Jonathan Wright (translator)
Jonathan Wright is a British journalist and literary translator.
Biography
Wright was born in Andover, Hampshire, and spent his childhood in Canada, Malaysia, Hong Kong and Germany. He attended Packwood Haugh School from 1966 to 1967 and Shrewsbury School from 1967 to 1971. He studied Arabic, Turkish and Islamic civilization at St John's College, Oxford. He joined Reuters news agency in 1980 as a correspondent, and has been based in the Middle East for most of the last three decades. He has served as Reuters' Cairo bureau chief, and he has lived and worked throughout the region, including in Egypt, Sudan, Lebanon, Tunisia and the Gulf. From 1998 to 2003, he was based in Washington, DC, covering U.S. foreign policy for Reuters. For two years until the fall of 2011 Wright was editor of the Arab Media & Society Journal, published by the Kamal Adham Center for Journalism Training and Research at the American University in Cairo.[1]
Translations
| Year | Title | Author | Original Title | Notes | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2008 | Taxi | Khaled al-Khamissi | تاكسى حواديت المشاوير taksi ḥawadīt ʾil-mašawīr |
His first major work, published by Aflame Books in 2008 republished by Bloomsbury Qatar in 2012 | |
| 2009 | The Madman of Freedom Square | Hassan Blasim | مجنون ساحة الحرية majnūn sāḥat ʾal-ḥurriyya |
A collection of short stories longlisted for the Independent Foreign Fiction Prize in 2010 | |
| 2011 | On the State of Egypt: What Caused the Revolution | Alaa Al-Aswany | A collection of political essays | ||
| 2012 | Judgment Day | Rasha al Ameer | يوم الدين yawm ʾad-dīn |
||
| 2012 | Life on Hold | Fahd al-Ateeq | كائن مؤجل kāʾin muʾajjal |
||
| 2012 | Azazeel | Youssef Ziedan | عزازيل ʿazāzīl |
Won the Arabic Booker prize in 2009 Won the 2013 Banipal Prize for Arabic Literary Translation[2] | |
| 2013 | The Iraqi Christ | Hassan Blasim | المسيح العراقي ʾal-masīḥ ʾal-ʿirāqī |
Won the Independent Foreign Fiction Prize in 2014 | |
| 2013 | Whatever Happened to the Egyptian Revolution? | Galal Amin | ماذا حدث للثورة المصرية؟ māḏā ḥadaṯa laṯ-ṯawra ʾal-miṣriyya? |
||
| 2014 | Land of No Rain | Amjad Nasser | حيث لا تسقط الأمطار ḥaiṯu lā tasquṭ ʾal-ʾamṭār |
Commended (runner-up) by the judges of the 2015 Banipal Prize for Arabic Literary Translation | |
| 2014 | Temple Bar | Bahaa Abdelmegid | خمارة المعبد khammārat al-maʿbad |
||
| 2015 | The Bamboo Stalk | Saud Alsanousi | ساق البامبو sāq al-bāmbū |
Won the Arabic Booker prize in 2013 | |
| 2015 | Sleepwalkers | Sa'ad Makkawi | السائرون نياما ʾas-sāʾirūn niyāman |
Awaiting publication | |
| 2016 | The Televangelist | Ibrahim Eissa | مولانا mawlānā |
Kidnapping and Escape
On August 29, 1984, while on a reporting assignment for Reuters in the Bekaa Valley, Lebanon, Wright was detained and held hostage by the Palestinian splinter group led by Abu Nidal in a part of the Lebanon hostage crisis.[3][4] The group wanted to exchange him for members imprisoned in Britain for shooting the Israeli ambassador, Shlomo Argov, in London in June 1982. Wright spent about one week in a small room in a country house near the town of Barr Elias and was then moved to a large villa near the Chouf mountain town of Bhamdoun, above Beirut. In the early hours of September 16, 1984, Wright escaped from captivity[5] by removing the plank of wood covering a ventilation hole and crawling through the hole, which was about 10 feet above floor level. He reached the hole by dismantling his metal bedstead and using the frame as a ladder. Once outside he walked along the Beirut-Damascus highway until he reached a checkpoint manned by the mainly Druze Muslim Progressive Socialist Party. The party militia held him incommunicado at Aley police station until September 19, when party leader Walid Jumblatt told his aides to drive him to the Reuters office in Beirut.[6]
Awards and honours
- 2013 Banipal Prize for Arabic Literary Translation for the translation of Azazeel by Youssef Ziedan[7]
- 2014 Independent Foreign Fiction Prize for the translation of The Iraqi Christ by Hassan Blassim
References
- ↑ AUC newsletter on Wright's appointment
- ↑ "The 2013 Prize Announcing joint winners Jonathan Wright and William M Hutchins". Retrieved 16 January 2014.
- ↑ "Britain Asks Lebanon To Look for Journalist". The New York Times. September 4, 1984. Retrieved 7 August 2013.
- ↑ "Moslem Group Holding Journalist". The Calgary Herald. September 5, 1984. Retrieved 7 August 2013.
- ↑ Salameh, Rima (September 26, 1986). "British reporter evades kidnapping in Moslem Beirut". Gainesville Sun. Retrieved 8 August 2013.
- ↑ "British Journalist Freed". The Deseret News. September 22, 1984. Retrieved 7 August 2013.
- ↑ "The 2013 Prize". Banipal Trust. January 19, 2014. Retrieved January 19, 2014.