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Youssef Rakha

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This is an old revision of this page, as edited by Noornaga (talk | contribs) at 08:56, 21 January 2017. The present address (URL) is a permanent link to this revision, which may differ significantly from the current revision.

  • Comment: Hi, try and find a source that covers Youssef Rakha in detail that is read by the general public. That means it should have little to nothing to do with books or authors. If you can get something about him from the New York Times, that would work. Icebob99 (talk) 02:53, 3 January 2017 (UTC)
  • Comment: The only genuinely convincing review here is Publishers weekly and the others are simply too trivial and suggests it's simply too soon; there's no automatic inherited notability from anything or anyone else SwisterTwister talk 00:58, 2 January 2017 (UTC)
  • Comment: Please get rid of the external links within the article text, and provide inline citations throughout the article. Please see WP:REFB for help. Bradv 04:55, 10 December 2016 (UTC)
  • Comment: May be notable, but this still needs all additional in-depth third-party news and reviews overall. SwisterTwister talk 00:38, 29 October 2016 (UTC)
Youssef Rakha in December, 2016

Youssef Rakha (Arabic: يوسف رخا; born on 12 June, 1976 in Cairo, Egypt) is an Egyptian writer.[1][2][3]

Rakha is best known for his first novel, The Book of the Sultan's Seal: Strange Incidents from History in the City of Mars. First published in 2011 as Kitab at-Tugra: Gharaib at-Tarikh fi Madinat al-Marrikh (Arabic: كتاب الطغرى: غرائب التاريخ في مدينة المريخ), the book is studied for its innovative use of Arabic, its postmodern take on the theme of the caliphate, its reimagining of the city of Cairo and its possible significance in the history of Arabic literature. It won the Banipal Seif Ghobash Prize for Paul Starkey’s English translation in 2015, and was published in French in 2016.[4] Since 2011 Rakha has completed two other novels in a proposed trilogy on the January Revolution,The Crocodiles (Arabic: التماسيح) and Paulo (Arabic: باولو), and started writing his first English novel.[5]

Rakha is also known as a photographer and the editor of a bilingual literature and photography site named after his first novel, The Sultan's Seal: Cairo's Coolest Cosmopolitan Hotel. Prior to writing The Book of the Sultan's Seal, he contributed to the coverage of Arab culture in English for many years as a reporter, literary critic and cultural editor at Al-Ahram Weekly, the Cairo-based English-language newspaper where he has worked since graduating with a first class honours BA in English and Philosophy from Hull University, UK, in 1998.[6] He also wrote literary non-fiction and poetry in Arabic, for which he was chosen to participate in the Hay Festival Beirut39 event as one of the 39 best Arab writers under 40. His 2006 photo travelogue Beirut Shi Mahal (Arabic: بيروت شي محل), later translated into Polish, was nominated for the Lettre Ulysses Award for the Art of Reportage. As an English-language essayist and short fiction writer, Rakha has also contributed to numerous publications in the US and the UK.[7]

Books Published

Azhar ash-shams (Arabic: أزهار الشمس; Flowers of the Sun), short stories, Cairo: Dar Sharqiyat, 1999.[8]

Beirut shi mahal (Arabic: بيروت شي محل; Beirut Some Place), photo travelogue, Alexandria: Amkenah Books, 2006.[9]

Bourguiba ala madad (Arabic: بورقيبة على مضض; Bourguiba Reluctantly), part two of Beirut shi mahal (without photos), Beirut: Riyad El-Rayyes, 2008. ISBN 9953213345

Shamal al qahira gharb al filibbin (Arabic: شمال القاهرة غرب الفلبين; North of Cairo, West of the Philippines), travel essays, Beirut: Riyad El-Rayyes, 2009. ISBN 978-9-95321-422-1

Kull amakinina (Arabic: كل أماكننا; All Our Places), poems and essays, Cairo: Dar Al-Ain, 2010. ISBN 978-9-77490-022-8

