Dealing with politically-engaged writers of color like Abdellatif Laâbi and Rashid Boudjedra - who ran away from school aged sixteen to fight against the French in the Algerian war - first requires convincing an editor to take a chance on… — Andre Naffis-Sahely Copy Share Image
[Abdellatif Laâbi] was a poet and worked as a high school teacher; and although he hadn't broken any laws, the Moroccan government was determined to "gag" him - I use the term specifically since one of my favorite sequences of… — Andre Naffis-Sahely Copy Share Image
Translators who choose to work on canonized writers can usually lean on an extensive critical apparatus around either the author or the book in… — Andre Naffis-Sahely Copy Share Image
The real question should be: what makes a good political poem? The possible answers to that question are both obvious and yet still a… — Andre Naffis-Sahely Copy Share Image
As the Cameroonian philosopher Achille Mbembe has presciently pointed out, neoliberal corporate globalism threatens to exploit that advantage like never before, and it seems… — Andre Naffis-Sahely Copy Share Image
I've heard of translators collaborating closely with their authors, sometimes even living with them for a while, but that's not me. — Andre Naffis-Sahely Copy Share Image
When it comes to the challenges of the actual process, I soldier on as best I can, on my own. — Andre Naffis-Sahely Copy Share Image
I came to poetry at fourteen, in the middle of a booming oil-rush town in southern Arabia without a single public library: Abu Dhabi,… — Andre Naffis-Sahely Copy Share Image
Poetry either pulses with real life or it's just an aborted simulacra. There's no middle ground. — Andre Naffis-Sahely Copy Share Image
Whenever poetry and politics are mentioned in the same breath, we tend to miss the point entirely - as I often have - and… — Andre Naffis-Sahely Copy Share Image
I don't like poems that invent memories, I have enough of my own. — Andre Naffis-Sahely Copy Share Image
That boom town [Abu Dhabi] proved to be the reef against which my family crashed, the story of many who seek the promised land,… — Andre Naffis-Sahely Copy Share Image
Most of us have been subjected to terrible political poetry at least once or twice in our lifetimes, and so we tend to shy… — Andre Naffis-Sahely Copy Share Image
Regardless of whether the authors I've translated have been "dead and canonized," or "living and established," or even simply "emerging," I must put myself… — Andre Naffis-Sahely Copy Share Image
![“[Abdellatif Laâbi] was a poet and worked as a high school teacher; and although he hadn't broken any laws, the Moroccan government was determined to "gag" him - I use the term specifically since one of my favorite sequences of his is entitled "The Poem Beneath The Gag."” quote by Andre Naffis-Sahely](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/img-quotes/83d/andre-naffis-sahely-20813_broken_abdellatif-la-bi-was-a-poet-and-worked-a_1533931.jpg)
![“Translators who choose to work on canonized writers can usually lean on an extensive critical apparatus around either the author or the book in question, especially in the case of writers like [Honore] Balzac and [Emil] Zola.” quote by Andre Naffis-Sahely](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/img-quotes/dae/andre-naffis-sahely-20813_balzac_translators-who-choose-to-work-on-canoni_67754.jpg)
![“That boom town [Abu Dhabi] proved to be the reef against which my family crashed, the story of many who seek the promised land, and my poetry is a versification of that personal history. History is all I have.” quote by Andre Naffis-Sahely](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/img-quotes/b48/andre-naffis-sahely-20813_family_that-boom-town-abu-dhabi-proved-to-be-th_623350.jpg)
