Nancy N. Roberts is a translator of

Arabic literature Arabic literature ( / ALA-LC: ''al-Adab al-‘Arabī'') is the writing, both as prose and poetry, produced by writers in the Arabic language. The Arabic word used for literature is ''Adab (Islam), Adab'', which comes from a meaning of etiquett ...

. She won the

University of Arkansas The University of Arkansas (U of A, UArk, or UA) is a Public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Fayetteville, Arkansas, United States. It is the Flagship campus, flagship campus of the University of Arkan ...

Translation Award for her translation of Ghada Samman's '' Beirut '75''. She also received a commendation from the judges of the 2008 Banipal Prize for her translation of Salwa Bakr's ''The Man from Bashmour''.

Early life and education

She was born and raised in

Wichita, Kansas Wichita ( ) is the List of cities in Kansas, most populous city in the U.S. state of Kansas and the county seat of Sedgwick County, Kansas, Sedgwick County. As of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, the population of the city was 397, ...

. She completed her undergraduate studies in Psychology and religious studies at

Western Kentucky University Western Kentucky University (WKU) is a public university in Bowling Green, Kentucky, United States. It was founded by the Commonwealth of Kentucky in 1906, though its roots reach back a few decades earlier. It operates regional campuses in Glas ...

. Then she did a graduate degree in M.S.Applied linguistics from

Indiana University Bloomington Indiana University Bloomington (IU Bloomington, Indiana University, IU, IUB, or Indiana) is a public university, public research university in Bloomington, Indiana, United States. It is the flagship university, flagship campus of Indiana Univer ...

and went abroad. She lived in Lebanon for one year and five years in Kuwait and returned for about 7 years and she did M.A.Arabic language and Literature at Indiana University. She settled in Jordan and lived there from 1995 until 2015.

Career

*Indiana University-Bloomington, associate instructor in English, 1980-81. *American University of Beirut, Lebanon, instructor in English, 1981-82. *Kuwait University, Kuwait City, instructor of English in College of Commerce, 1982-87. *Earlham College, Richmond, IN, instructor in English as a second language, 1988-90. *Indiana University-Bloomington, instructor in Arabic, 1991-93. *AL al-Bayt University, Mafraq, Jordan, instructor in English as a second language, 1994-97. *Federal Broadcasting Information Service, Jordan Bureau, translator, 1998-99. *Free-lance translator, Amman, Jordan, 1999-. *Mitchell Translations, translator from Arabic to English, 1994.

Works

Selected Translations: * ''Beirut ’75'' by

Ghada al-Samman Ghadah Al-Samman (; born 1942) is a Syrian writer, journalist and novelist born in Damascus in 1942 to a prominent and conservative Damascene family. Her father was Ahmed Al-Samman, a president of the University of Damascus. She is distantly rel ...

* ''Beirut Nightmares'' by

* ''The Night of the First Billion'' by

* ''Muntaha'' by Hala El-Badry * ''Time of White Horses'' by

Ibrahim Nasrallah Ibrahim Nasrallah (; 2 December 1954), the winner of the Arabic Booker Prize (2018), was born in 1954 to Palestinian parents who were evicted from their land in Al-Burayj, Palestine in 1948. He spent his childhood and youth in a refugee camp ...

* ''Over the Bridge'' by

Mohamed el-Bisatie Mohamed el-Bisatie (; November 1937 – 14 July 2012) was an Egyptian novelist and short story writer. Life He was born in el-Gamalia, Dakahlia Governorate, overlooking the shores of Lake Manzalah in the Nile Delta. He graduated from Cairo Univers ...

* ''Love in the Rain'' by

Naguib Mahfouz Naguib Mahfouz Abdelaziz Ibrahim Ahmed Al-Basha (, ; 11 December 1911 – 30 August 2006) was an Egyptian writer who won the 1988 Nobel Prize in Literature. In awarding the prize, the Swedish Academy described him as a writer "who, through wo ...

* ''The Mirage'' by

* ''The Man from Bashmour'' by

Salwa Bakr Salwa Bakr (; born 1949) is an Egyptian critic, novelist and author. Profile of the Egyptian Writer Salwa Bakr She is the author of seven volumes of short stories (including ''The Wiles of Men'', AUC Press, 1997), seven novels, and a play. Her wor ...

* House of the Wolf by

Ezzat el Kamhawi Ezzat El Kamhawi () is an Egyptian novelist and journalist. In December 2012, El Kamhawi was awarded the Naguib Mahfouz Medal for Literature for his novel ''House of the Wolf (Novel), House of the Wolf''. In June 2022 he was awarded the Samir Kas ...

Roberts has also translated works on

Islamic history The history of Islam is believed, by most historians, to have originated with Muhammad's mission in Mecca and Medina at the start of the 7th century CE, although Muslims regard this time as a return to the original faith passed down by the Abra ...

, jurisprudence and

Sufism Sufism ( or ) is a mysticism, mystic body of religious practice found within Islam which is characterized by a focus on Islamic Tazkiyah, purification, spirituality, ritualism, and Asceticism#Islam, asceticism. Practitioners of Sufism are r ...

. These include: * ''The Jurisprudence of the Prophetic Biography'', a translation of Fiqh al-Sirah al-Nabawiyyah (فقه السيرة النبوية) by Muhammad Sa'id Ramadan al-Buti * ''Islamic Jurisprudence According to the Four Sunni Schools, Volume I: Modes of Islamic Worship '' by Abd al-Rahman Ibn Muhammad Awad al-Jaziri * ''Apostasy in Islam'' by

Taha Jabir Alalwani Taha Jabir Al-Alwani (طه جابر علواني), Ph.D. (1935 – March 4, 2016) was an Iraqi Islamic scholar. He was a founder and chairman of the Fiqh Council of North America and served as president of Cordoba University in Ashburn, Virgini ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Roberts, Nancy N Arabic–English translators Living people 1957 births

Early life and education

Career

Works

See also

References