Collaboration is Nice, But I want a Slam
The admirable Poetry Translation Workshop continued its work (and play) with Arabic poetry this week, hosting a workshop on the Mauritanian poet Mubarka Bint al-Barra’.
Poetry
Arab World Books Publishes Special Jan 25 Edition
Novelist Somaya Ramadan is among the authors who contributed to Arab World Books’ latest “literature and essay corner.”
Samar Yazbek, ‘A Sudden Visitor in This Place’
Yesterday, Jadaliyya published a prose work by Yazbek that reflects events in Syria through the prism of a woman writer. The work, titled “Waiting for Death: I Will Not Carry Flowers to my Grave,” is not assigned a genre, but feels in parts like a prose poem, elsewhere an essay or a memoir fragment.
What Should (and Shouldn’t) an Egyptian Culture Ministry Do for Literature?
The Egyptian Ministry of Culture has a lot of shoveling ahead if it intends to shift the organization from one that stifles cultural developments into one that supports their flowering.
Tahrir Book Fair Closes Early Friday
The Tahrir book fair—which experienced disappointing sales on its first day—closed early today because of the demonstrations.
What Will Novelists Write about the Revolutions of 2011?
Today in Al Masry Al Youm, I have a piece about “‘Revolutions everywhere’: Egypt’s novelists shift the red lines” discussing the past, present, and future of censorship and self-censorship in Egyptian literature.
Palestinian Poetry for Youm al-Ard, Day of the Land
Today on Jadaliyya, Sinan Antoon published translations of two Rashid Hussein poems to mark Youm al-Ard, or Palestinian Land Day.
What Sold at the 2011 Riyadh International Book Fair, and Why?
The Saudi Gazette reported this week that sales of nonfiction (or “works of an intellectual bent”) beat out fiction at this year’s Riyadh book fair, which ran March 1-11.
Libyan Poet Khaled Mattawa: Now That We Have Tasted Hope
This weekend, Libyan-American poet Khaled Mattawa has been at New York’s Alwan for the Arts, reciting his own poems and those of other Arab poets. Among the poems he’s reciting, I imagine, is his new work, “Now That We Have Tasted Hope.”
I wouldn’t normally lift an author’s entire work, but, since its initial appearance on BBC’s The World Today, it seems to have been reposted on a number of websites. (Is that a good excuse?) Anyhow: