Today at approximately noon Qatar time (or 11 a.m.-ish here in Cairo), the six authors shortlisted for the International Prize for Arabic Fiction (IPAF) 2011 will be announced at a press conference in Doha.
This may be the week of the International Prize for Arabic Fiction, but the most delightful thing I read this week was Youssef Rakha’s “Virtually there,” in Al Ahram Weekly. (We’ll just blame an editor for the meaningless headline.)
The more interesting news, I think, is that submissions from female writers were up, with works by female writers forming 29% of the overall total. That’s up from 16% last year and 14% the year before.
