ArabKidLitNow! is a collective of translators and children’s book consultants passionate about raising the profile of Arabic writing for young people. We work in various ways to support the translation of Arabic kid lit and YA into English.
To commission a translation or a reader’s report on a children’s or YA book in Arabic, please contact one of the translators via their contact details below. Or email us at arabkidlitnow@gmail.com for recommendations.
Kid lit / YA translators
Sawad Hussain is the winner of two English PEN Translates Awards. She co-teaches a workshop on translating Arabic comics at UK secondary schools via the collective Shadow Heroes. Her most recent translation is the Palestinian resistance novella Passage to the Plaza by Sahar Khalifeh (shortlisted for the 2020 Palestine Book Awards). Contact Sawad: Email | Twitter
Elisabeth Jaquette’s translations from Arabic include Minor Detail by Adania Shibli, The Queue by Basma Abdel Aziz, and Thirteen Months of Sunrise by Rania Mamoun, among others. Her work has been shortlisted for the National Book Award for Translated Literature and the TA First Translation Prize, and longlisted for the Best Translated Book Award and the Warwick Prize for Women in Translation. She is also Executive Director of the American Literary Translators Association (ALTA). Contact Elisabeth: Website | Email
Ruth Ahmedzai Kemp is a literary translator, who translates fiction and non-fiction from Arabic, German and Russian. She has translated children’s and YA books from Germany, Morocco, Palestine, Russia, Switzerland and Syria. Her translation of Palestinian YA novel Trees for the Absentees by Ahlam Bsharat (co-translation with Sue Copeland) was shortlisted for the GLLI Translated YA Prize 2020. Ruth also writes about children’s and YA books in translation at World Kid Lit blog and Russian Kid Lit blog. Contact Ruth: Website | Email | Twitter
Melanie Magidow is the founder of Marhaba Language Expertise, providing Arabic to English translation (specializing in Academic & Literary), English editing, and related Consulting in Arabic language, literature, and culture. She holds a Ph.D. in Middle Eastern Languages and Cultures from the University of Texas at Austin. She has received fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts, the National Endowment for the Humanities, and the Fulbright Commission. She is also a co-host of the Goodreads MENA Lit Book Group. Contact Melanie: Website | Email
Nashwa Nasreldin is a writer, journalist and literary translator. She has translated numerous short stories and two novels, including the 2014 Sheikh Zayed Award winning book, After Coffee, by Abdelrashid Mahmoudi and Shatila Stories, a collaborative novel by nine refugee writers, published by Peirene Press. She is the co-translator with Ruth Ahmedzai Kemp of Samar Yazbek’s memoir, The Crossing: My Journey to the Shattered Heart of Syria and holds an MFA in Writing from the Vermont College of Fine Arts. Contact Nashwa: Website | Email
M. Lynx Qualey is founding editor of the translation-community website ArabLit, which won a 2017 London Book Fair prize. The project has since expanded to ArabKidLitNow!, the ArabLit Story Prize, and the ArabLit Quarterly magazine. MLQ is also co-host of the popular BULAQ podcast, and she writes regularly for a variety of publications. Her translation of Wondrous Journeys in Strange Lands by Sonia Nimr is out now from Interlink. Contact Marcia: Website | Email | Twitter
Hend Saeed is an Iraqi-New Zealander Writer, literary translator and Consultant. She previously worked as Arabic Program Manager at Emirates Airline Festival of Literature. She’s a contributor to ArabLit.org and ArabKidLitNow! Hend has published a collection of stories and writes in various Arabic and English publications. Contact Hend: Email | Phone +971559638956
Anam Zafar is a UK-based literary translator (Arabic and French to English). She won the 2021 Gulf Coast Prize in Translation and the inaugural Stinging Fly New Translator’s Bursary, and was longlisted for the 2021 John Dryden Translation Competition. Her translations have been published by ArabLit Quarterly, Gulf Coast, and The Stinging Fly among others. She also runs translation workshops for young people and volunteers with Project World Kid Lit. Contact Anam: Website | Twitter
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