The Book of the Sultan's Seal: Strange Incidents from History in the City of Mars (Arabic: كتاب الطغرى: غرائب التاريخ في مدينة المريخ), novel, Cairo: Dar Al-Shorouk, 2011. ISBN 978-9-77092-988-1. USA: Interlink, 2015. ISBN 978-1-56656-916-3. Geneva: Éditions Zoé, 2016. ISBN 978-2-88927-378-2

The Crocodiles (Arabic: التماسيح), novel, Beirut: Dar Al-Saqi, 2012. ISBN 978-1-85516-878-7. New York: Seven Stories Press, 2015. ISBN 978-160980-571-5

Paulo (Arabic: باولو), novel, Cairo-Beirut-Tunis: Dar Al-Tanwir, 2016. ISBN 978-977648-358-3

Arab Porn, essay (ebook only), Berlin: 60Pages (long-form collective), 2016. ASIN B01J4YMPZK

References and Further Reading

  1. ^ News outlets that have covered Rakha's work in detail include REUTERS (http://reut.rs/2hUzsk1), QANTARA.DE (https://en.qantara.de/node/24556), AL-BAB (http://al-bab.com/node/2380) and THE NATIONAL (http://www.thenational.ae/arts-lifestyle/abu-dhabi-international-book-fair/youssef-rakha-talks-about-his-new-book-and-his-novel-response-to-the-egyptian-upheaval). 
  2. ^ Rakha is a well-known literary figure in Cairo and Beirut. His work has received regular in-depth coverage in the press since 2006. Newspapers and media outlets that covered Youssef Rakha include AL-AHRAM (http://hadarat.ahram.org.eg/Articles/أدب/يوسف-رخا-باولو-تغتال-خطاب-النشطاء-عن-الربيع-العربي-100516), AKHBAR AL-ADAB (http://www.dar.akhbarelyom.com/issuse/detailze.asp?mag=a&field=news&id=11635), AL-AKHBAR (http://www.al-akhbar.com/node/261898), AS-SAFIR (http://assafir.com/article/234576), AL-QUDS AL-ARABI (http://www.alquds.co.uk/pdfarchives/2009/09/09-17/qad.pdf), AL-ARABI AL-JADID (https://www.alaraby.co.uk/culture/2015/10/21/يوسف-رخا-رواية-خارجة-عن-القائمة-القصيرة), AL-MUSTAQBAL (http://www.almustaqbal.com/v4/article.aspx?type=NP&ArticleID=466662), AL-HAYAT (http://www.alhayat.com/Articles/16052137/-باولو--يوسف-رخا-زعيم-مجهول-للثورة), AN-NAHAR (http://newspaper.annahar.com/article/157516-كتاب--التماسيح-ليوسف-رخا-المثقفون-المبتسرون-في-دوائر-الأوهام-المشتركة), RASEEF22 (http://raseef22.com/culture/2016/11/24/رواية-باولو-الوجه-الآخر-للثورة-المصري/) and 24.UE (http://www.alwasat.ly/ar/news/culture/74777/).
  3. ^ English language reviews of Rakha's books and interviews occasioned by his work have appeared in, among other outlets, PUBLISHER'S WEEKLY (http://www.publishersweekly.com/978-1-56656-991-0 and http://www.publishersweekly.com/978-1-60980-571-5), WORDS WITHOUT BORDERS (http://www.wordswithoutborders.org/dispatches/article/the-city-and-the-writer-in-cairo-with-yousseff), REORIENT magazine (http://www.reorientmag.com/2015/09/youssef-rakha/) and MUSIC AND LITERATURE (http://www.musicandliterature.org/features/2015/3/6/a-conversation-with-youssef-rakha).
  4. ^ For academic interest in The Book of the Sultan's Seal, see Paul Starkey's chapter in Studying Modern Arabic Literature (https://www.cambridge.org/core/books/studying-modern-arabic-literature/strange-incidents-from-history-youssef-rakha-and-his-sultans-seal/1DBD05F1340E11BBA5B60439E20DE38C), Benjamin Koerber's paper in the Journal of Arabic Literature (http://booksandjournals.brillonline.com/content/journals/10.1163/1570064x-12341311) and Anton Shammas's remark on the English publisher's website: http://www.interlinkbooks.com/product_info.php?products_id=3205. For the Banipal Prize, see the Banipal Trust site as well as the Wikipedia page: http://www.banipaltrust.org.uk/prize/award2015.cfm. For the French translation, by Philippe Vigreux, see Éditions Zoé: http://www.editionszoe.ch/livre/le-livre-des-cercles.
