International Children’s Book Day has been celebrated since 1967, on or around Hans Christian Andersen’s birthday, which is the 2nd of April, and it’s celebrated to “inspire a love of reading and to call attention to children’s books.”
“Our sixth list of 10 for public libraries comes from genre-confusing, language-crossing, and word-bending author Youssef Rakha.”
“The deadline for travel-fellowship applications is April 15.”
“The feeling of being in a temporary place, which I might lose, makes me work harder to control and conquer it.”
“I was surprised that they chose this novel, although at the same time I understand why it was chosen, because it’s my most popular novel, and it’s about women’s struggles, and that’s what Western readers are interested in.”
“For instance, there is a focus on women, particularly the two women characters in Mama Hessa’s Mice: Mama Hessa and Ghanema Al Tarrof. Those two characters — who I wrote spontaneously, since they’re from our reality — didn’t draw much attention from the Arabic-language readers.”
“The title doesn’t reflect the contents of the novel. I choose a title at random. There is no India in the novel, and no king.”
“Aboul-Ela adds, as a caveat to his list, that were they still in print, he would also have: Sonallah Ibrahim’s Zaat, Abdallah Laroui’s The Crisis of the Arab Intellectual, and Fadwa Tuqan’s A Mountainous Journey.”
“A Room of Sabry’s Own” is a short story from Samar Nour’s collection “In the House of the Vampire,” which won a Sawiris Award for short stories in 2017.
