Three Arab writers, Samuel Shimon, Zaher al-Ghafri and Saïd Khatibi, met at Casa Árabe’s headquarters in Madrid to discuss Banipal magazine as a showcase for modern Arab literature.

The conference is available in Arabic on our Youtube channel: youtu.be/8TW-7mGntzA

Ashurbanipal was the last of Assyria’s kings. He created the Library of Nineveh, the first to collect and organize material systematically, and the reason why the Epic of Gilgamesh has survived until the modern day. In the summer of 1997, the couple made up of Iraqi writer Samuel Shimon and British publisher Margaret Obank founded the Banipal Magazine of Modern Arab Literature, with the hope of counteracting the marginalization of Arab authors on the world literary scene.

Through the translation and publication of Arab writers into English, Banipal forged a new path and became a highly regarded showcase for literary works. A quarter of a century after its publication in the United Kingdom, and after many meetings with Arabists, translators, poets, writers and readers, a clear lack of translations of Arab literature into Spanish was found. This gave rise to the year 2020 appearance of the Spanish-language version of Banipal magazine.

Today, after the launch of the sixth issue of Banipal in Spanish for Winter 2021, the magazine continues to serve as a vital laboratory for creative expressions reflecting the Arab cultural landscape, whether in poetry, short stories, novels or other genres of literature. Casa Arabe invited three writers, Zaher al-Ghafri, Saïd Khatibi and Samuel Shimon, who is also the editor-in-chief of Banipal, to discuss the current state of Arab literature, its near future and the challenges faced by its creators. The Syrian poet Rasha Omran is also scheduled to attend, through a recorded video sent in from Cairo.

Further information: en.casaarabe.es/event/presentatio…gazine-in-spanish