I. Rida Mahmood's Blog, page 4
January 14, 2021
On American Democracy and Empire, a Corrective
by: I. Rida Mahmood
The next US Secretary of State Antony Blinken prefers to think of the past four years as an “aberration and not representative of what America is and aspires to be.” However, the riot at the Capitol Building in Washington D.C. and its aftermath might have exposed a deep-seated authoritarian, anti-democratic mindset among Republicans—one that predates Trump.
Read the full article on The Markaz Review here.
The next US Secretary of State Antony Blinken prefers to think of the past four years as an “aberration and not representative of what America is and aspires to be.” However, the riot at the Capitol Building in Washington D.C. and its aftermath might have exposed a deep-seated authoritarian, anti-democratic mindset among Republicans—one that predates Trump.
Read the full article on The Markaz Review here.
November 3, 2020
The Flying Flesh of Amjad Nasser’s ‘Adam’s Kingdom’
by: I. Rida Mahmood
The slender poetry collection مملكة آدم (Adam’s Kingdom) was the last book by the celebrated Jordanian poet, novelist, and travel writer Amjad Nasser (1955-2019).
Read the full review on Arablit.org here.
مملكة آدم
أمجد ناصر
The slender poetry collection مملكة آدم (Adam’s Kingdom) was the last book by the celebrated Jordanian poet, novelist, and travel writer Amjad Nasser (1955-2019).
Read the full review on Arablit.org here.
مملكة آدم
أمجد ناصر
July 20, 2020
6 by Elias Farkouh (1948-2020)
by: ArabLit.org, published on July 16, 2020
Yesterday, Jordanian novelist and publisher Elias Farkouh died of a heart attack at 72:
Farkouh — winner of a wide range of literary awards — wrote and published over the course of five decades. A few of his works have appeared in English translation, most recently in the magazine The Common, where Jordanian writer Hisham Bustani is an editor.
Read more:
https://arablit.org/2020/07/16/6-by-e...
Yesterday, Jordanian novelist and publisher Elias Farkouh died of a heart attack at 72:
Farkouh — winner of a wide range of literary awards — wrote and published over the course of five decades. A few of his works have appeared in English translation, most recently in the magazine The Common, where Jordanian writer Hisham Bustani is an editor.
Read more:
https://arablit.org/2020/07/16/6-by-e...
March 29, 2020
Which 9 Arab Poets Are Featured in the New Two Lines Anthology ‘Home’?
by: Arablit.org
As Ibtihal Mahmood writes in an introduction to poet Riyad al-Salih al-Hussein, “Thirty-five years after his death, at the age of 28, Riyad al-Saleh al-Hussein’s poems remain bold, invincible, and “simple like water, clear like a bullet” — with a breathtaking prophetic trait immersed in blue.” His work has been translated by Mahmood and published on ArabLit.
Read more on ArabLit.org:
https://arablit.org/2020/03/19/which-...
رياض الصالح الحسين
Riad Al-Saleh Al-Hussein
As Ibtihal Mahmood writes in an introduction to poet Riyad al-Salih al-Hussein, “Thirty-five years after his death, at the age of 28, Riyad al-Saleh al-Hussein’s poems remain bold, invincible, and “simple like water, clear like a bullet” — with a breathtaking prophetic trait immersed in blue.” His work has been translated by Mahmood and published on ArabLit.
Read more on ArabLit.org:
https://arablit.org/2020/03/19/which-...
رياض الصالح الحسين
Riad Al-Saleh Al-Hussein
February 11, 2020
Your Early Valentine's Day Poem: Loss is an Old Friend
"Loss is an old friend with holes in her hands." —no one
A wolf with sharp metaphors,
I was brave enough to let you
in
I'll wear my courage like a little red dress
under the Damascene rain
It is too opaque for God's eyes
to penetrate me
//
Mold grows between my breasts
I had a lover who left me for the woman I hid under my tongue
He left his kisses in the ashtray
Four years ----
The lips of war have grown too large.
Posted on allpoetry.com on Feb 11, 2020
A wolf with sharp metaphors,
I was brave enough to let you
in
I'll wear my courage like a little red dress
under the Damascene rain
It is too opaque for God's eyes
to penetrate me
//
Mold grows between my breasts
I had a lover who left me for the woman I hid under my tongue
He left his kisses in the ashtray
Four years ----
The lips of war have grown too large.
Posted on allpoetry.com on Feb 11, 2020
January 22, 2019
"Snow in Amman" on the Council on Foreign Relations
Winter Storm Reading
Snow- and Middle East–themed reading for this weekend's winter storm.
Blog Post by Steven A. Cook
January 22, 2016 5:00 pm (EST)
Orhan Pamuk’s 2002 novel, Snow, translated by Maureen Freely.