  5. ^ BOMB magazine published an extract of The Crocodiles in November 2014: http://bombmagazine.org/article/2000028/from-em-the-crocodiles-em while the literary translation magazine ASYMPTOTE published an extract of Paulo: http://www.asymptotejournal.com/fiction/youssef-rakha-paulo/. See also interview in Banipal 55: http://www.banipal.co.uk/selections/93/319/youssef-rakha.
  6. ^ For Rakha's biography, see the introduction to Beirut39: New Writing from the Arab World edited by Samuel Shimon: https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/489634409, Starkey's chapter in Studying Modern Arabic Literature (footnote 4), Banipal online (http://www.banipal.co.uk/contributors/317/youssef-rakha) and the biographical note on Pro Helvetia's Territory Crossings ( http://territorycrossings.com/writer/youssef-rakha). Rakha's photography is featured on Panorama Mada Masr (https://www.madamasr.com/en/2015/02/26/panorama/u/a-child-of-the-revolution/), Berfrois (http://www.berfrois.com/2014/05/cairo-in-indigo/) and P1xels (http://pixelsatanexhibition.com/?s=youssef+rakha). Rakha's site has helped to introduce significant young writers in Arabic like the Libyan Ali Latife, the Algerian Salah Badis and the Egyptian Mina Nagy; it has featured literary and photographic figures including Bezav Mahmod, Hilary Plum, Niall Griffiths and Pauls Toutonghi. A list of contributors can be found at https://yrakha.com/authors-المؤلفون. See also the Al-Ahram Weekly archives for Rakha's numerous contributions to the Culture and Profile sections especially: http://weekly.ahram.org.eg.  
  7. ^ The Lettre Ulysses Award long list for 2006 is available here: http://www.lettre-ulysses-award.org/authors06/Longlist_2006.html. For the Polish translation of the Beirut travelogue see Dobra Literatura: http://www.dobraliteratura.pl/zapowiedz/144/bejrut_jest_gdzies_tam.html. Publications to which Youssef Rakha has contributed include, among many others, The Atlantic (http://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2014/02/requiem-for-a-suicide-bomber/283770/), The New York Times (http://www.nytimes.com/2013/07/16/opinion/global/egypt-shows-how-political-islam-is-at-odds-with-democracy.html?_r=0), The White Review (http://www.thewhitereview.org/features/hoarseness-a-legend-of-contemporary-cairo/), Guernica (https://www.guernicamag.com/the-boy-jihadi/) and The Kenyon Review (http://www.kenyonreview.org/kr-online-issue/2013-winter/selections/youssef-rakha-342846/).
  8. ^ Azhar ash-shams was reviewed in Al-Ahram Weekly: http://weekly.ahram.org.eg/archive/2000/464/bk5_464.htm.
  9. ^ Reviews of Beirut shi mahal appeared in, among other Arabic newspapers, Al-Ahram (http://www.ahram.org.eg/Archive/2006/3/5/ARTS2.HTM), Al-Ittihad (http://www.alittihad.ae/details.php?id=49197&y=2006) and Asharq Al-Awsat (http://archive.aawsat.com/details.asp?section=19&article=407304&issueno=10312). The text was extracted in German translation in Lettre International 74: https://www.lettre.de/magazin/li-74.
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