A short story from Yemen

Yemen has been in the headlines a lot recently. And because there is always more to every country than what the media would have us think, I think it's more important than ever that a diverse range of Yemeni voices can be heard. That's why I'm excited to announce that in December, I was named as one of two runners-up in the 2023 Emerging Translators' Prize organised by Comma Press. As a result, I have been commissioned to translate a short story by a Yemeni author, which I'll render from Arabic into English for the upcoming Book of Sana'a - an anthology of short stories about the capital of Yemen.

Back in July 2023, I took part in Bristol Translates, a literary translation summer school run by the University of Bristol. Thanks to this opportunity, I was able to enter the Comma Press Emerging Translators' Competition, which is organised each year in conjunction with the summer school. The language of choice in 2023 was Arabic - and we were tasked with translating an excerpt from a short story by Yemeni author Afaf al-Qubati.

To read more about the competition, as well as the winner and other runner-up, click here.

Image credit: Mohammad Mansour on Unsplash

https://unsplash.com/@m_m_77?utm_source=wix-media-manager&utm_medium=referral