Abjjad: An Arabic Social Network for Books with a Big Vision
In June 2012, Eman Hylooz and Tamim Al Manaseer co-founded Abjjad, an Arabic social network for books with a big vision.
March 2014
On Ibn al-Hajjaj, Whose Poems Schoolboys Were Beaten for Memorizing
If there were two disappointments I had while reading the opening chapter of Sinan Antoon’s The Poetics of the Obscene in Premodern Arabic Poetry, “Ibn al-Hajjaj and Sukhf: Genealogies,” they were: 1) that the full book is listed at more than $70, and 2) that there wasn’t a companion historical novel that gives full imaginative license to a re-crafting of Ibn al-Hajjaj and his contemporaries.
‘Life on Hold’: A Novel of Stalled Dreams in Saudi Arabia
A novel where the “days are all much the same, bringing nothing new” is a difficult thing to pull off. And Fahd al-Atiq’s “Life on Hold,” trans. Jonathan Wright, couldn’t be characterized as a page-turner. But the book does manage to craft a compelling narrative about the contradictions of contemporary Riyadh even as the protagonist remains stranded in nowhere-land
Book Fairs Still Thriving in Riyadh, Muscat
The Muscat International Book Fair in Oman, which closes tomorrow and has in the past seen 800,000-some visitors, saw an infrastructural push this year. Meanwhile, the giant Riyadh Book Fair — which sees between one and two million visitors — opened on March 5.
Sinan Antoon, Hassan Blasim on This Year’s Independent Foreign Fiction Prize Longlist
Two Iraqi writers — Sinan Antoon (The Corpse Washer) and Hassan Blasim (The Iraqi Christ) — are joined by Palestinian-Israeli novelist Sayed Kashua, who writes in Hebrew, on this year’s Independent Foreign Fiction Prize (IFFP) 15-book longlist.
Moroccan Poet Mohammed Bennis Receives France’s Max Jacob ‘Étranger’ Prize
‘Yesterday, Moroccan poet Mohammed Bennis was awarded one of two Max Jacob prizes at a ceremony in Paris.
International Prize for Arabic Fiction Judge Mehmet Hakkı Suçin: Advice to Young Novelists
At the time of the International Prize for Arabic Fiction (IPAF) shortlist announcement, ArabLit and 7iber had interviews with four of the five judges. One judge was missing, Mehmet Hakkı Suçin. He graciously followed up with an email interview.
A Bird Is Not a Stone: The Palestinian Poets ‘Rarely Translated into English’
A Bird is not a Stone, ed. Henry Bell and Sarah Irving, is a collection of poems by contemporary Palestinian writers forthcoming from Glasgow’s Freight Books. The translations are done — through the bridge method — by 25 of Scotland’s top poets. Irving talks about the collection, which she suggests is perhaps “freer” for being a bridge translation.
Full Schedule of Cairo’s ‘Al-Mutanabbi Street Starts Here’ Events
If you’re in Cairo, there are a number of events on an around the seventh anniversary of the bombing of al-Mutanabbi Street. If you’re not, a number of them will be videoed and made available online.