As I first re-read George Orwell’s “Why I Write,” I thought I was just stopping by for the delightful sketch of an unhappy childhood (and the triumphalist idea that I, by riding on George Orwell’s coattails, had also bested my unhappy years).
Ezzedine Choukri Fishere was shortlisted for last year’s International Prize for Arabic Fiction for his Embrace at Brooklyn Bridge. At the Abu Dhabi Book Fair, where the 2012 announcement was made, Fishere also talked about his plans to serialize a new book, Exit Door, which he planned to finish in time to submit for the 2013 prize.
In Graz, Austria next week, Algerian-German novelist Boualem Sansal, Egyptian novelist Ibrahim Farghali, and Lebanese novelist Alawiyya Sobh (among others) will appear at the “Baklava Reading Festival” (yes, that sort of baklava)–
Images courtesy of a mystery photographer and the Twitter feed of @ShjIntlBookFair:
This is old news, since the British Society for Middle Eastern Studies (BRISMES) book award ceremony took place on Halloween (October 31 for you non-revelers) but I only just saw […]
Speaking of the International Prize for Arabic Fiction’s (IPAF) forthcoming (next month) longlist, it continues to be strange that Youssef Rakha‘s debut novel, Book of the Sultan’s Seal (2011) did not appear on […]
(Today) Monday, November 5: Tuesday, Nov. 13 – Thursday, Nov. 15:
In between other books, I have been browsing my way through the collection Al-Mutanabbi Street Starts Here, ed. Beau Beausoleil and Deema Shehabi. There are dozens of moments that have pricked […]
Six authors — from the UAE, Lebanon, Egypt, Yemen, Palestine and Iraq — started their International Prize for Arabic Fiction-sponsored “masterclass” (yes, it was previously called a nadwa; perhaps that word was too hard for us English-language journos). Anyhow:
