People

I am a philologist with an interest in the history of the Arabic languages and literatures of North Africa, Southern Europe, and the sea in between.

At present, I am writing two books on the history of vernacular Arabic literatures. The first is an anthology of texts, tentatively titled "The Judeo-Arabic Journalism of Tunisia and Tripolitania: Transcriptions, Translations, and Commentaries."  The second book, tentatively titled Fī al-Adab al-Malḥūn: Qirāʾāt fī al-ʿĀmmiyyāt al-Maṣriyya wa-l-Dārijāt al-Maghāribiyya (On Arabic Vernacular Literature: Readings in Egyptian and Maghrebi Dialect Writings) is a comparative and historical study of Arabic vernacular literatures in North Africa (including Egypt).

I have translated three books: Hussein Nassereddine's How to see the palace pillars as if they were palm trees (2024); Using Life (2017; Istikhdam al-Haya, 2014), written by Ahmed Naji and illustrated by Ayman Al Zorkany; and the pseudo-anonymous gothic livre de colportage, 'Amaliyyat Qurun al-Nahs al-A'zam.

My creative and critical works have appeared in Akhbar al-Adab, Arabica, Banipal, Isdar Mustaqel, Jadaliyya, the Journal of Arabic Literature, Mada Masr, Ma3azef, Oxford Research Encyclopedias, Rusted Radishes, The New Inquiry, and Wasla.

I am also an amateur bookmaker and paper marbler.  My first chapbook, Qatatis Bikri ("Cats of Yore"),  assembles a speculative archive of ephemera about cats, poetry, time travel, and Tunisia.