For the first time, two works have been chosen as co-winners of the University of Arkansas Award for the Translation of Arabic Literature, which is set to be announced today at the Middle Eastern Studies Association (MESA) annual meeting.
We have become so accustomed to thinking of religion as a place of singularity in human identity that Diary of a Jewish Musilm gives all the shock in translation that author Kamal Ruhayyim surely intended in the original.
Egyptian novelist and poet Mohamed Nagui died in Paris after undergoing liver surgery. He was 68.
The last month has been a tense time in Benghazi. Hundreds have died in the fight for Libya’s second city, and literary hopes — like others — have been put on hold. But Nada Elfeituri still writes, and still holds a candle for the “Young Writers of Benghazi” group.
The Egyptian Board on Books for Young People (EBBY) has begun its new life with a talk at Al-Balsam Bookstore in Mohandiseen. Two problem areas were highlighted — the lack of Arabic books for toddlers and for teens.
“People don’t know what it means to become an Arab at six years old.” So writes Somali author Mohammad Ali Diriye on the back cover of his short story collection, One way to Caracas.
Egyptian novelist Youssef Ziedan made a widely shared statement on Facebook yesterday: He will suspend “any cultural action or interaction in Egypt and the Arab world.”
The Sharjah International Book Fair ended on the 15th, and — by the numbers — it was the most successful in that city’s book fairs yet, drawing a number of visitors (or visits?) that puts it in league with the mammoth Cairo and Riyadh book fairs in terms of attendance.
Yesterday was PEN’s “Day of the Imprisoned Writer,” and they recognized five imprisoned writers. Today we remember five others.
