*This episode originally aired Robin Hood Radio on Friday, October 27, 2017*
[soundcloud url=”https://api.soundcloud.com/tracks/348192622″ params=”color=#ff5500&auto_play=false&hide_related=false&show_comments=true&show_user=true&show_reposts=false&show_teaser=true&visual=true” width=”100%” height=”300″ iframe=”true” /]
In this episode, Associate Director of Human Rights Radio, Danielle Riou, and Professor of Arabic Literature, Dina Ramadan, interview Rasha Abbas and Alice Guthrie on the collaboration process of translation. Interwoven with the interview are Arabic and English readings by Rasha and Alice of Rasha’s short stories.
Rasha Abbas was born and raised in Lattakia, Syria, and worked as a television journalist in Damascus. She started writing short stories in the mid 2000s, and published her first collection, titled Adam Hates the Television, in 2008, for which she was awarded a prize for young writers at the Damascus Capital of Arab Culture festival.
Her story, titled A Plate of salmon is never fully cleansed of blood, and which Rasha will read in this program, first appeared in English in the 2014 Anthology Syria Speaks: Art and Culture from the Frontline, and gained international attention.
Since her visit to Bard, she’s held a number of fellowships and residencies both in Europe and in North America, and settled in Berlin, where she continues to write prolifically. Her second collection of stories, titled How German Grammar was Invented, was published in 2016.
Related Interviews with Rasha Abbas:
Interview with Rasha Abbas, “Comedy is the Best Way”; Goethe-Institut China, August 2016
‘We Can’t Compete in Writing’ with Rasha Abbas; Schloss Post, November 27, 2015
Related Interviews with Alice Guthrie:
Meet the Translator: Alice Guthrie; Free Word, March 18, 2014
Additional Live Reading :
Rasha Abbas and Alice Guthrie reading ‘The Gist of It’; The Massachusetts Review, November 17, 2015
Alice Guthrie reading Zaher Omareen’s ‘Milk’; The Massachusetts Review, September 14, 2015
Outro music:
Media Bketzob by Assasi ft. DJ Lethal Skillz
More from Assasi:
Comments Closed