“As for writers, there′s nothing they can do about the terrible situation in Yemen. They live under bombing and mortar fire, the same as everyone else, with the same shortage of basic necessities like water, food and electricity.”
Yemen
Ali al-Muqri’s ‘Hurma’: Sex > War, Religion
Some preliminary thoughts about the novel.
6 Authors Who Are Part of Yemen’s Literary History and Literary Resurgence
“Ongoing political turmoil may not bode well for Yemen, but if 2014 is any indication, the outlook for its national literary scene is a promising one.”
What Does It Take to Found a Library in Sana’a, Yemen?
The TEDxSana’a Book Club has established a small but vibrant book community in Yemen’s largest city, as reported in the Yemen Times this week. Now they’re looking to expand even more,
Poet Sawsan Al-Areeqe on the Best and Worst of Being a Poet in Yemen and Why You Should Read Ali al-Muqri
While she was in Iowa City, participating in the International Writing Program (IWP)’s fall 2013 residency, Yemeni poet and filmmaker Sawsan Al-Areeqe spoke with the program’s “On the Map” series. The video interview was recently released on YouTube.
Yemen’s Anti-drone Poetry Contest
A recent Time article by Tik Root (@TikRoot) looks at “Yemen’s New Ways of Protesting Drone Strikes: Graffiti and Poetry.” According to Root, a recent anti-drone poetry contest had as its prize $600 or “1% of the cost of a hellfire missile.”
Iowa’s International Writing Program Sees First Participants from Yemen, Bahrain
Last week, 34 established writers from around the world began to arrive in Iowa City to participate in the University of Iowa’s 47th International Writing Program (IWP) residency. This year sees the program’s first-ever participants from Yemen (poet and filmmaker Sawsan Al-Areeqe) and Bahrain (poet, short-story writer, and essayist Ali Al Saeed). Kuwaiti writer Nada Faris will also join.
Children’s Magazines in the Yemen, Libraries in Egypt
I suppose “Children’s Magazines in the Yemen” doesn’t have the same appealing ring as Salmon Fishing in the Yemen, but — although Yemen doesn’t actually have a salmon-fishing industry — it really does have children’s magazines, although not as many as… Read More ›
Wajdi al-Ahdal’s ‘A Land without Jasmine’ To Be Published in 2012
The UK’s Garnet Publishing announced this week that they have acquired world English rights to Yemeni novelist Wajdi al-Ahdal’s بلد بلا سماء (A Land Without Sky), trans. William Hutchins as A Land without Jasmine. It’s due to be published in… Read More ›
In Honor of Tawakul Karman: Yemeni Literature
Last summer, newly minted Nobel Peace laureate Tawakul Karman told the Yemen Times that encouraging freedom of expression was “the first and far most important way to achieve change in a society.” Yemeni poets and novelists, like its journalists, have struggled… Read More ›
Hisham Matar and Ali Al-Muqri on Writing During a Revolution
By Jennifer Sears The International Peace Institute at the United Nations in New York City inaugurated its “Arab Intellectual Series” this past week with a panel featuring Libyan novelist Hisham Matar and Yemeni novelist Ali Al-Muqri. The series aims to… Read More ›
Politics and Poetry in Yemen
Yet poetry, in its various forms, plays an important role in Yemeni society.
