The Mosaic Rooms are delighted to celebrate the publication of Rasha al-Ameer’s novel Judgment Day in its English translation. Rasha will be in conversation with her translator Jonathan Wright, and there will be readings from the novel in both Arabic and English, on:

Wednesday 25th April 2012, at 7pm

Rasha al Ameer is a Lebanese novelist and publisher. She began writing while a student in Paris, with articles in the Arabic-language magazines An-Nahar al Arabi wal Douwali and Al Watan al Arabi. On her return to Lebanon she co-founded the avant-garde publishing house, Dar al Jadid, which has published works by former Iranian President Sayyed Mohammad Khatami and the late Palestinian poet Mahmoud Darwish. Judgment Day was first published in Arabic in 2002 as ‘Yawm el Din’ and has gone through six editions: three in Lebanon, two in Algeria, and one in Egypt. A French version, translated by Youssef Seddik, was published by Actes Sud Sindbad in 2009. Her devotion to the classical Arabic language is apparent throughout her writings.

Jonathan Wright studied Arabic and Islamic history at St John’s College, Oxford, and subsequently spent 30 years working for the international news agency Reuters, mainly in the Arab world. He turned to literary translation about four years ago, starting with Khaled el-Khamissi’s Taxi. Since then he has translated Azazeel by Youssef Ziedan (winner of the International Prize for Arabic Fiction in 2009), a collection of short stories by Iraqi writer Hassan Blassim, Sleepwalkers by Saad Makkawi, The State of Egypt (political essays by Alaa el-Aswany), Judgment Day by Rasha el-Ameer, and Life on Hold by Saudi writer Fahd al-Ateeq. He is now working on Haithu La Tasqut al-Amtar, a novel by Jordanian poet Amjad Nasser.

rsvp@mosaicrooms.org / 020 7370 9990