '' Lego Rock Band'', a game in the ''Rock Band'' video game series * Liquid rocket booster * Little Red Book, quotations from Chairman Mao * Little River Band, an Australian music act * ...

'' blog, October 2013

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Seale, Yasmine 1989 births Syrian writers Translators from Arabic Living people British people of Syrian descent British people of Tunisian descent British people of Russian descent 21st-century British women writers Literary translators 21st-century British translators 21st-century British poets British women poets Syrian women poets 21st-century Syrian women writers Syrian people of Russian descent