Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

Saqi Books @saqibooks.bsky.social · 2d

Thrilled to see Leila Aboulela awarded the 2025 PEN Pinter Prize!

Her acceptance speech “The Inaccurate Mirror” is powerful and deeply moving.

Read it here via Wasafiri:
www.wasafiri.org/content/the-...

#LeilaAboulela #PENPinterPrize #SaqiBooks

An image of author Leila Aboulela with a quote from her Pen Pinter Prize acceptance speech, 'Justice is the gravity keeping us upright as humans'.

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Saqi Books @saqibooks.bsky.social · 5d

Saqi author Gilbert Achcar joins Savage Minds (@savageminds.substack.com.web.brid.gy) to discuss his book, The Gaza Catastrophe, a vital analysis of the ongoing crisis and its historical roots.

🎧 Listen here → savageminds.substack.com/p/gilbert-ac...

#TheGazaCatastrophe #GilbertAchcar #SaqiBooks

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Saqi Books @saqibooks.bsky.social · 7d

“The inner circles of hell are reserved for those who remain neutral at a time of crisis.”

In @theobserveruk.bsky.social, @selmadabbagh.bsky.social reflects on moral courage and the cost of silence in the face of atrocity.

Read here: observer.co.uk/news/opinion...

“I have been desensitised by the horror. We no longer have the luxury of shock or expectation.”

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Saqi Books @saqibooks.bsky.social · 9d

www.jadaliyya.com/Details/46922

Hamid Keshmirshekan, Contemporary Iranian Art: New Perspectives, Second Edition (New Texts Out Now)

Having worked for decades on the modern and contemporary art of Iran—and the wider Middle East and North Africa (MENA)—and its relationship to discursive movements and socio-political developments, I ...

www.jadaliyya.com

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Saqi Books @saqibooks.bsky.social · 9d

In a new interview with Jadaliyya, art historian Hamid Keshmirshekan discusses how his book, Contemporary Iranian Art, reexamines modern and contemporary art beyond Eurocentric frameworks – centering local contexts, histories and voices.

🔗 Full interview via @jadaliyya.bsky.social

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Saqi Books @saqibooks.bsky.social · 14d

Mai Al-Nakib’s acclaimed short story collection The Hidden Light of Objects – winner of the Edinburgh Book Festival’s 1st Book Award – is finally available for US readers.

Stories that uncover the memories hidden in everyday things.

Ask your local bookstore to order your copy today!

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Reposted by Saqi Books

Shalimar Books @shalimarbooks.bsky.social · 15d

Arab women poets have been writing since the earliest of times, yet for millennia, their diwans (collected poems) were kept in the shadows.
📚💜

This is some of the most beautiful poetry in the world … Timeless.’—Tracy Emin

'Classical Poems by Arab Women'

@saqibooks.bsky.social

#booksky #books

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Saqi Books @saqibooks.bsky.social · 15d

WE'RE HIRING!

We’re looking for a Sales & Marketing Executive who shares our passion for literature and wants to help us bring our authors to readers everywhere.

For more info, head to www.saqibooks.com/careers

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Saqi Books @saqibooks.bsky.social · 20d

'The memorial is no longer a monument structure on land but a wearable object, moving with the body from site to site.'
-Sama Alshaibi

Alshaibi's practice is among 24 contemporary artists featured in Joanna Barakat’s landmark new book, Narrative Threads – out now from Saqi.

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Saqi Books @saqibooks.bsky.social · 20d

'I see my mother and her mother's work in tatreez as a manifestation of identity ... They embroidered, stitched, cut, knitted and clothed our history, memories and future hopes through their handiwork ...'
-Sama Alshaibi

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Saqi Books @saqibooks.bsky.social · 20d

Her practice is among 24 contemporary artists featured in Joanna Barakat’s landmark new book, Narrative Threads – out now from Saqi.

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Saqi Books @saqibooks.bsky.social · 20d

From Narrative Threads: Palestinian Embroidery in Contemporary Art

Sama Alshaibi reframes the Palestinian woman’s body in her work – not as a passive subject for the colonial lens, but as an active site of memory and resistance.

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Reposted by Saqi Books

Eliot Higgins @eliothiggins.bsky.social · 22d

British-Egyptian activist Alaa Abd el-Fattah freed from prison www.theguardian.com/world/2025/s...

British-Egyptian activist Alaa Abd el-Fattah freed from prison

Writer, who has served six years for sharing a Facebook post, was given a presidential pardon

www.theguardian.com

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Saqi Books @saqibooks.bsky.social · Sep 10

From 'Narrative Threads: Palestinian Embroidery in Contemporary Art':

Sliman Mansour painted women in embroidered dresses as symbols of homeland — each stitch preserving memory and defiance.

