Speaking with Obank and Shimon will be Joselyn Michelle Almeida, a member of the magazine’s editorial board, as well as Ahmad Abdulatif, an Egyptian writer whose novel Elias has an excerpt included in issue 2. He will be accompanied by the translator of his work, Covadonga Baratech.
 
Created in England by Margaret Obank and Iraq’s Samuel Shimon in 1997, the journal’s name was chosen to honor Asurbanipal, the last great king of Assyria, who founded the world’s first library in Nineveh. Its initial purpose was to make up for Arab literature’s lacking presence in the English-speaking world and to showcase the current Arab literary scene for readers and publishers.
 
At this point, over 22 years of experience have helped lead to a major shift in attitudes about the translation of Arabic literature into English and from English into other languages. The time has now come for this literature to be translated from Shakespeare’s tongue to Cervantes’.
 
We will be discussing this journey and the important new prospects in the Spanish-speaking world with some of the people appearing in Banipal, issue no. 2., which has a cover by Lebanese painter Zena Assi, as well as short stories, poems, novel excerpts and reviews, complemented by photographs of literary figures.

Banipal was bestowed with the Sheikh Zayed Book Award of 2020, whose funds were instrumental in launching the Spanish version of the journal.

This activity is being held at the same time as the Madrid Book Fair, which is entirely online on this occasion due to the health situation.