Ammiel Alcalay
Encyclopedia
Ammiel Alcalay is an American poet, scholar, critic, translator
, and prose stylist. Born and raised in Boston
, he is a first-generation American, son of Sephardic Jews from São Tomé and Príncipe
. His work often examines how poetry and politics affect the way we see ourselves and the way Americans think about the Middle East
.
he was a primary source for providing access in the American media to Bosnian voices. He was responsible for publication of the first survivor's account in English from a victim held in a Serb concentration camp, The Tenth Circle of Hell by Rezak Hukanović (Basic Books, 1996), which he co-translated and edited.
"Over the past fifteen years," writes Alcalay, "I have focused primarily on Hebrew
and Jewish literature of the Middle East, in its Islamic, Levantine Arabic
, and Israel
i contexts. My work on Bosnia
during the war in former Yugoslavia
has entailed similar efforts at creating the cultural space for unfamiliar works to emerge. Throughout, my work as poet and prose-writer remains a crucial reference point, representing a kind of standard in form and content that I insist my other writing (and translation) adheres to."
As a university instructor, Prof. Alcalay has taught Sephardic Literature (both Hebrew and in-translation), and a variety of courses on Middle Eastern and Mediterranean literacy and intellectual culture and its contemporary and modern reception, at both the undergraduate and graduate levels, as well as creative writing. A comparatist by training, he specializes in these topics and in Balkan literatures and history, poetics, and theories of translation; he publishes translations of Hebrew and Bosnian, as well as his own poetry.
Alcalay's poetry, prose, reviews, critical articles and translations have appeared in the New York Times Book Review, The New Yorker
, Time Magazine, The New Republic
, The Village Voice
, The Jerusalem Post
, Grand Street, Conjunctions
, Sulfur
, The Nation
, Middle East Report, Afterimage, Parnassus, City Lights Review, Review of Jewish Social Studies, The Review of Contemporary Fiction, The Michigan Quarterly, Caliban, Paper Air, Paintbrush, Mediterraneans, and various other publications.
He is currently a professor in the English Department at CUNY Graduate Center
.
Translation
Translation is the communication of the meaning of a source-language text by means of an equivalent target-language text. Whereas interpreting undoubtedly antedates writing, translation began only after the appearance of written literature; there exist partial translations of the Sumerian Epic of...
, and prose stylist. Born and raised in Boston
Boston
Boston is the capital of and largest city in Massachusetts, and is one of the oldest cities in the United States. The largest city in New England, Boston is regarded as the unofficial "Capital of New England" for its economic and cultural impact on the entire New England region. The city proper had...
, he is a first-generation American, son of Sephardic Jews from São Tomé and Príncipe
São Tomé and Príncipe
São Tomé and Príncipe, officially the Democratic Republic of São Tomé and Príncipe, is a Portuguese-speaking island nation in the Gulf of Guinea, off the western equatorial coast of Central Africa. It consists of two islands: São Tomé and Príncipe, located about apart and about , respectively, off...
. His work often examines how poetry and politics affect the way we see ourselves and the way Americans think about the Middle East
Middle East
The Middle East is a region that encompasses Western Asia and Northern Africa. It is often used as a synonym for Near East, in opposition to Far East...
.
Brief overview
Alcalay is perhaps best known as a Middle Eastern scholar and university instructor. During the war in former YugoslaviaYugoslavia
Yugoslavia refers to three political entities that existed successively on the western part of the Balkans during most of the 20th century....
he was a primary source for providing access in the American media to Bosnian voices. He was responsible for publication of the first survivor's account in English from a victim held in a Serb concentration camp, The Tenth Circle of Hell by Rezak Hukanović (Basic Books, 1996), which he co-translated and edited.
"Over the past fifteen years," writes Alcalay, "I have focused primarily on Hebrew
Hebrew literature
Hebrew literature consists of ancient, medieval, and modern writings in the Hebrew language. It is one of the primary forms of Jewish literature, though there have been cases of literature written in Hebrew by non-Jews...
and Jewish literature of the Middle East, in its Islamic, Levantine Arabic
Levantine Arabic
Levantine Arabic is a broad variety of Arabic spoken in the 100 to 200 km-wide Eastern Mediterranean coastal strip...
