“But [the book] is not about the Queen Boat. It’s about Hani Mahfouz as a gay man in Egypt and his relationship with his mother and the character Abdel Aziz. I was thinking about the people and not the event.”
“What I wanted to do, above all, was document the range and the diversity of ways that people living on the Arabian Peninsula have engaged with and continue to engage with Shakespeare.”
The announcement was made by 2019 judging chair Charafdin Majdolin at the Tuesday night event in Abu Dhabi, although it had been leaked by former IPAF judge Abdo Wazen hours before.
The winner of the 2019 International Prize for Arabic Fiction is set to be announced today, at a ceremony in Abu Dhabi that will start streaming live online at 8:10 p.m. GST / 5:10 p.m. BST.
Moroccan poet and novelist Mohcine Akhrif (1979-2019) died Sunday at a regional book fair in the northern city of Tetouan.
“Let me bathe in your vigor / before I lose my joy and mischief, /before your night dims my moon. / We are both fugitives, / you in your clouds, / I in my earth.”
Those interested in applying will need to send a short bio, a non-academic writing sample, and a brief description of their project before May 19, 2019.
“It is easier to talk to animals — and to solicit their help in a time of need — than to get help from one’s fellow humans who have more than they need.”
The second, “Mice in the Wardrobe of Solitude,” closes with a gorgeous, terrifying image of the world as a refrigerator, which, when opened, gives off nothing: “but the odor / of the white / rotted by the ice.”