The literary compendium edited and translated by Ibtihal Mahmood and Alexander Haddad, Snow in Amman: An Anthology of Short Stories from Jordan.
And one for the kids: Deborah Da Costa’s Snow in Jerusalem, with illustrations by Cornelius Van Wright and Ying-Hwa Hu—a Madelyn and Mia Cook favorite.
https://www.cfr.org/blog/winter-storm...
Snow- and Middle East–themed reading for this weekend's winter storm.
Blog Post by Steven A. Cook
January 22, 2016 5:00 pm (EST)
Orhan Pamuk’s 2002 novel, Snow, translated by Maureen Freely.
The literary compendium edited and translated by Ibtihal Mahmood and Alexander Haddad, Snow in Amman: An Anthology of Short Stories from Jordan.
And one for the kids: Deborah Da Costa’s Snow in Jerusalem, with illustrations by Cornelius Van Wright and Ying-Hwa Hu—a Madelyn and Mia Cook favorite.
https://www.cfr.org/blog/winter-storm...
December 20, 2018
Ibtihal Mahmood: Syrian Intellectual Yassin al-Haj Saleh’s First English Translator
Ibtihal Mahmood, a spring 2018 graduate of the Middle East Studies MA program, recently translated into English The Impossible Revolution: Making Sense of the Syrian Tragedy by Yassin al-Haj Saleh (Hurst, 2017). This is the first book by Saleh to appear in English, who is widely regarded as Syria’s foremost thinker and the intellectual guru of the Syrian uprising. This important work has been reviewed by the New York Journal of Books and The Times Literary Supplement. In the interview below, Ibtihal Mahmood discusses the process of translating Saleh’s writing from Arabic to English and its impact on her.
To read the full interview, click on the following link:
https://jsis.washington.edu/mideast/n...
To read the full interview, click on the following link:
https://jsis.washington.edu/mideast/n...
June 25, 2018
RECOMMENDED READING: MOLLY CRABAPPLE ON THE SYRIAN WAR
by Molly Crabapple
The Impossible Revolution is a nuanced look at the Syrian struggle from one of Syria’s foremost leftist thinkers. Yassin al-Haj Saleh was imprisoned for 16 years as a political dissident, and now spends his days in exile in Turkey, advocating on behalf of Syria. This, his first book in English, offers critiques and analysis on the country’s destruction and an insider’s view on how the Syrian war has affected the Syrian people and the rest of the world.
Read the full article here:
https://pen.org/recommended-reading-m...
The Impossible Revolution is a nuanced look at the Syrian struggle from one of Syria’s foremost leftist thinkers. Yassin al-Haj Saleh was imprisoned for 16 years as a political dissident, and now spends his days in exile in Turkey, advocating on behalf of Syria. This, his first book in English, offers critiques and analysis on the country’s destruction and an insider’s view on how the Syrian war has affected the Syrian people and the rest of the world.
Read the full article here:
https://pen.org/recommended-reading-m...
February 21, 2018
Amjad Nasser’s ‘Here is the Rose’: ‘We Can No Longer Tell Tragedy from Farce
By Ibtihal Mahmood
How can revolutionaries score victories in a world that presents them with nightmarish conditions, tattered traditions, and overused metaphors? In his second novel, Here is the Rose, acclaimed Jordanian poet and novelist Amjad Nasser probes deep into the tensions between the old and the new; the classic and the modern; tradition and innovation.
Read the full review by following the link:
https://arablit.org/2018/02/22/amjad-...
هنا الوردة
How can revolutionaries score victories in a world that presents them with nightmarish conditions, tattered traditions, and overused metaphors? In his second novel, Here is the Rose, acclaimed Jordanian poet and novelist Amjad Nasser probes deep into the tensions between the old and the new; the classic and the modern; tradition and innovation.
Read the full review by following the link:
https://arablit.org/2018/02/22/amjad-...
هنا الوردة
January 17, 2018
Three Poems by Riyad al-Saleh al-Hussein: ‘Simple Like Water, Clear Like a Bullet’
Decades after the death of Syrian poet Riyad al-Saleh al-Hussein, his words remain alive among readers:
By Ibtihal Mahmood
Thirty-five years after his death, at the age of 28, Riyad al-Saleh al-Hussein’s poems remain bold, invincible, and “simple like water, clear like a bullet” — with a breathtaking prophetic trait immersed in blue.
Read the full article at:
https://arablit.org/2018/01/18/three-...
By Ibtihal Mahmood
Thirty-five years after his death, at the age of 28, Riyad al-Saleh al-Hussein’s poems remain bold, invincible, and “simple like water, clear like a bullet” — with a breathtaking prophetic trait immersed in blue.
Read the full article at:
https://arablit.org/2018/01/18/three-...