, and Israel
Israel
The State of Israel is a parliamentary republic located in the Middle East, along the eastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea...
i contexts. My work on Bosnia
Bosnia and Herzegovina
Bosnia and Herzegovina , sometimes called Bosnia-Herzegovina or simply Bosnia, is a country in Southern Europe, on the Balkan Peninsula. Bordered by Croatia to the north, west and south, Serbia to the east, and Montenegro to the southeast, Bosnia and Herzegovina is almost landlocked, except for the...
during the war in former Yugoslavia
Yugoslavia
Yugoslavia refers to three political entities that existed successively on the western part of the Balkans during most of the 20th century....
has entailed similar efforts at creating the cultural space for unfamiliar works to emerge. Throughout, my work as poet and prose-writer remains a crucial reference point, representing a kind of standard in form and content that I insist my other writing (and translation) adheres to."
As a university instructor, Prof. Alcalay has taught Sephardic Literature (both Hebrew and in-translation), and a variety of courses on Middle Eastern and Mediterranean literacy and intellectual culture and its contemporary and modern reception, at both the undergraduate and graduate levels, as well as creative writing. A comparatist by training, he specializes in these topics and in Balkan literatures and history, poetics, and theories of translation; he publishes translations of Hebrew and Bosnian, as well as his own poetry.
Alcalay's poetry, prose, reviews, critical articles and translations have appeared in the New York Times Book Review, The New Yorker
The New Yorker
The New Yorker is an American magazine of reportage, commentary, criticism, essays, fiction, satire, cartoons and poetry published by Condé Nast...
, Time Magazine, The New Republic
The New Republic
The magazine has also published two articles concerning income inequality, largely criticizing conservative economists for their attempts to deny the existence or negative effect increasing income inequality is having on the United States...
, The Village Voice
The Village Voice
The Village Voice is a free weekly newspaper and news and features website in New York City that features investigative articles, analysis of current affairs and culture, arts and music coverage, and events listings for New York City...
, The Jerusalem Post
The Jerusalem Post
The Jerusalem Post is an Israeli daily English-language broadsheet newspaper, founded on December 1, 1932 by Gershon Agron as The Palestine Post. The daily readership numbers do not approach those of the major Hebrew newspapers....
, Grand Street, Conjunctions
Conjunctions
Conjunctions, is a biannual American literary journal based at Bard College. It was founded in 1981 and is currently edited by Bradford Morrow....
, Sulfur
Sulfur
Sulfur or sulphur is the chemical element with atomic number 16. In the periodic table it is represented by the symbol S. It is an abundant, multivalent non-metal. Under normal conditions, sulfur atoms form cyclic octatomic molecules with chemical formula S8. Elemental sulfur is a bright yellow...
, The Nation
The Nation
The Nation is the oldest continuously published weekly magazine in the United States. The periodical, devoted to politics and culture, is self-described as "the flagship of the left." Founded on July 6, 1865, It is published by The Nation Company, L.P., at 33 Irving Place, New York City.The Nation...
, Middle East Report, Afterimage, Parnassus, City Lights Review, Review of Jewish Social Studies, The Review of Contemporary Fiction, The Michigan Quarterly, Caliban, Paper Air, Paintbrush, Mediterraneans, and various other publications.
He is currently a professor in the English Department at CUNY Graduate Center
CUNY Graduate Center
The Graduate Center of the City University of New York brings together graduate education, advanced research, and public programming to midtown Manhattan hosting 4,600 students, 33 doctoral programs, 7 master's programs, and 30 research centers and institutes...
.
