Over at Mada Masr, Hadil Ghoneim has penned a fascinating short piece, trans. Amira Elmasry, about her impressions of US high school students reading and discussing Naguib Mahfouz’s classic “Midaq Alley.”
The University of Iowa’s International Writing Program (IWP) residency — the world’s oldest and largest multinational writing residency — will host another thirty to thirty-five authors this year, among them Saudi author Abdullah al-Wesali, Sudanese writer Sabah Sanhouri, and Egyptian poet, novelist, and translator Ahmed Shafie.
Gaza-based Theatre for Everybody and London-based Az Theatre are co-creating and co-producing “War and Peace in Gaza and London,” set for a Rich Mix debut at 4 p.m. on September 14.
There are a number of events that focus on Arab and Arabic literatures at this year’s Edinburgh International Book Festival. Contributor Raphael Cormack attended two, and found that, “Where political analysis falls apart, literature and fiction can say something.”
The Peninsula Qatar reported on Thursday that the Katara Novel Prize — which seems to be Qatar’s answer to the International Prize for Arabic Fiction (IPAF) and Sheikh Zayed Book Award — is moving forward. The prize committee announced Wednesday that they’d received 220 entries ahead of the October 31 deadline.
According to the Arab American Museum’s Matthew Stiffler, the 2014 Arab American Book Awards — given to books published in 2013 — have just been announced.
The US-based National Endowment for the Arts has announced the latest round of literary translation fellowships.
Bookseller reported yesterday that Canongate had acquired a 466-page memoir written by Mauritanian Guantanamo prisoner Mohamedou Ould Slahi, which Slahi finished in 2006, but which had apparently been held as a “classified secret” for seven years.
“Digital Sanctuaries Pittsburgh” launched last week — Aug. 7-9 — on that city’s north side, in a garden-to-garden walk featuring the work of acclaimed musicians and writers, including Dunya Mikhail and Osama Alomar. The virtual performances continue to echo.
