Nancy N. Roberts


Nancy N. Roberts is a translator of Arabic literature. She won the University of Arkansas 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. She completed her undergraduate studies in Psychology and religious studies at Western Kentucky University. Then she did a graduate degree in M.S.Applied linguistics from Indiana University Bloomington 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 Beirut Nightmares by Ghada al-SammanThe Night of the First Billion by Ghada al-SammanMuntaha by Hala El-BadryTime of White Horses by Ibrahim NasrallahOver the Bridge by Mohamed el-BisatieLove in the Rain by Naguib MahfouzThe Mirage by Naguib Mahfouz The Man from Bashmour by Salwa Bakr
Roberts has also translated works on Islamic history, jurisprudence and Sufism. These include:The Jurisprudence of the Prophetic Biography, a translation of Fiqh al-Sirah al-Nabawiyyah 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-JaziriApostasy in Islam by Taha Jabir Alalwani