On Saturday, August 2, security forces affiliated with the presidency refused to allow the “Art is a Public Square” festival to set up. Egypt’s new/old culture minister, Gaber Asfour, intervened, and the festival will now be held on August 9.
Celebrated author Jabbour Douaihy — shortlisted for the International Prize for Arabic Fiction (IPAF) and winner of the Prix de la Jeune Litterature Arabe for his “The Vagrant,” and also IPAF-shortlisted for his beautiful “June Rain” — has released a new book, “American Neighborhood,” which reviewer Mishka Mourani says is his “best novel yet.”
Al-Mustafa Najjar recently attended a showing of “The Nightmares of Carlos Fuentes,” based on a short story by Hassan Blasim.
Over at The Paris Review, poet and translator Peter Cole writes about the ironic new life that Benjamin Netanyahu has given to Hayim Nahman Bialik’s poem “On the Slaughter.”
To celebrate the launch of the “Critical Muslim’s” Syria issue, editor Robin Yassin-Kassab has made a list of “10 things to remember about Syria” that trends toward the positive: Maté, sufis, poetry, fatteh. ArabLit focuses on, No. 4, the poetry.
