Join us in celebrating and congratulating the winner of the Saif Ghobash Banipal Prize for Arabic Literary Translation, Leri Price, who wins the prize for her translation of the novel Death is Hard Work by Syrian author Khaled Khalifa. Price and Khalifa will meet to discuss the novel – a modern classic of an era of uprisings, conflict and civil strife – focusing on survival and humanity in contemporary Syria. The evening will include readings from Death is Hard Work, followed by a Q&A and a reception. There will be a chance to buy the book and get it signed.

Leri Price graduated from the University of Edinburgh in 2010 with First Class Honours in Arabic. As well as the award winning Death is Hard Work (2016) she has also translated Khalifa’s novels In Praise of Hatred and No Knives in the Kitchens of This City.

Khaled Khalifa is an internationally renowned Syrian novelist, screenwriter and poet who has resolutely remained living in Damascus despite the civil war, now in its ninth year. He has published six novels, with his fourth, No Knives in the Kitchens of This City, winning the Naguib Mahfouz Medal for Literature in 2013.