Ibtisam Abdallah
Encyclopedia
Ibtisam Abdallah is a noted Iraqi
novelist, short-story writer and literary translator.
She was born in Kirkuk
but has lived mostly in Baghdad
. As of 2001, she had published four novels and one collection of short stories. The best known of her novels is Mesopotamia, published in Baghdad in 2001. The same year, she became the editor-in-chief of Al-Thaqafa Al-Ajnabiyya (Foreign Culture), a quarterly journal devoted to foreign literature and culture, the only one of its kind in Iraq. (The magazine ceased publishing in the aftermath of the US invasion of Iraq in 2003.)
Abdallah has translated several Western literary works into Arabic, notably JM Coetzee's award-winning novel Waiting for the Barbarians
. She has also translated the memoirs of Mikis Theodorakis
and Angela Davis
. Abdallah's writing is known for its juxtaposition of feminist themes with contemporary social and political issues. Some of her short stories have appeared in English translation. She is also well-known in Iraq as a journalist and a television
figure.
Iraqi people
The Iraqi people or Mesopotamian people are natives or inhabitants of the country of Iraq, known since antiquity as Mesopotamia , with a large diaspora throughout the Arab World, Europe, the Americas, and...
novelist, short-story writer and literary translator.
She was born in Kirkuk
Kirkuk
Kirkuk is a city in Iraq and the capital of Kirkuk Governorate.It is located in the Iraqi governorate of Kirkuk, north of the capital, Baghdad...
but has lived mostly in Baghdad
Baghdad
Baghdad is the capital of Iraq, as well as the coterminous Baghdad Governorate. The population of Baghdad in 2011 is approximately 7,216,040...
. As of 2001, she had published four novels and one collection of short stories. The best known of her novels is Mesopotamia, published in Baghdad in 2001. The same year, she became the editor-in-chief of Al-Thaqafa Al-Ajnabiyya (Foreign Culture), a quarterly journal devoted to foreign literature and culture, the only one of its kind in Iraq. (The magazine ceased publishing in the aftermath of the US invasion of Iraq in 2003.)
Abdallah has translated several Western literary works into Arabic, notably JM Coetzee's award-winning novel Waiting for the Barbarians
Waiting for the Barbarians
Waiting for the Barbarians is a novel by the South African-born author J. M. Coetzee, winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature in 2003. The novel was published in 1980. It was chosen by Penguin for its series Great Books of the 20th Century and won both the James Tait Black Memorial Prize and...
. She has also translated the memoirs of Mikis Theodorakis
Mikis Theodorakis
Mikis Theodorakis is one of the most renowned Greek songwriters and composers. Internationally, he is probably best known for his songs and for his scores for the films Zorba the Greek , Z , and Serpico .Politically, he identified with the left until the late 1980s; in 1989, he ran as an...
and Angela Davis
Angela Davis
Angela Davis is an American political activist, scholar, and author. Davis was most politically active during the late 1960s through the 1970s and was associated with the Communist Party USA, the Civil Rights Movement and the Black Panther Party...
. Abdallah's writing is known for its juxtaposition of feminist themes with contemporary social and political issues. Some of her short stories have appeared in English translation. She is also well-known in Iraq as a journalist and a television
Television
Television is a telecommunication medium for transmitting and receiving moving images that can be monochrome or colored, with accompanying sound...
figure.
Works translated into English
- The Nursery, short story, appeared in BanipalBanipalBanipal is an independent literary magazine dedicated to the promotion of contemporary Arab literature through translations in English. It was founded in London in 1998 by Margaret Obank and Samuel Shimon. The magazine is published three times a year...
18 (2003) and Contemporary Iraqi fiction: an anthology (2008) by Shakir M. Mustafa - In the Garden, short story, appeared in Al-Ahram WeeklyAl-Ahram WeeklyAl-Ahram Weekly is an Egyptian English-language weekly broadsheet printed by the Al-Ahram Publishing House in Cairo, Egypt.It was established in 1991 by the Al-Ahram newspaper, which also runs a French-language weekly version, Al-Ahram Hebdo....
in November 1998 in a translation by Denys Johnson-DaviesDenys Johnson-DaviesDenys Johnson-Davies is an eminent Arabic-into-English literary translator who has translated, inter alia, several works by Nobel Prize-winning Egyptian author Naguib Mahfouz, Sudanese author Tayeb Salih, Palestinian poet Mahmud Darwish and Syrian author Zakaria Tamer.Davies, referred to as “the...