It’s been a good first half of the year. 2023 has not been quite as busy as 2022, but that was intentional – after three very full years with nearly constant activity since 2020, when I was part of BBC Words First and laying the groundwork for Between Two Islands, I’ve needed some downtime. Though this list will be a bit shorter than previous ones – the roundup is focused on published works and completed projects – there have been a lot of projects I’ve been pushing forward in the background here, ones which will hopefully bear fruit in the not too distant future.

Manchester Multilingual City Poet

My post as one of Manchester’s three inaugural city poets was renewed for 2023, alongside Jova Bagioli-Reyes and Anjum Malik. You can see me speaking about this at the start of the International Mother Languages Festival at the Central Library here. Al-Usra wal-Sufra (see here) was exhibited at the Central Library too! There is a lot more coming from the city poets this coming year, but that will be in the autumn.

‘On the Rain’s Bow’ – ArabLit Quarterly

In April, ArabLit Quarterly published its latest issue – RAIN. I collab’d with Zainab Almahdi (long time collaborator and editor friend who made the Return of Um Hmaar comic for ALQ’s FOLK issue) to create this short little comic for the RAIN issue. I translated a selection of children’s rhymes about rain and storyboarded the comic which Zainab brought to life so vividly. The children’s rhymes all come from the book Min Turath Sha’ab al-Bahrayn by Mulla Muhammad Ali Al-Nasiri, the poet and local historian who captured so much of Baharna traditions in his books. You can see a snippet here and buy the issue to see the full comic.

Articles and Interviews

I’ve had several pieces published recently related to and beyond the realm of pure poetry.

In March, I published a piece on WorldKidLit Blog about bringing multilingualism and translation into the English classroom. I largely keep my work as a teacher separate from my work as a poet, at least on digital platforms, but it’s frequently impossible – being an English teacher always gives me opportunities to be a poet amongst the astounding young creatives I teach. Anyway, this blog – and I have to thank Ruth Ahmadzai Kemp for editing the original, which was an academic essay towards my Post-Graduate Diploma in Education, into the piece you see here – is a reflection on how to bring translation into the English classroom.

In April, Modern Poetry in Translation published my interview with poet/translator duo Najwan Darwish and Kareem James Abu-Zeid; I really can say nothing more than set aside 20 minutes and read this! Both Najwan and Kareem are such great speakers, and the interview shimmers with their insights and reflections on literature, art and the process of translation.

In June, I published An Island Without a Sea: Bahrain Odyssey with The Markaz Review, and it is honestly my favourite single thing I’ve written this year. The piece is a sweeping journey across 5,000 years of history and poetry, beginning in ancient Dilmun and ending in the year 2123 in a dystopian vision of the ruined remains of Bahrain’s environment. I feel incredibly strongly about the Bahraini landscape and the unwise destruction of it that we have witnessed in my lifetime.

The piece ends with a poem, which I had originally written in Arabic and translated into English: Iftar at the Great Shoals City, 2123. Have a read on Markaz’s website and enjoy.

Other things…

This little list doesn’t quite do justice to the last six months! In the meantime, I’ve also completed my Post-Graduate Diploma of Education, which brings two (and in a real way, three) years of teacher training to an end… hopefully, freeing my time up for newer projects. There is also a very cool poetry/photography project which is pending publication. I have also completed a major redraft of my novel (which I hope to start talking about more someday SOON), written a long biography of my poet ancestor Mulla Atiyya Al-Jamri (20,000 words and going, written in the apex of a winter’s gloom) and started on several new translations. And I have weathered the disappointment of many, many rejections for my poetry in magazines. I have, in short, been keeping busy, and I hope that gives me more to share with everyone soon.