Mohga Hassib, who recently interviewed Elias Khoury for ArabLit, also attended his talk at the American University in Cairo. At the talk, he spoke about the value of seeing things afresh, through children's eyes:
New Releases: ‘Translating Egypt’s Revolution’ and ‘Now That We Have Tasted Hope’
Translating Egypt's Revolution: The Language of Tahrir, ed. Samia Mehrez, is now available from AUC Press. Although it's available for sale online and in AUCP bookstores, its official launch will come on June 9 (7 p.m., Oriental Hall, AUC Downtown Campus). The launch will be paired with a a photo exhibit by Michael Kennedy, who took the shot … Continue reading New Releases: ‘Translating Egypt’s Revolution’ and ‘Now That We Have Tasted Hope’
Conference Begins Saturday: Narrating the ‘Arab Spring’
No, you cannot have a program before you arrive on Saturday morning at 9 a.m., but yes, you can pester the event organizers on their Facebook page, where they say: "The aim of this international conference is to consider and shed light on the new narratives emerging from and about the Arab Spring. It will … Continue reading Conference Begins Saturday: Narrating the ‘Arab Spring’
Art and the Struggle to Define Who and What is ‘Tahrir’
Yesterday, I briefly mentioned Egyptian playwright Laila Soliman's controversial summer 2011 theater projects, and her attempts to write "an alternative version of history." Hers is just one of many artistic projects rushing out into the public squares, streets, theaters, bookstores, art houses, and elsewhere. Some are just riding the coattails of a (sometimes) popular movement. But … Continue reading Art and the Struggle to Define Who and What is ‘Tahrir’
Matar on Libya: This is About ‘a People Trying to Find Their Voice’
This is not about a country removing a dictator, but a people trying to find their voice. #Libya
Do Revolutions Create ‘Bad’ Poetry? Or Just Bad Poetry Events?
Yesterday evening, Egyptian poets Ahmad Yamani and Nasser Farghaly read at an event titled "Egypt: poetry from the public square," which, according to the Shubbak website, was intended to "poetry is serving as a mediator of change and public debate in the Arab Uprising."
Novels that ‘Predicted’ a Revolution
Al Jazeera recently interviewed Habib Selmi about his most recent novel, The Women's Orchards. They ask the International Prize for Arabic Fiction-shortlisted author (for The Scents of Marie Claire, trans. Fadwa Qasem and published AUC Press) if his latest novel hadn't predicted the revolution. Selmi said that he did not capital-P predict the Tunisian uprising and ouster of President Ben Ali, he was just a good observer of society:
The Next Bestseller Translated from the Arabic Will Be…
I imagine that Houghton Mifflin Harcourt is putting their money on Revolution 2.0, to be written by Wael Ghonim, translated by (?), and edited by HMH publisher Bruce Nichols. Nichols, presumably, will take a firm hand in shaping the narrative.
Nathalie Handal’s New Poem, ‘Freedom’
I don't want to borrow too much from Palestinian-American poet Nathalie Handal's "Freedom," published this week in Guernica. But I did want to make sure you saw the poem. It requires no introduction. Freedom The Arab Revolt 2011 The story begins with a song— it’s stubborn, breaks air into history; for a minute it’s … Continue reading Nathalie Handal’s New Poem, ‘Freedom’
Egypt’s Minister of Culture Merry-go-round
After 25 years of Farouk Hosni, Egypt had less than a fortnight of its latest Minister of Culture, Gaber Asfour.
Egyptian Novelists Go Back to the Drawing Board
I've had to go back to the drawing board with an essay-review about Egyptian fiction that I'd thought was nearly finished. But it didn't occur to my apparently blinkered brain that this will be true for many authors with much longer and more serious projects.
Egypt’s Sixties Generation Novelists on the Nation and Revolution
In his essay yesterday about "State Culture, State Anarchy," Elliott Colla very briefly touched on author Sonallah Ibrahim's 2003 put-down of the Egyptian state cultural apparatus.
