News

No, it’s not irony. Nor is it a straightforward celebration of “police” and “security.” Not that security is necessarily a bad thing: I do applaud the Egyptian police for doing […]

There are five Egyptians on the “Beirut39” list, the celebrated 39 up-and-coming Arab writers under 40. They are: Hamdy el Gazzar, Mansoura Ez Eldin , Mohamed Salah Al Azab, Nagat […]

“I would like to see this fair not as a miniature version of Frankfurt, but as something in its own right.” Something more colorful, says Abu Dhabi Book Fair manager […]

That’s the School Library Journal’s assessment of the U.S. ALA convention: Graphic novels are everywhere, raining down from children’s-book publishers. And, of course, they’re not just for kids any more: […]

Hisham Matar, author of In the Country of Men, has a heart-wrenching piece in The Guardian about how his father—imprisoned since 1990—may yet be alive. “Too many facts. I am […]

A few of the big authors of the last decade (the Alaa el Aswany, the Elias Khoury) as well as the obligatory “taboo breakers” (Girls of Riyadh) are reviewed by […]

Sales of non-children’s, non-religious books were down this year, according to the Gulf Times. Bummer.

On the second day of the new year, Tariq Ali was awarded the Granadillo 2010 (in Granada, of course) for his series of novels called The Islam Quintet. It is […]

Youssef Bazzi has an enthusiastic essay in Banipal 36: “Europe, our guide to reading our Arabic literature.” Yes, with a double “our.” Let us grant, for a moment, that his […]