Mohamed Choukri’s final visit to his birthplace: “In 1993 I visited Nador. I hadn’t been there for over half a century, since the mass exodus caused by the famine. The Elmas Association invited me to speak to an audience, and I read The first chapter of al-Khubz al-Hāfi. The discussion was exciting and intimate among the young crowd but very unpleasant and narrow-minded among the older people there. I remember our house, which was on the verge of collapse. I remember the scavengers hovering in the sky as my family migrated on foot to Tangier. I also remember the lifeless trees and the grim faces on kids and adults alike, both caused by the misery of drought. I was seven years old. We tried in vain to locate people who remembered one of my father's uncles in the village neighboring Had Bni Chiker, Known for its market. My mother was from the village of Arhwanin. When the old man who guarded the village mosque seemed reluctant to remember my father's family, I thought that this might not be the village we were looking for after all. I had a strong sense that it wasn’t right. I just couldn't find anything that recalled what I’d been told about it throughout my childhood. None of the people who had migrated from the village ever went back to reclaim their origins or residences. Those who did go back did so only because of their connection to the land (which you couldn’t sell without being disgraced) and their desire to both reestablish relationship with family members who were still alive and pay their respects to the ones who had died. They would then return to the safe place where they had settled, reassured that no one--living or dead--would curse them.” Wujūh, Mohamed Choukri Faces, trans. Jonas Elbousty

Grateful to Ursula Lindsay for her fascinating piece on Mohamed Choukri in ⁦@nybooks⁩, where she reviews both Tales of Tangier and Faces. ⁦@Georgetown_UP⁩ ⁦@yalepress⁩ ⁦@MChoukriAuthor⁩ nybooks.com/articles/2025/06…

I hope to see some of you this afternoon!

يونس البستي لـ"المجلة": شكري فتح السرد العربي على المكبوتات majalla.com/node/323075 I was interviewed by Osama Esber, a prominent poet and translator, about Mohamed Choukri's writings. أجرى معي الشاعر والمترجم المتميز أسامة اسبر الحوار التالي عن أعمال محمد شكري.

Tales of Tangier @yalepress and Faces @Georgetown_UP

Thrilled to see “Faces” featured in al-Akhbar, a leading Moroccan newspaper!

So grateful to these colleagues for their pre-publication reviews of Faces. @Georgetown_UP