Isabella Camera d'Afflitto

Isabella Camera d'Afflitto (born 1948 in Salerno) is an Italian academic and translator, regarded as one of Italy's leading Arabists. She teaches modern Arabic literature at La Sapienza University in Rome, and has written numerous books and scholarly articles on the subject. She oversees the Contemporary Arab Writers series published by in Rome, and has supervised the translation of more than 30 major Arabic literary works to date.

She was awarded the Grinzane Cavour Prize in 2006. She has also served on the judging panel of the International Prize for Arabic Fiction.

Biography

In 1978 she began teaching at the Institute for the Orient in Rome, and three years later became a lecturer in Arabic at the University of Perugia; she was also appointed researcher at the School of Islamic Studies in the University of Naples "L'Orientale" in the same years.

He then continued his academic career at the same institute, later also obtaining the chair of Arabic Language and Literature at that university, before moving to Sapienza University of Rome.

A member of the Scientific Committee of Oriente Moderno and of the Board of Directors of the Carlo Alfonso Nallino Institute for the Orient in Rome, in charge of its series “Translations, Studies and Research on Nahḍa,” from 2012 to 2014 she was President of the European Association for Modern Arabic Literature (Euromal); also a member of the International Jury of the International Prize for Arabic Fiction (Booker Prize: https://arabicfiction.org/en/Isabella-Camera-D%27Afflitto), as well as a consultant to the History of Rome for the creation of several multi-ethnic libraries.

Founder of the series “Contemporary Arab Writers” (for Jouvence Publishing House), she served on the National Translation Awards Commission of the Ministry of Culture (Italy).

Among his many works are translations of Ghassan Kanafani's novels, including “Men Under the Sun” and “Return to Haifa” (work editions)(http://www.edizionilavoro.it/catalogo/narrativa/manufacturer/ghassan-kanafani).

In 1989 she was awarded the Calabria Prize, and six years later she was awarded the San Gerolamo Prize of the Italian Association of Translators and Interpreters.

In 2006, due to his skills in the Arabic language, he won the Grinzane Cavour prize (in the Translation section).