Morocco

  • A photograph of the interior of city alley. Here, a collection of used mannequins gather outside of a stone archway

    Thirty-Six

    By Malika Moustadraf
    February 8, 2022 Malika Moustadraf
    Photo by Guile Twardowski / Unsplash Malika Moustadraf is a feminist icon in contemporary Moroccan literature, celebrated for her stark interrogation of gender and sexuality in North Africa. “Thi…
  • A bronze statuary of a man

    The Old Man

    By Kebir Ammi
    June 10, 2021 Kebir Ammi
    Photo by NCinDC / Flickr He said: Why must they destroy and destroy again? Why must they forget my face my gestures my voice? Why must they believe in my absence even as I stand in front of them? Why…
  • A picture of a secluded ancient city street where a tree loaded with red blooms sprouts from beside a stone building creating shade for those walking the street

    The Public Scribe

    May 16, 2019 Tahar Ben Jelloun
    Photo of Tétouan by Jean-Louis Potier / Flickr An early novel, L’Écrivain public (The public scribe) is a surrealistic, semi-autobiographical work that imagines the arc of the author’s l…
  • A photo of author Leila Slimani juxtaposed with the cover of the American edition of her book, The Perfect Nanny

    On the Imperfections of the Perfect Nanny

    January 31, 2018 Khalid Lyamlahy
    Leïla Slimani / Photo courtesy of FrenchCulture.org I have barely read any critical pieces on Leïla Slimani’s novel Chanson douce (Gallimard, 2016), winner of the prestigious Prix Goncourt i…
  • Beyond the Barbed Wire: Selected Poems of Abdellatif Laâbi

    Death: A Poem

    June 28, 2016 Abdellatif Laâbi
    Translator’s note: Considered Morocco’s greatest living poet, Abdellatif Laâbi wrote this poem in 1975, roughly three years into his decade-long prison sentence, one of many thousan…
  • Reykjavik, Iceland.

    Novels by poets, the Reykjavik International Literary Festival, and more

    September 11, 2015 WLT
    Reykjavik, Iceland. Photo by Christine Zenino/Flickr News, Reviews, and Interviews  The Reykjavik International Literary Festival continues this weekend and features authors recently featured or revi…
  • Photo: Mohamed Nedali / Source: La Vie écho

    Letter from Morocco

    February 12, 2015 André Naffis-Sahely
    Mohamed Nedali’s debut novel, Morceaux de choix: les amours d’un apprenti-boucher, was selected by Nobel laureate J. M. G. Le Clézio as the winner of the Prix Grand Atlas in 2005. I recen…