Literary translation has become my prime way of expressing my creativity—the constraint of having to recreate a text as faithfully as possible rather than creating something new out of thin air is a very freeing and thrilling experience for me.

I rarely feel as though I have anything meaningful to say that has not already been expressed much better by someone else. I enjoy being part of telling a story without centering myself or my privileged—and limited—view, and I hope to use this privilege to bring marginalised and lesser known stories to new audiences.

At the same time, I try to be deeply conscious of my own positionality and the fact that it is exactly this privilege that allows me to practice literary translation in the first place.

As an aspiring literary translator working from Arabic into English, I'm always on the lookout for exciting stories, new or old.

Published translations of mine include:

• ‘How Moroccans Laugh’, by Sanaa El Aji, in ArabLit Quarterly 5:2 (2022): 86–97, reposted here on ArabLit
• an excerpt from Mohsine Loukili’s IPAF-shortlisted ‘The Prisoner of the Portuguese’ (plus this interview with the author), on ArabLit
• Algerian writer Zakia Allal’s short story ‘Naked Veins’, on ArabLit
• Saudi author Omar Al Jadhee's short story 'A Well No One Can Reach', in Guernica
• 'The Cloven Ball,' by Yasmeen Hanoosh, in ArabLit Quarterly 4:3 (2021): 64–67