“According to photographer Ali Y. Al-Baroodi, who tweeted from the festival, 7000 books were given to the crowds, and 6000 to the library, now being rebuilt.”
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Iraq
Friday Finds: Two Contributors to Iraq + 100 Reflect on Science Fiction in Arabic Literature
“I’d never imagined Iraq that way and it was as if the other writers just opened up a new portal into Iraq for me, and it was kind of exciting.”
Reading Dunya Mikhail’s New Book on Daesh’s Survivors
“And if their bodies recover, will their souls do the same?”
Must-read Classics by Women: Two New Translations of Nazik al-Malaika (1923-2007)
“She died, but no lips shook, no cheeks turned white
no doors heard her death tale told and retold,
no blinds were raised for small eyes to behold
the casket as it disappeared from sight.”
Summer Saturday Re-Runs: Iraqi Poets Speak
“When I decided to study the translations of Sayyab’s poetry, I was shocked when I found that there’s just one book in English about the pioneer of modern Arabic poetry!”
Memories of an Iraqi Translator: A Russian Photojournalist in Iraq
“Yes, the Americans taught Iraqis how to dip—and the Iraqis taught Americans how to drink sweet tea in thin, transparent demi glasses.”
‘Watermelon Boys’ Author Ruqaya Izzidien on Writing Iraqis into Iraqi Historical Fiction
“If I hear another description of veiled faces and intense eyes…”
It’s Pub Day for Muhsin al-Ramli’s ‘The President’s Gardens’: Win a Copy
“It’s publication day for Muhsin al-Ramli’s The President’s Gardens, and translator Luke Leafgren has offered to share one of his copies with an interested ArabLit reader.”
The Starkly Different Lives of Mobile Libraries and Bookshops in Abu Dhabi, Baghdad, and Cairo
“On one recent afternoon, al-Moussawi drove to an upscale neighborhood and parked at a mall near the University of Baghdad. There the clientele was mainly students, so he put out textbooks, novels and poetry in different languages, and celebrity biographies.”
Mortada Gzar’s ‘My Beautiful Sect’: Visions of a Deformed Iraqi Reality
Iraqi novelist Mortada Gzar — contributor to the recent collection Iraq + 100, participant in the Iowa Writers’ Workshop, and author of the acclaimed Mr. Azger Akbar (2013) — writes, in his latest novel, about a man who supervised the animals belonging to a son of Saddam Hussein.
In the President’s Gardens, Refusing to Forget Iraqi History
“All the events described in this novel were either directly experienced by the author or related to him by others. He assures us they are all real.”
10th Anniversary Readings For Al-Mutanabbi Street
Next month will mark the tenth anniversary of the bombing of Baghdad’s al-Mutanabbi Street, the city’s historic bookselling corridor.
