If You’re in the KSA: The Riyadh International Book Fair
The fair’s set to open March 2.
According to ArabNews.Com:
The book fair will also witness, for the first time, a dialogue between [Culture and Information Minister Abdul Aziz] Khoja and male and female writers.
This, after last year IPAF-shortlisted Abdo Khal and poet Abdullah Thabet were arrested for seeking the autograph of (female) author Halima Muzfar. (My limited understanding of the KSA is that Riyadh is at the quite conservative end of the spectrum. Things are different, for instance, in Jeddah.)
Also: More about Abdo Khal, and his IPAF-shortlisted She Throws Sparks. And a map to the fair.
Abdo Khal Wins 2010 ‘Arabic Booker’ « Arabic Literature (in English)
March 3, 2010 @ 4:26 am
[…] last year at the Riyadh book fair for seeking the autograph of a female author. (This year, gender-segregation rules at the Riyadh fair were relaxed slightly, perhaps in part as a result of his […]