Exile, Home, and Migration in Kuwaiti Fiction: Saud Alsanousi in conversation with translator Jonathan Wright

AN EVENING WITH THE WINNER OF THE INTERNATIONAL PRIZE FOR ARABIC FICTION

Middlebury College and the International Prize for Arabic Fiction are proud to present an evening of Arabic literature as part of the FIRST US IPAF BOOK TOUR

Featuring:

Saud Alsanousi, author of the IPAF-winning novel The Bamboo Stalk
Jonathan Wright, award-winning translator of The Bamboo Stalk

Sponsored by: Department of Arabic, Middle East Studies, Rohatyn Center for Global Affairs, Department of English

About the prize:

The International Prize for Arabic Fiction (IPAF) is the most prestigious and important literary prize in the Arab world. Its aim is to reward excellence in contemporary Arabic creative writing and to encourage the readership of high quality Arabic literature internationally through the translation and publication of winning and shortlisted novels in other major languages. 

About The Bamboo Stalk:

“ABSORBING” —THE NEW YORKER

“AMBITIOUS, CULTIVATED AND BRAVE” —FINANCIAL TIMES

WINNER OF THE INTERNATIONAL PRIZE FOR ARABIC FICTION 

THE CONTROVERSIAL AND DARING NOVEL THAT TOOK THE ARAB WORLD BY STORM

Josephine escapes poverty by coming to Kuwait from the Philippines to work as a maid, where she meets Rashid, an idealistic only son with literary aspirations. Josephine, with all the wide-eyed naivety of youth, believes she has found true love. But when she becomes pregnant, and with the rumble of war growing ever louder, Rashid bows to family and social pressure, and sends her back home with her baby son, José.

Brought up struggling with his dual identity, José clings to the hope of returning to his father’s country when he is eighteen. He is ill-prepared to plunge headfirst into a world where the fear of tyrants and dictators is nothing compared to the fear of ‘what will people say’. And with a Filipino face, a Kuwaiti passport, an Arab surname and a Christian first name, will his father’s country welcome him?

The Bamboo Stalk takes an unflinching look at the lives of foreign workers in Arab countries and confronts the universal problems of identity, race and religion.

About the author:

Saud Alsanousiis an award-winning Kuwaiti novelist and journalist, born in 1981. His debut novel The Bamboo Stalk won the International Prize for Arabic Fiction. His work has appeared in a number of Kuwaiti publications, including Al-Watan newspaper and Al-Arabi, Al-Kuwait and Al-Abwab magazines and he currently writes for Al-Qabas newspaper.

About the translator:

Jonathan Wright studied Arabic, Turkish, and Islamic civilization at St John’s College, Oxford. He joined Reuters news agency in 1980 as a correspondent, and has been based in the Middle East for most of the last three decades. He translated numerous novels from Arabic, including, most recently, Ahmed Saadawi’s award-winning novel Frankenstein in Baghdad.  He won the 2016 Banipal Prize for Arabic Literary Translation for his translation of The Bamboo Stalk.