The Challenges of Blogging PalFest
International attendees of the 2012 Palestine Festival of Literature returned to Cairo, made their report about the fest, and have since gone back to their homes and lives in Cairo […]
May 2012
On The Fifth Day Of A Hunger Strike
This morning, I have been looking for and listening to “political” poetry. Unless I am mistaken*, although there is the puppet-show advertisement for Aboul Fotouh, there otherwise seems to be […]
Listen to Elias Khoury Read from ‘As Though She Were Sleeping’
Elias Khoury recently spoke about his novel كأنها نائمة (As Though She Were Sleeping) in Minneapolis, Minn., USA, which was the justification for my review of his book in the Minneapolis Star Tribune. […]
Apply for Summer Translation Residency in Lagrasse, France
For those with the means to fly to France this summer, there will be a wonderful translation residency in Lagrasse (July 7-14), led by Sinan Antoon, Omar Berrada, Robyn Creswell, and […]
Narrative and Palestine, Narrative vs. Palestine
Yesterday afternoon, I met with Palestinian-British novelist Selma Dabbagh, following her trip to Gaza with the 2012 Palestine Festival of Literature. Dabbagh’s debut novel Out of It (BQFP 2011, US edition […]
Major Cuts for Arabic-Swedish Literary Translation
I received a disappointing message yesterday from ArabLit visitor Anna Jansson, a student at the Literary Translation Programme (“Litterära Översättarseminariet”) at Sweden’s Södertörn University. Apparently, last week, students found out that Södertörn […]
Welcome, Tunisian Literature (in English)
Poet Ali Znaidi — of Redeyef, Tunisia — has opened up a new blog: Tunisian Literature (in English). I was delighted to read:
If You’re in NYC, Let’s Go to ‘Mahfouz at the Movies’
This week in NYC, visit the MoMA for a glut of Naguib Mahfouz movies. They’re showing eight different Mahfouz-inspired films from Egypt and Mexico, the earliest being Darb al Mahabil (1955) […]
Reactions to Shutdown of PalFest’s Final Night
Last night, the final event for the 2012 Palestine Festival of Literature was shut down. According to a PalFest press release: The 5th Palestine Festival of Literature (2012), taking place […]