Margaret Obank is a British publisher. She is noted for her contribution to the dissemination of contemporary Arabic literature in English translation.[1]
Obank was born in Leeds. She studied philosophy and literature at Leeds University and linguistics at Birkbeck College. She worked in teaching and in printing and publishing for many years. Along with her husband, the Iraqi author Samuel Shimon, Obank was the driving force behind the creation of Banipal magazine, a journal exclusively devoted to publishing English translations of modern Arabic literature. The first issue of Banipal was published in February 1998, and as of 2011, there have been 42 issues.
Obank has also established:
Obank is a trustee of the Arabic Booker Prize, and she is also involved with CASAW.
Many eminent writers from the Arab world have praised Obank's contributions to Arabic literature. The Iraqi poet Saadi Youssef has asked: "How did it come that a young English lady, i.e. Margaret Obank, shoulders virtually the ultimate responsibility of saving and promoting a doomed culture: Arab modern writing in general?" Fadhil al-Azzawi, another noted Iraqi writer, has said: "What Banipal has achieved for Arab literature and culture in its 21 issues is more important than all the work of all the Arab ministries of culture, which have almost completely failed to do anything for Arab culture. Banipal has enabled the English reader not only to read the works of Arab writers, but also to discover the real craft of modern Arab literature. We have only one real minister for Arab culture: Margaret Obank."[2]