Osman Nusairi Explained

Osman Nusairi is a playwright and award-winning translator of Sudanese origin.^[1] He has translated two Arabic novels into English - Nawal el-Saadawi's Two Women in One (1985; co-translator with Jana Gough) and Reem Bassiouney's The Pistachio Seller (2009).^[2] The latter work won the Arkansas Arabic Translation Award in 2009.

He worked as a theatre director in the Sudanese National Theatre and as a Lecturer of Drama at Khartoum Institute of Music and Drama in 1978, having studied Theatre Direction at East 15 Acting School and University College, Cardiff University.

Major translations

• The Strong Breed, Wole Soyinka (1979)
• The Great Sermon Handicap, P.G. Wodehouse (1984)
• The Arab Horse (for Citibank), 1984
• Two Women in One, Nawal el-Saadawi 1986
• Lawless World, Philippe Sandes (2006)
• The Pistachio Seller, Reem Bassiouney (2009)
• The Rule of Law, Lord Thomas Bingham (2010)
• Criminal Law Reform in Sudan (Jointly)- Redress 2011
• Sudan Arabic Texts (2011)
• Voiceover translations for the Channel 4 documentary, The Holy War of Words.

Plays

Broadcast by the BBC World Service in English

• Life and Times of Christopher Abdullah
• The Town Crier
• The Village Teacher
• The Intermediate Technologist
• Gordon of Khartoum
• The Desert Trek of Re-education

Stage plays

• Board of Discipline (Khartoum performance)
• Mahmood (UK performances)
• An Evening With The Ancestors (UK performances)
• Refugees – live performance at City Hall as part of the London Refugee Housing Conference 2002

See also

• List of Arabic-to-English translators

Notes and References

1. http://www.syracuseuniversitypress.syr.edu/fall-2009/pistachio-seller.html Biographical note in Syracuse University Press website
2. Web site: Fiction Book Review: The Pistachio Seller by Reem Bassiouney, Author, Osman Nusairi, Translator, trans. From the Arabic by Osman Nusairi. Syracuse Univ. $29.95 (162p) ISBN 978-0-8156-0919-3.