Better late than never: ArabLit starts a global events calendar. Please post your suggestions below or send a message here. And if you hate the way it looks, as I do, please suggest a new format.
All of January
Crowdfunding campaign: “Help Rebuild Lebanon’s Torched Library And Restore 10,000s of Lost Ancient Books” (Worldwide)
More about the crowdfunding campaign. More about the burning of Al-Saeh Library.
January 7
International Prize for Arabic Fiction Releases Longlist (Worldwide)
Sawiris Prizes Announced (Cairo)
January 9
Forthcoming Poetry and Prose from Iraq, Palestine, and Lebanon (San Francisco)
In San Franscisco, translator Kareem James Abu-Zeid reads from three forthcoming books, by Najwan Darwish, Dunya Mikhail, and Rabee Jaber. More about the event.
January 15
Launch of Gaza Writes Back (London)
At 7 pm in the P21 Gallery, 21 Chalton St., London NW1 1JD. More about the event. More about the collection.
First MoMa Screening of Palestinian Poet Annemarie Jacir’s “When I Saw You” (New York City)
More about the event and other screenings.
January 16
Banipal Book Club Reads Vertigo (London)
From 6:30 to 9 p.m. atThe Arab British Centre, 1 Gough Square, EC4A 3DE. More on the event.
January 17-18
Writers Unlimited: Winternachten Festival Den Haag (The Hague)
Syrian novelist Nihad Sirees and Egyptian novelist Miral al-Tahawy will appear on Jan 17. The French-Lebanese writer Amin Maalouf, the festival’s guest of honour, will deliver the Winternachten Lecture on Jan 18. More about the events.
January 18
Launch of Rowayat Journal (Cairo)
Rowayat is a new literary journal, featuring both emerging and established writers – Egyptian and international – but all with a focus or inspiration from Egypt. Their launch party is set for Saturday Jan 18 at Diwan Bookstore Maadi from 3pm to 5.30pm. More about the magazine. More about the event.
January 20
Application Deadline for British Council Grants to Syrian Artists (Egypt, Jordan, Lebanon, Turkey, or Iraq)
Grantees are eligible for £1000 to £3000, and must be Syrian citizens living in Egypt, Jordan, Lebanon, Turkey, or Iraq. More about the grant and applications here.
January 22
Opening of the Cairo International Book Fair (Cairo)
The fair is set to open as usual, with Kuwait as the guest of honor. More about the fair.
Opening Night of Theatrical Version of Khaled al-Khamissi’s Taxi (Cairo)
Brian Farish, Rewan El-Ghaba, and Kevin Dean, and Yasmin Galal are the core of The Thousand Tongues, a new Cairo-based theatre company that will be staging a theatrical version of Khaled al-Khamissi’s Taxi. The production, which will run alternately in Arabic and English, will open at a new performance space, VENT, on January 22. More about the event.
Al-Mutanabbi Street Project Panel Discussion (London)
Join Alan Ingram at the Mosaic Rooms as he chairs a discussion about the Al-Mutanabbi Street Starts Here project with two of the projects contributing artists, Catherine Cartwright and Mona Kriegler, alongside other special guests. More about the event. More about the project.
January 23
Book Launch: ‘The Storyteller of Jerusalem’ (London)
On January 23 at the Mosaic Rooms, translator Dr. Nada Elzeer, publisyher Michel Moushabeck, and author of the book’s forward, Rachel Beckles Willson, will come together to launch The Storyteller of Jerusalem: The Life and Times of Wasif Jawhariyyeh, 1904-1948. More about the event.
January 24-25
Translating in/Justice (Marrakech)
Translating in/Justice is the second in a series of three symposia on “Artistic Justice: Positions on the Place of Justice in Art.” It’s set to take place in Marrakech and is curated by Dar al-Ma’mûn co-director Omar Berrada. More about the events.
January 27
K-12 Educators: Global Lit Online Book Group to Discuss Mahfouz’s ‘Autumn Quail’ (Worldwide)
From 7–8 p.m. EST, Harvard’s Center for Middle Eastern Studies will host a discussion of Autumn Quail with scholar Sami Alkyam. More about the event here.
January 28
A Talk with Hyam Yared (Brussels)
Lebanese writer Hyam Yared, one of the “Beirut39” and one of the prominent voices on the Lebanese literary scene, talks with Hadja Lahbib about living and working in a time of war. More on the event.
January 29
January 30
Panel Discussion About the New Baghdad Library (London)
The Mosaic Rooms are hosting the architects of AMBS, who will be joined by cultural figureheads to discuss the new designs for the planned library in Baghdad. More about the event. More about plans for the new Baghdad library.
January 31
Fady Joudah at the 2014 Boston University Lecture Series in Literary Translation (Boston)
Most Friday afternoons from 1-3 p.m., Boston University will be hosting a series on literary translation with luminaries like Joudah, Sinan Antoon (Feb 28), Ammiel Alcalay (March 21), and Susan Bernofsky (April 4). More on the events.
Why don’t you add a calendar-plugin? WordPress should have many of them, I suppose…
All I see under calendar is “a calendar of your site’s posts.” Do you see something for events-management?
I don’t actually but I think it is downloadable somewhere in the Internet? #wishfulthinking part 2!
Somebody who’s fluent in WordPress, please help!!
Hello and salaam! I wonder if it would fit the theme of your blog to mention an Arabic calligraphy and poetry retreat I’m organising for April 2014 in your shiny new calendar? I guess it’s not quite Arabic literature but the idea is to help foster the appreciation of qasidas, the transcribing of poems and the generation of new poems (in English) inspired by Sufi literature. You can see more about it and decide if it links to your theme on our blog: http://zendecreative.wordpress.com.
Incidentally, I think you have to do opensource wordpress to use the plugins ch.com mentions…That allows you to tinker with the workings of your site in a way that you can’t with the basic format, but you might have to pay for the privilege. Hope you find a way! In any case, the calendar as you have it works fine.
Fi amanillah,
Medina