NEWPORT, R.I. – Sally Gomaa will speak about her translation of the award-winning novel “Red Wine” by Egyptian writer Amina Zaydan when she presents “Translation as Interpretation: One Novel’s Journey from Arabic to English” on Monday, Sept. 26 from 4-5 p.m. in the Munroe Special Collections Room at McKillop Library.
Her talk is free and open to the public.
Gomaa, associate professor of English, was born and raised in Alexandria, Egypt and first came to the United States on a Fulbright Scholarship in 1994. During her talk, she will explore the creative, critical and cultural issues that make translation a complete reconstruction of the original text in the new language.
“Red Wine” is the winner of the prestigious 2007 Naguib Mahfouz Medal for Literature. Published by the American University in Cairo Press, the novel explores private themes such as coming of age, guilt and mourning, and political themes such as state brutality, religious extremism, and gender.
Gomaa has her bachelor’s degree in English from Alexandria University, her master’s degree in writing from the University of Massachusetts-Dartmouth and her doctorate in English, rhetoric and composition from the University of Rhode Island.