His work is featured in Joanna Barakat’s book, Narrative Threads. Follow the link in our bio to learn more.

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Saqi Books @saqibooks.bsky.social · Sep 5

Saqi is at the Multicultural Book Fair 🎉 Join us tomorrow (Sat 6 Sept 2025) at Conway Hall, London (10am–4.30pm).

Over 50 publishers & booksellers, plus talks & readings all day. Come say hi - we’ll have a curated selection of bold, diverse & vital books!

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Saqi Books @saqibooks.bsky.social · Sep 4

Contributors include:

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Saqi Books @saqibooks.bsky.social · Sep 4

We are proud to announce 'Love is Resistance':

77 posters by artists, writers & musicians worldwide, standing in solidarity with Palestine.

Hang them. Carry them. Remember.

All proceeds go to @ajyalfoundation, supporting children in Gaza and displaced communities.

Follow link in bio for more.

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Saqi Books @saqibooks.bsky.social · Sep 4

We are thrilled to share the release of 'I’ll Tell You When I’m Home', a lyrical and moving memoir by Hala Alyan.

Tender, searching and deeply resonant, this book speaks to the ties that bind us to one another, and to the places we carry with us.

Out today via Saqi – follow the link in bio.

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Saqi Books @saqibooks.bsky.social · Sep 1

On 12 Sept, 6:30pm, join editor Elias Jahshan at Bookmarks Bookshop (London) for an in-conversation event celebrating This Queer Arab Family.

The anthology brings together 10 LGBTQ+ Arab voices, re-imagining family, kinship and queer joy.

Free tickets — booking required (via Saqi website in Bio)

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Saqi Books @saqibooks.bsky.social · Aug 29

It’s the final weekend of the Saqi Summer Sale!

Take 30% off a curated collection of groundbreaking fiction from the Saqi Bookshelf with code BOOKSHELF30.

Sale ends 31 August at 23:59 BST.

saqibooks.com/subject/saqi...

Saqi Books @saqibooks.bsky.social · Aug 28

Out today: Narrative Threads by Joanna Barakat – a landmark book on Palestinian embroidery reimagined in contemporary art.

24 artists. 200+ works. Essays by leading scholars.
A story of memory, resilience & resistance told in stitches.

Available now from Saqi.
saqibooks.com/books/saqi/n...

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Saqi Books @saqibooks.bsky.social · Aug 22

We mourn the passing of Egyptian novelist Sonallah Ibrahim (1937–2025), whose fearless, unflinching works shaped generations of Arab literature. His voice endures.

We strongly recommend this piece via ArabLit, translated by Emily Drumsta.

ArabLit & ArabLit Quarterly @arablit.bsky.social · Aug 15

Remembering Sonallah Ibrahim: His ‘Arsène Lupin’

Sonallah Ibrahim died this week at the age of 88. His "Arsène Lupin," originally written in the al-Wahat Prison Camp, Western Desert, Egypt, in 1963, appeared in translation in the Summer 2020 CRIME issue of ArabLit Quarterly.

Remembering Sonallah Ibrahim: His ‘Arsène Lupin’

Sonallah Ibrahim died this week at the age of 88. His "Arsène Lupin," originally written in the al-Wahat Prison Camp, Western Desert, Egypt, in 1963, appeared in translation in the Summer 2020 CRIME issue of ArabLit Quarterly.

arablit.org

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Saqi Books @saqibooks.bsky.social · Aug 21

London friends: This Queer Arab Family is coming your way!

Editor Elias Jahshan will be doing a series of events across the city in September, leading up to launch night at Gay’s the Word on 18 Sept.

Full details for each event at our website. Come through and celebrate with us!

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Saqi Books @saqibooks.bsky.social · Aug 19

Book of the Day: 'Discretion' by Faïza Guène

Guène traces the quiet strength of Yamina Taleb – approaching her 70th birthday – navigating family, exile, memory and belonging between Algeria and Paris.

A tribute to a fierce, unspoken love that binds generations.

#Womenintranslation

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Saqi Books @saqibooks.bsky.social · Aug 18

“They said, ‘You are only a woman.’ But I refused to believe them.”

This #WomenInTranslationMonth we’re celebrating Nawal El Saadawi, a founder of Arab feminist literature.

Limited stock – once they’re gone, they’re gone.

30% off this August with code BOOKSHELF30 on saqibooks.co.uk