Should Adonis Be Receiving Peace Prizes?

ArabLit no longer publishes on Saturdays, but it’s a bit of an addiction. These are just links:

German peace prize for Syrian poet Adonis sparks outrage – The Syrian poet has won another “peace” prize — the €25,000 Erich Maria Remarque Prize from the German city of Osnabrück.

What’s more, this year’s winner of the Peace Prize of the German Book Trade, which has also gone to some fairly odd choices, reportedly has refused to speak in Adonis’ honor on November 20 in Osnabrück. Meanwhile, city officials in Osnabrück say they knew the award would spark controversy and gave it for Adonis’s “advocacy for a separation of religion and state and for equal rights for women in the Arab world.”

Boualem Sansal’s 2084 longlisted for the Prix Goncourt 2015 – The Algerian novelist is himself a past winner of the Peace Prize of the German Book Trade. In a recent interview with Haaretz, he talks about his longlisted dystopian novel and says that the “Arab World Is Dead, Iran Will Lead Islam.”

Event additions

On September 16, writer and editor Anna Della Subin presents a reading of Tawfiq al-Hakim’s 1933 play The People of the Cave as part of Triple Canopy’s The Long Tomorrow issue. If you’re in NYC, there’s more online.

I’ve written about ReOrient, but I didn’t realize you can “Enter to win two tickets to the ReOrient Festival.”

Also, “Renowned poet Nathalie Handal to present reading at Ouachita Sept. 17.” That’s in Arkansas, if you’re nearby.

2015’s International Prize for Arabic Fiction winner Shukri Mabkhout is among the authors taking part in Berlin’s International Literature Festival (ILB), which opens September 9 at the Haus der Berliner Festspiele. Samar Yazbek will also be there.