The Arab Archipelago: three contemporary voices

Le Soudan and Libya are two very dynamic countries on the contemporary Arab literary scene; yet they are little known to French-speaking readers. In The Enclosure of the Slaves (Philippe Rey, 2026), the Libyan novelist Najwa Bin Chatwan addresses the delicate subject of the legacy of the trans-Saharan slave trade in Libya. She will come to talk about it at Passa Porta in the company of her translator Souad Labbize. Another guest of the evening, the Sudanese writer and journalist Hammour Ziada will come to talk about how he wrote The Incident of the Lost Bread and Other Comical Affairs (Actes Sud, 2026), a humorous novel about the Sudanese political scene. Hammour Ziada will be in conversation with Marcella Rubino, his French translator. These two fascinating dialogues will be interspersed with a reading in Arabic of poems by Asmaa Azaizeh (Palestine). This three-part evening will be moderated by the translator and specialist in Arab languages and literatures Xavier Luffin. *Archipelagos is a Europe Créative project launched in January 2024. Archipelagos aims to bring to light the linguistic diversity of European literature, relying on the expertise of literary translators and strengthening that of other book professionals. About the authors and translators Hammour Ziada is a Sudanese writer and journalist, born in Khartoum in 1977. He has worked for charitable organizations, and as a journalist for several Sudanese newspapers, including Al-Mustaqilla, Ajras al-Horriya and Al-Jarida. He was editor-in-chief of the cultural section of the Sudanese daily Al-Akhbar. He is the author of several works of fiction, including two translated into French: Les Noyées du Nil (Actes Sud, 2022) and The Incident of the Lost Bread and Other Comical Affairs (Actes Sud, 2026). Marcella Rubino is a senior lecturer in Arabic language and literature at Inalco, where she teaches language, literature, and literary translation. She is also a literary translator from Arabic into French and into Italian, and an interpreter. An agrégée in Arabic language and a PhD in modern Arabic literature, Marcella Rubino has specialized in the study of ultra-contemporary fiction, in particular Egyptian, Iraqi, and Sudanese. As a translator, she has published Les Noyées du Nil (Actes Sud, 2022) and The Incident of the Lost Bread and Other Comical Affairs (Actes Sud 2026) by Hammour Ziada, La Luciole (in Apulée, Zulma, 2022) and Il corvo che s’innamorò di me (Emuse, 2026), by Abdelaziz Baraka Sakin. Asmaa Azaizeh is a Palestinian poet based in London, born in Galilee, and having lived until recently in Haifa. She is the author of four poetry collections and an autobiographical narrative. In 2010, she received the first book award given by the Fondation Al Qattan. Her poetry has been translated into numerous languages. Most recently, her collection Don’t Believe Me If I Talk of War has been translated into Dutch, Swedish, and French. Her work oscillates between the page and performance. She is distinguished by a direct and incisive language, and by her refusal to look away from violence, while remaining attentive to fragile forms of hope. Najwa Bin Shatwan is a Libyan novelist and academic. She is the author of six novels and her literary work also includes several short story collections, an autobiographical narrative, and a play. Her works have been translated into English, French, Italian, and Greek, notably her novel The Enclosure of the Slaves (Philippe Rey, 2026), translated into French by Souad Labbize. She is the first Libyan female writer to have been shortlisted for the International Prize for Arabic Fiction (IPAF), in 2017, with this novel. As part of Archipelagos, her short story The Burglar with the White Socks was translated into French by Lola Maselbas and published in the journal Graminées in 2025. Souad Labbize was born in Algiers in 1965 and lives today in Toulouse. A poet, novelist, and anthologist, she translates poetic and narrative fiction texts from modern Arabic. Notably, she received the Le Prix Ibn-Khaldoun-Senghor for her translation of the novel Le Désastre of the House of Notables, from the Tunisienne Amira Ghenim. She has just translated the novel The Enclosure of the Slaves, by the Libyenne Najwa Bin Schatwan, co-published by Philippe Rey editions in France and Barzakh, in Algeria. About the moderator Xavier Luffin is a professor of Arabic language and literature at the Université libre de Bruxelles (ULB), a member of the Académie Royale de Belgique and the Académie Royale of Overseas Sciences. He is the author of several works on Arabic literature as well as numerous translations (novels, theater, poetry, short stories, travel narratives) from Arabic, notably four novels by Abdelaziz Baraka Sakin, including Les Jango (Zulma editions) for which he received the Grand Prix de Traduction of the City of Arles 2020 and Le corbeau qui m’aimait (Zulma editions) for which he has just received, with the author, the Prix Laure Bataillon. About the interpreter A translator, researcher (ULB-FNRS) and teacher, Yousra Hamiham specializes in the didactics of German and Arabic. Editorial assistant for the Journal of Literary Multilingualism (De Gruyter-Brill), she dedicates her research to Arabic dialectology, literary multilingualism, and digraphy.