‘The Bride of Reeds’ and Tamazight Literature’s from Oral to Written
“[I]n order for Tamazight culture to move forward, we must produce. I hope that our culture will finally take its rightful place in a universal context.”
News
Fantastically Successful Kickstarter for an Arts Library in Baghdad
The Kickstarter campaign “One Hundred Sixty-Eight Hours and One Second,” launched by Iraqi artist Wafaa Bilal to raise money for the library at the University of Baghdad’s College of Fine Arts, has fourteen days remaining. But it already has exceeded its modest $9,000 goal by more than $28,000.
Taleb Alrefai’s ‘Here’ Withdrawn from International Prize for Arabic Fiction Longlist
“Books submitted to the prize are accepted in good faith on the basis that they abide by the prize’s submission rules. Should it emerge that an entry does not meet these criteria, for whatever reason, it is the duty of the Board of Trustees to take action to ensure the Prize’s integrity.”
The Talk Writer Omar Hazek Would’ve Given if He’d Been Allowed to Receive His Free-speech Award
“Let me tell you of the Egyptian poet Ahmed Doma, who was detained 18 times during Mubarak and SCAF’s regimes, and is currently sentenced for 31 years of imprisonment!”
Egyptian Writer Omar Hazek Prevented from Traveling to Receive Freedom of Expression Award
“OmarHazek was scheduled to appear at the opening night of the Writers Unlimited Festival, where he was to accept his award.”
In Finnish Translation, Ašraf Fayyad’s ‘Pakolaisten Viimeinen Jälkeläinen’
“Pakolaisuus on sitä, että seisoo jonon hännillä
jos vaikka saisi kotimaankannikan
Jonotus on sitä, mitä isoisäsi teki – syytä koskaan tietämättä!”
Egyptian Novelist Ahmed Naji and Editor Tarek al-Taher Will Go Back to Court in ‘Public Morals’ Case
As Naji wrote on Facebook: We’ll start again from scratch and reinvent the wheel in order to explain what’s creative freedom and what’s literature again.
International Prize for Arabic Fiction Releases 16-book Longlist of ‘Demanding’ Novels
Yasir Suleiman, chair of the prize’s Board of Trustees, called the novels “technically mature and sometimes demanding.”
2016 International Prize for Arabic Fiction Longlist To Be Revealed Today; 159 Novels in Contention
“The longlist will consist of up to 16 novels, chosen from the 159 entries we’re told came from 18 countries.”