About
Addie Leak is an editor and literary translator from Arabic, French, and Spanish with a passion for bringing works by women into English. She has edited over twenty novels translated from French and Arabic, and her translation work has appeared in such outlets as Words Without Borders, The
Common, The Huffington Post, and The Georgia Review. A former college instructor and 2014/2015 visiting writer at the University of Iowa, she has taught French, English as a second language, and courses on comparative literature and literary translation. She received her MFA from the University of Iowa in literary translation, was a Fulbright scholar, and currently lives in Amman, Jordan, with her husband and two former street cats.
Featured Work
Mariam, It's Arwa by Areej Gamal
It is during the 2011 Egyptian revolution that Arwa and Mariam meet in a subway station near Cairo University. Arwa has returned from Germany to join the protests, and their chance encounter is to change the course of Mariam’s sheltered existence.
They tell each other the stories of their mothers and grandmothers, the histories that have brought them to this point. Mariam was born in Saudi Arabia, and first set foot in Egypt after both her parents were killed in a car accident. Arwa’s mother also died a tragic, early death, and she, traveling in the opposite direction as Mariam, left Egypt to escape.
This is a mesmerizing and otherworldly debut novel about finding salvation and finding oneself, despite the anguish and traumas of the past. It pivots on the present moment of Arwa's and Mariam’s unexpected union, and at its heart is a recognition of the women who came before them.
