Moroccan author Karima Ahdad was the winner of this year’s Arabic Flash Fiction contest run by ArabLit and Komet Kashakeel, which saw more than 900 entries from around the world. We read her award-winning story in Katherine Van de Vate’s discussion and discuss patriarchy, story creation, and what it means to write “feminist” work.

Show Notes:

Karima was also shortlisted for an earlier edition of the ArabLit Story Prize. You can read her shortlisted story, “The Baffling Case of the Man Called Ahmet Yilmaz,” in Katherine Van de Vate’s translation.

Katherine also translated an excerpt of Karima’s The Cactus Girls for The Markaz Review.

You can read a conversation between Karima and Katherine about Cactus Girls on arablit.

You can find more about all Karima’s books at her website, karimaahdad.com.

On the topic of the “political” novel, we mentioned Rabih Alameddine’s new book, Comforting Myths.

The Arabic Flash Fiction prize is funded by the British Council’s Beyond Literature Borders programme corun by Speaking Volumes Live Literature Productions. Find all the finalists at ArabLit.

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