I. Rida Mahmood's Blog

Continuing our celebration of Women in Translation Month (#WiTMonth), we’re dedicating ArabLit‘s August newsletter to books on motherhood. This couldn’t be more timely, given the ongoing heated conversation about gender roles, body politics, and the changing narratives of motherhood and the self. Many thanks to novelist Badar Salem, Al Majalla’s Ibrahim Adel, and all the beautiful people who helped put this list together, particularly Marcia Lynx Qualey, our legendary founding editor.

Below are my recommendations:


And Between Us a Garden (وبيننا حديقة), by Sara Abdeen and Marwa Abu Deif. This book is a collection of letters exchanged between the two poets about their mothering experiences.


The Motherhood Collection (ديوان الأمومة), ed. Rana Tonsi. This is a collection of essays by 17 women writers on their experiences with motherhood.


The Motherhood Dilemma (معضلة الأمومة), introduced by Hind Salem and edited by Amir Zaki. Essays by ten women examining and critiquing the mainstream cultural conception of what it means to be a mother.

Check out the full list here:
https://arablit.substack.com/p/august...

Fragility

By Saga Hamdan

Translated by Ibtihal Rida Mahmood

I arrived at the memorial hall, my legs trembling, my body cold and withdrawn. My heart still clung to the feelings I had the first time we met, at a crossroads in life, when you told me you liked my presentations. A girl at reception greeted me with a smile. I smiled back as if this were routine. She handed me a rose, and for some reason it reminded me of the first rose you gave me. I walked down the corridor leading to the hall, which was lined with your photos and those of your comrades, one after another. I began searching for yours among them; yours was the first, although it took me a moment to notice, just like all the times when I looked for you everywhere while you were right beside me, living in my heart.

Read the full story on ArabLit here:
https://arablit.org/2025/08/06/new-sh...

Women in Translation Month 2025:
That ‘Odd, Uneven Time’

“August rain: The best of the summer gone, and the new fall not yet born. The odd uneven time.” – Sylvia Plath

By Ibtihal Rida Mahmood

Since 2014, the month of August has been celebrated as Women in Translation Month (#WiTMonth). And like the month itself, translation sits in that “odd uneven time,” a liminal space where language and meaning can be negotiated, reclaimed, or even appropriated. When it comes to the women who inhabit this space, as authors and as translators, the liminality of that space feels like a fertile ground for reclaiming language, narrative, and the power of truth-telling.

Read the full article on ArabLit:

https://arablit.org/2025/08/01/women-...

Click here to watch the video on Vimeo

23 of the poets included in Versus Versus share their poems from the anthology in this compilation of readings from around the world.

Poets featured in the video (in order of appearance): Jen Campbell, Ekiwah Adler-Belendez, Karthika Nair, Marilyn Hacker, Kathryn Gray, David Wheatley, Levent Beskardes, Andy Jackson, Lateef McLeod, Cat Chong, Khairani Barokka, Riyad al-Saleh al-Hussein, Chisom Okafor, Jack Mapanje, Karl Knights, Jane Burn, Naomi Ortiz, Han Mac Tu, Iyanuoluwa Adenle, Kate Davis, Daniel Sluman, Jamie Hale & Nuala Watt.


Closed captions are available for this video by clicking the subtitles button at the bottom of the video player.


VERSUS VERSUS: 100 Poems by Deaf, Disabled & Neurodivergent Poets

https://www.bloodaxebooks.com/ecs/pro...

A Poetry Book Society Recommendation

The word versus means one thing pitched against another. To be versus versus, therefore, is a paradox, but paradox can be helpful – it can open a space for deeper thought. This anthology aims to be such a space. It brings together one hundred deaf, disabled and neurodivergent poets from across the international arena, from emerging voices to world-renowned authors, and offers an urgent redress, unpicking many misapprehensions and misrepresentations.

The reader will encounter poems of love and pain, self-care and companionship; poems which challenge cultural, medical and political agendas and policies. There are war poems, poems as acts of witness and solidarity, poems which address the impact of the climate emergency. There are humorous poems, nature poems, and much more.

