World Literature Festivals Featuring Arab Lit

I’m still quite doubtful about this alleged flood of awards to Arab authors, but the flood of literary events—at least outside northern North America—continues. The Internationales Literaturfestival Berlin (September 7-17) is focusing on Asian-Pacific authors this year, but still promises a wide range of talks by Arab and Arabic-writing authors.

They include:

Tahar Ben Jelloun: What can literature accomplish? The Arab Spring and Writing  Ben Jelloun recently won the Erich Maria Remarque Peace Prize in large part for his collection of essays, Arab Spring.

Hussein Chawich,  Günther Orth and Tahar Ben Jelloun on the Arab Revolution in books: “How the Arab Revolt began in literature, and what the book market has done with it.”

Omar Akbar  (architect) and Samuel Shimon: World of cities – Cities of the world. Damascus-Beirut-Cairo. A re-translation and full edition of Shimon’s autobiographical novel, An Iraqi in Paris, recently came out from BQFP.

Raja Alem: her prize-winning novel about the dark side of Mecca today. Alem, of course, one of the co-winners of this year’s International Prize for Arabic Fiction.

Mohammed Achaari and the effects of terrorism on a Muslim family. Achaari, the other co-winner.

Rawi Hage: A Lebanese immigrant in Montreal and the attempt to overcome the trauma of war

Boualem Sansal Algeria and his historical quest in “The German’s Village”  Sansal recently won a top German cultural award.

Malta’s Mediterranean Literature Festival, set for September 8-10, takes as its focus “The Arab Spring: Dignity and Freedom,” and will host a number of Arab authors, including Alexandrian poet Abdelrehim Youssef, Egyptian-Sudanese novelist Tarek Eltayeb, Egyptian short-story writer Mona El Shemy, Tunisian poet Awlad Ahmed, Syrian writer Robin Yassin-Kassab, and others. More on the Inizjamed website.

And the Hay Festival Xalapa, in Xalapa, Mexico, will also feature a number of Arab authors, including IPAF shortlistee Jabbour Douaihy, Beirut39 laureate Joumana Haddad, and IPAF shortlistee Mohamed Mansi Qandil.