Selected writings
- Poetry, Politics & Translation: American Isolation and the Middle East (Palm Press, 2003) Based on a talk sponsored by the Cornell Forum for Justice and Peace in the series Critical Perspectives on the War on Terror
- from the warring factions (Beyond Baroque, 2002), a book-length poem dedicated to the Bosnian town of SrebrenicaSrebrenicaSrebrenica is a town and municipality in the east of Bosnia and Herzegovina, in the Bosnian Serb entity of Republika Srpska. Srebrenica is a small mountain town, its main industry being salt mining and a nearby spa. During the Bosnian War, the town was the site of the July 1995 massacre,...
- Memories of Our Future: Selected Essays, 1982-1999 (City Lights, 1999)
- After Jews and Arabs: Remaking Levantine Culture (University of Minnesota Press, 1993) Chosen as one of the year's top 25 books by The Village VoiceThe Village VoiceThe Village Voice is a free weekly newspaper and news and features website in New York City that features investigative articles, analysis of current affairs and culture, arts and music coverage, and events listings for New York City...
and named one of 1993's notable books by The IndependentThe IndependentThe Independent is a British national morning newspaper published in London by Independent Print Limited, owned by Alexander Lebedev since 2010. It is nicknamed the Indy, while the Sunday edition, The Independent on Sunday, is the Sindy. Launched in 1986, it is one of the youngest UK national daily...
in London - the cairo notebooks (Singing Horse Press, 1993) some of the earlier published poems
- Islanders (City Lights Publishers, 2010) ISBN 978-0-87286-506-8
- neither wit nor gold (Ugly Duckling Presse, 2011) ISBN 978-1-93325-484-5
Translations
- Nine Alexandrias by Semezdin Mehmedinović, translated from Bosnian (City Lights, 2003)
- Sarajevo Blues by the Bosnian poet Semezdin MehmedinovićSemezdin MehmedinovicSemezdin Mehmedinović is a Bosnian writer, filmmaker, and magazine editor.After studying Librarianship and Comparative Literature in Sarajevo, he worked as an editor of "Lica" and "Valter" magazines, which served as a voice of opposition to the ruling Communist regime...
(City Lights, 1998) - Keys to the Garden: New Israeli Writing (City Lights, 1996)
- Portraits of Sarajevo (Fromm, 1995) and Sarajevo: A War Journal (Henry Holt, 1994), by Zlatko Dizdarević – Alcalay edited and co-translated
Forthcoming Publications
- Politics and Imagination (book of essays).
- Outcast, a novel by Shimon Ballas, translated from Hebrew (City Lights Press).
External links
- Alcalay reviews Juan GoytisoloJuan GoytisoloJuan Goytisolo is a Spanish poet, essayist, and novelist. He currently lives in a voluntary self-exile in Marrakech.-Background:Juan Goytisolo was born to an aristocratic family...
Landscapes of War: From Sarajevo to Chechnya; Mouloud FeraounMouloud FeraounMouloud Feraoun was an Algerian writer and martyr of the Algerian revolution born in Tizi Hibel, Kabylia. Some of his books, written in French, have been translated into several languages including English and German...
Journal 1955–1962: Reflections on the French-Algerian War - Republics of Poetry Alcalay himself writes on Charles Olson, poetics, etc.
- "Ammiel Alcalay and the Limits of Translation." Interview from 2005 at LoggernautLoggernautLoggernaut Reading Series is a reading series in Portland, Oregon founded in 2005. Each reading features three readers and a prompt to which they respond....
. - Olson Now a blog edited by Alcalay and Michael KelleherMichael KelleherMichael Kelleher is an American poet. He is the author of two collections of poems, Human Scale and To Be Sung...
with a focus on the poetry and poetics of Charles OlsonCharles OlsonCharles Olson , was a second generation American modernist poet who was a link between earlier figures such as Ezra Pound and William Carlos Williams and the New American poets, which includes the New York School, the Black Mountain School, the Beat poets, and the San Francisco Renaissance... - at the Levantine Cultural Center
- Palm Press website Publisher of Alcalay's Poetry, Politics & Translation
- http://www.litline.org/ABR/PDF/Volume25/koneazny.pdf Paula Koneazny's review of Alcalay's "from the warring factions" in American Book Review, Vol. 25.