The selection also draws together poetry in a wide variety of styles and forms, and from different traditions, such as haiku, renga, sonnet, villanelle, prose poem, performance poem, and sign language.

Building on the work of decades of disability justice advocacy, Versus Versus offers a poetry of assertiveness and immense vitality.
Riyad al-Salih al-Hussein
Rachael Boast

Join us for this launch event for Rachael Boast's international anthology Versus Versus: 100 poems by Deaf, Disabled & Neurodivergent Poets, published on Thursday 22 May. Rachael will be joined by the three poets who helped on the book as its Advocacy and Advisory Panel, Karthika Naïr (India/France), Chisom Okafor (Nigeria) and Daniel Sluman (UK), who also have poems included in the anthology.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=07usV...

The event will also include clips of twelve other poets reading their poems from Versus Versus: Han Mac Tu (Vietnam), Kathryn Gray (Wales), Andy Jackson (Australia), Kate Davis (England), Riyad al-Saleh al Hussein (Syria), Khairani Barokka (Indonesia/UK), Naomi Ortiz (Mexico), Levent Beskardes (Turkey/LSF), Jack Mapanje (Malawi/UK), Jamie Hale (UK), Lateef McLeod (USA) and Nuala Watt (Scotland).

Order your copies:
Ireland & EU: Click here to order from Books Upstairs in Dublin

USA: Click here to order from Bookshop.org
Click here to order from Amazon

Join us for the launch of Rachael Boast's international anthology Versus Versus: 100 poems by Deaf, Disabled & Neurodivergent Poets, published on Thursday 22 May. Rachael will be joined by the three poets who helped on the book as its Advocacy and Advisory Panel, Karthika Naïr (India/France), Chisom Okafor (Nigeria) and Daniel Sluman (UK), who also have poems included in the anthology.

The event will also include film clips of twelve other poets reading their poems from Versus Versus: Han Mac Tu (Vietnam), Kathryn Gray (Wales), Andy Jackson (Australia), Kate Davis (England), Riyad al-Saleh al Hussein (Syria), Khairani Barokka (Indonesia/UK), Naomi Ortiz (Mexico), Levent Beskardes (Turkey/LSF), Jack Mapanje (Malawi/UK), Jamie Hale (UK), Lateef McLeod (USA) and Nuala Watt (Scotland).

This free Bloodaxe launch event will be streamed on YouTube Live and will be available below or here: https://youtube.com/live/07usVjBxJo8. Available to watch live or later via YouTube.

Hope to see you all there!

by: The Markaz Review editors

The Impossible Revolution: Making Sense of the Syrian Tragedy by Yassin al-Haj Saleh, translated by Ibtihal Mahmood (Hurst, 2017)
Under Hafez Assad, Syria’s leading intellectual and revolutionary thinker Yassin al-Haj Saleh was imprisoned from 1980 to 1996. At the start of the Syrian revolution in 2011, he went into hiding moving from city to town, eluding the shabiha, the country’s notorious intelligence services. In 2013, his wife Samira Khalil, a detainee herself and political activist disappeared with the human rights lawyer and civil society activist Razan Zaitouneh, after armed men raided the Violations Document Center, in Douma. In hiding al-Haj Saleh wrote over 380 articles, which provide the basis for this book, which includes a foreword by Robin Yassin Kassab.

Read the full article here: https://themarkaz.org/30-recommended-...

The Impossible Revolution: Making Sense of the Syrian Tragedy

by: Addie Leak

"In this introduction to our collection of Jordanian writing, guest editor Addie Leak details the country's diverse culture and vital literature."

to read the full article, click here:
https://wordswithoutborders.org/read/...

Snow in Amman: An Anthology of Short Stories from Jordan

I salute all the writers, editors, translators, artists, photographers, and every beautiful creative mind who contributed to the creation of this amazing and timely edition of ArabLit Quarterly, immortalizing the memory of Gaza and its people.

https://substack.com/@ibtihalridamahm...

Order your copy from the ArabLit Bookstore or here.

So, I decided to create a little space to share my musings with my fellow netizens. Here, you will find poetry most of the time, with the occasional essay and whatever the muse (and the conscience) demands at the time:

https://iridamahmood.substack.com/

Guest pitches and posts are welcome.