Date: Saturday, August 7, 2010, 5:00 p.m.

Chapter: Illinois

Speaker: Farouk Mustafa, University of Chicago

Location: The Oriental Institute, LaSalle Bank Room

This lecture is free and open to the public. For more information, please call 773-702-1062 or visit arcechicago.com. 

Description: Egypt has a thriving community of modern fiction writers who explore the full gamut of social and political issues through drama, comedy, and parody. Increasingly, contemporary Egyptian works of fiction are being translated into English. In this talk, noted translator Farouk Mustafa (Farouk Abdel Wahab) will discuss trends in contemporary fiction as well as the challenges that a translator faces.

About the Speaker: Farouk Mustafa is the Ibn Rushd Professorial Lecturer in Modern Arabic Language in the Department of Near Eastern Languages and Civilization at the University of Chicago. Under the name Farouk Abdel Wahab he is the translator of a wide variety of Arabic novels including No One Sleeps in Alexandria, The Lodging House, Love in Exile, Zayni Barakat and A Certain Woman. His most recent and highly praised translation was of Alaa Al Aswany’s novel Chicago.