News

Mai al-Nakib’s debut collection, The Hidden Light of Objects, has been attracting attention around the world. But do we read these stories as “Kuwaiti” or “American”?

Beau Beausoleil, the founder and driving spirit behind the “Mutanabbi Street Starts Here” project, is interested in branching out into the best quotes and excerpts from Arabic literature.

Egypt’s censorship office has apparently confiscated copies of three books that entered the country on Saturday, sent from Beirut by acclaimed publishing house Al-Tanweer.

Read “The Complex,” a chapter from Mohammed Rabie’s “Year of the Dragon,” a novel that explores the infuriating, bizarre, and sometimes hilarious underbelly of Egyptian bureaucracy.

Thanks to everyone who sent in events. The calendar will continue to grow throughout the month.

When Sultan Sooud Al Qassemi declared that the saying should no longer be “Cairo writes, Beirut publishes, and Baghdad reads,” but instead some combination of Qatari and Emirati cities, many observers scoffed. Yet the Emirates is not just investing in big book fairs and big literary prizes, but also in individual writers.

As translator Khaled Mattawa wrote, and Etwebi himself posted on Twitter, the Libyan poet’s home has been attacked and occupied by militia on August 25.

World literary awards are plentiful, although credible, transparent, and interesting ones less so. The Mohamed Choukri Foundation, named for the celebrated Moroccan author, recently announced the establishment of one in Choukri’s name.

Oum Cartoon blogger Jonathan Guyer has a piece up at the Paris Review this week about “The Case of the Arabic Noirs.” In it, he argues that — in Egypt, at least — the crime novel might be coming back.