The ibis in Egyptian mythology represents Thoth, scribe to the gods, maker of the palette and the ink-jar.

Ibis Editions is a small press founded in Jerusalem in 1998 and dedicated to the publication of Levant-related books of poetry and belletristic prose.  Over the years, Ibis has published first-rate English translations from Arabic, Hebrew, Greek, French, and the other languages of the region, with special paid attention to overlooked works from the recent and distant past. The press has been motivated by the belief that literary work, especially when translated into a common language, can serve as an important vehicle for the promotion of understanding between individuals and peoples, and for the discovery of common ground.

We are pleased to announce that, as of 2026, Ibis Editions will be partnering with Wesleyan University Press, which will serve as its editorial home and distributor. Wesleyan/Ibis will reprint–with new forewords–Ibis Editions books that have long been out of print and oversee the publication of new titles. We’ll also be welcoming to the project a distinguished advisory board. We hope to continue Ibis’s mission of drawing together a group of writers and translators whom both politics and market-forces would otherwise keep far apart, or out of print altogether. (Note that some of the Ibis titles have already been reissued by other publishers. Please see individual book pages for details.)

While tribalism is the order of the day, Wesleyan/Ibis will seek to publish books embodying a cultural cross-fertilization that has long characterized the best writing from the Levant and the thinking of its finest writers. In one way or another, all the books will navigate what essayist Guy Davenport called the “Geography of the Imagination.” (“The imagination has a history, as yet unwritten, and it has a geography, as yet only dimly seen.”) Imagination of this sort seems more urgent than ever—as does the need to continue to read and think and feel beyond the borders of our own ethnic, political, and national communities.

The first three Ibis books that Wesleyan University Press will reissue are (in Spring 2026):

A Levant Journal by George Seferis, translated, edited, and introduced by Roderick Beaton, with a foreword by A. E. Stallings

Sadder Than Water: New & Selected Poems by Samih Al-Qasim, translated by Nazih Kassis, introduced by Adina Hoffman, with a foreword by Robyn Creswell

In Search of A Lost Ladino: Letter to Antonio Saura by Marcel Cohen, translated and introduced by Raphael Rubinstein, with a foreword by Alberto Manguel

“[Ibis Editions] has cleared a space for conversation in a contentious region…. Browsing through Ibis’s small list is like wandering into a literary café filled with a vital spirit of intellectual engagement…. All [the books] have intrinsic literary merit transcending recrimination and sloganeering.”

Rachel Donadio, The New York Times

“A genuine beacon of hope.”

Boyd Tonkin, The Independent

“While the largest of America’s publishers are threatened by a certain bottom-line-induced intellectual and creative barrenness … there yet remain pockets of life, even fertility, amidst small publishers such as … Ibis Editions.”

Off the Wall, Books & Co.