Machaho Tellem Chaho

"I Arabise the Italian and Italianise the Arabic." Amara Lakhous. Amara Lakhous was born in Algiers, in 1970. He writes in Italian now, but he wrote his first novel(s) in Arabic. His first novel was published in Italy as a bilingual edition ( Le Cimici e Il Pirata - the Bug and the Pirate ) . He is Kabyle and polyglot (Kabyle, Arabic, French, Italian) and currently based in Rome. He studied Philosophy in Algiers and emigrated in Italy, Rome, in 1995.  Of his leaving Algeria he said "I was tired of waiting for my murderers".  Another Black Decade, or red Decade,   exil é .   In Italy, he earned a second degree in Cultural Anthropology, writing about Muslim-Arab immigrants in Italy and this is may have given birth to this second novel. Scontro di civiltà per un ascensore a Piazza Vittorio was published in 2006 in Italy and was published in translation in English in 2008 as Clash of Civilizations Over an Elevator in Piazza Vittorio (tran...

Boualem Sansal gave a radio interview to France Culture on 21 of June (2012) HERE , in part to talk about the kerfuffle of visiting Israel and the hypocritical Gulf states’ attempt to block his winning the Prize for the Arab Novel as a punishment for that visit. Anyways, in the last part of the interview Sansal speaks of the upcoming celebrations on 5 th July in Algeria, organised for the 50 th anniversary of the country’s independence.   His comments are quite insightful.   Sansal says: “We are now in 2012 and the question must be put: will the conditions imposed for security reasons enable a popular celebration or will we remain stuck to the old format of a State celebration. “Up until the 90s, when the 5 th of July was celebrated it was an official celebration, a little like the 14 th of July if you like, on the Champs Elysees, that’s how it was… People participated sure, some voluntarily but others… well they were kind of forced to… “We had be...

Aziz Chouaki is an Algerian novelist and playright who writes in French.  Born in 1951. Translated in English, notably The Star of Algiers (L'étoile d'Alger) published in French in 2002 by Editions Balland, its translation in 2005 by Grayworld Press. Two translators worked on the English version of The Star of Algiers : Ros Schwartz, who specialises in translating French fiction, and Lulu Norman who specifically translates North African authors.  This is the best translation of a North African francophone author that I have come across so far and this must be due to two minds peering over the draft from their own speciality's perspective. I've just finished reading it and it has torn my soul to pieces, as every time I read novels from Algerian authors writing about Algeria. It's just so damn raw and real and tender and gutwrenching and honourable and humane and alive and....  Algerian fiction is closer to first-hand witness accounts of the modern hi...

On the Steps of Cervantes in Algiers (2008) is a discussion in Arabic - with a French translation next to it - by Waciny Laredj on Algeria's past and present, the development of the Algerian novel.... and Cervantès.  It reads as a reflection on the Algerian collective-self.  I have it tagged for my next next reading but from the first two pages I was struck by the following.  Let me translate (emphasis in the text are my own) : "Chance, sometimes, works things well; unfortunately, men don't manage as much.  In the second century and the tenth century, Algeria saw the emergence and the passage of two emblematic figures: Lucius Apulée and Miguel de Cervantès.  Both founders of an atypical genre: the novel.  Their texts are foundation stones, 'The Golden Ass' and 'Don Quichotte', who were born fully or partially on Algerian soil, altered the face of literature on a universal scale.  However, this is never spoken of in Al...

Waciny Laredj's Les Fantômes de Jérusalem [The ghosts of Jerusalem]. This novel looks like it is this author's latest translated novel to have appeared in French.  It was out on 4 May 2012 published by Actes Sud.  Cant' wait to get my hands on it, definitely my next read after Aziz Chouaki . Waciny Laredj (al-3aradj الأعرج ) is a contemporary Algerian novelist who writes in Arabic.  Born in 1954. He has been translated in French quite widely but no English. I mean NONE (that I can find).  Darn it, can someone please translate him into English! The fantastic ArabLit blog compiled an excellent profile for him HERE .

"Children, I come back today To tell you a story of the long dark way That I had to climb, that I had to know In order that the race might live and grow. Look at my face — dark as the night — Yet shining like the sun with love's true light" Langston Hughes Hughes' poem is not suited in full to the picture, but you should know about it all the same. HERE . Photo via Radio Trottoir HERE on FB this morning. A thought for my 'olive groves' ♥ .

I just came upon this on Twitter via @sissinettedk Notice the photo caption : FOR 19 YEAR-OLD AMINE TIGHRI TO FEEL THAT HE IS STILL ALIVE AND TO REMIND HIMSELF OF HIS BIGGEST DREAM, TO FLEE FROM ALGERIA, HE HAS TATOOED HIMSELF ON HIS STOMACH WITH NEEDLE AND MASCARA: I WANT TO LIVE – BUT WHERE AND WITH WHOM? PLAGUED BY 50 PERCENT OF UNEMPLOYMENT AMONG 18 TO 30 YEAR-OLDS, LACK OF OPPORTUNITY, CORRUPTION AND A GROWING POPULATION OF YOUNG PEOPLE, ALGERIA COULD BE NEXT IN ‘THE ARAB SPRING’. (couldn't quite catch the name of the photographer...) PHOTO : CHRISTIAN OLS

  Algerian poet Zeinab Laouedj was born in 1954, in Maghnia (Tlemcen).  She writes in Arabic and is translated in French (all be it seldom). I have not found her translated in English. The latest French translation of her work I've found is in this collection of texts by Algerian writers and poets called Paroles d'Algériens : Ecrire pour résister dans l'Algerie du XXè Siècle (2003). In the above collection, you can find her poem 'Le Palmier' [The Palm Tree] dedicated to Abdelkader Alloua, the Algerian playwright assassinated on 10 March 1994, and to the poet Youcef Sebti assassinated on 27 December 1993: "Mon pays My country Je suis un Lion I am a Lion Et je vous ferai trembler And I will make you tremble Jusque dans vos forêts Up til your forests Moi le Fou Me, the Crazed Fou par amour de sa patrie Mad for the love of his land Où nul fou Where ...