Arabic Translations

Books (Literature)

  • Chaos, Crossing by Olivia Elias (poet of the Palestinian diaspora, translated from the French). World Poetry Books, 2022. Bilingual edition, with a Foreword by Najwan Darwish. Finalist for the 2024 Sarah Maguire Prize for Poetry in Translation. Selected as one of World Literature Today's 75 Notable Translations of 2022. 
  • Exhausted on the Cross by Najwan Darwish (Palestine). Foreword by Raúl Zurita. With a Translator's Afterword. NYRB Poets, 2021. Winner of the 2022 Sarah Maguire Prize for Poetry in Translation. Finalist for the 2022 PEN Award for Poetry in Translation. Shortlisted for the 2022 National Translation Award in Poetry. Shortlisted for the 2022 Derek Walcott Prize for Poetry. 
  • ​​​Songs of Mihyar the Damascene by Adonis (Syria/Lebanon). Co-translated with Ivan Eubanks, Introduction by Robyn Creswell. US: New Directions Press, 2019. UK edition: Penguin Modern Classics, 2021.
  • Confessions by Rabee Jaber (Lebanon). New Directions Press, 2016. Winner of the 2017 PEN Center USA Translation Prize. Finalist for the 2017 PEN America Translation Prize. 
  • Nothing More to Lose by Najwan Darwish (Palestine). NYRB/Poets, 2014 (selected poems, with a Translator’s Afterword). Selected by NPR as one of the Best Books of 2014. Winner of the 2015 Northern California Book Award for Best Translated Poetry. Longlisted for the 2015 National Translation Award and for the 2015 Best Translated Book Award. 
  • ​​​The Palm House by Tarek Eltayeb (Sudan). The American University in Cairo Press, 2012.

Forthcoming Books (Literature)

​Here are the Arabic books Kareem is currently working on. The publication information will be updated once it is available. 
  • ​​You Are Not a Poet in Granada by Najwan Darwish (Palestine). Manuscript not yet submitted. 
  • ​The Hanging Poems: The Classic Works of Pre-Islamic Arabic Poetry. Awarded a National Endowment for the Arts grant.​
Art Books
Chapbook
Kareem has translated one chapbook, "The Book of Trivialities" by Majed Mujed (Iraq), published in 2023 by Skein Press, as part of the inaugural "Play It Forward" fellowship in Dublin, Ireland, for which Kareem served as a mentor. The chapbook is the first bilingual Arabic-English poetry collection to ever be published in Ireland. This book is part of the "Solstice Stories" Series and was funded by the Arts Council of Ireland.
The Hanging Poem of Imru Al-Qays
Kareem has translated the lengthy Mu'allaqa or "Hanging Poem" of Imru Al-Qays (6th century CE), which is widely considered the very first poem of the entire Arabic tradition, and one of the pre-eminent examples of pre-Islamic Arabic poetry. The translation was published by Poetry London in 2023, and is available for free online here. 

Anthologies

​Kareem has contributed translations of Arabic poetry, prose, and criticism to the following books and anthologies, among others:
  • Imagine Africa. Archipelago / Island Position (Pirogue Series), 2016. 
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General Information​

Kareem has translated works by hundreds of Arabic authors from every country in the Arab-speaking world (with the exception of Mauritania!). In addition to his numerous books and contributions to anthologies, Kareem’s translations have also been published, or are forthcoming, in:

  • The Washington Post, PBS, PEN America, Index on Censorship, the Financial Times, Foreign Policy in Focus, Poetry Magazine, Modern Poetry in Translation, Poetry International, Granta, the Academy of American Poets, the Paris Review, the Poetry Society of America, Words Without Borders, the Kenyon Review, Guernica, World Literature Today, Asymptote, the Baffler, the Cordite Review, Poetry London, Shenandoah, the Lifted Brow, Interpret Magazine (Scotland), Poetry Ireland Review, International Poetry Review, Almost Island (India), Warscapes, Split this Rock, Jadaliyya, Mizna, the Bellingham Review, the Washington Square Review, BANIPAL, the Arkansas International, New Poetry in Translation, Poetry in Action, Plume Poetry, the Michigan Quarterly Review, Poetry Daily, Poem-A-Day, Gulf Coast, World Poetry Review, and many other venues.
 
Kareem is committed to bringing Arabic literature to a broad audience in the US and abroad, and his translations have been reviewed in many forums, including:
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  • NPR’s All Things Considered, The New York Times, The Chicago Tribune, The Paris Review, World Literature Today, The New York Review of Books, The Times Literary Supplement, The Irish Times, The Kenyon Review, Words Without Borders, The Arkansas International, The Quarterly Conversation, Poetry Magazine, and elsewhere. 
His translations have themselves been translated into Chinese, Spanish, Albanian, Romanian, Croatian, Macedonian, and other languages. Kareem also works extensively editing the translations of other translators, and you can read more about some of that work in the Editing section of this website. 

A Few Online Translations

​Here are a few of Kareem’s translations of Arabic literature that are available online: