Etisalat Award for Arab Children's Literature

Sheikha Bodour Al Qasimi, daughter of the ruler of Sharjah in the United Arab Emirates, is pretty serious about upping the game of Arabic children's literature: in 2007 she founded her own publishing house, Kalimat (which has a fun interactive website in Arabic and English), and the Arab Children’s Book Publishers Forum (currently exhibiting at Book Expo America), a trade organization which now boasts 60 members. This year, it's a prize in conjunction with telecommunications Etisalat, worth one million dirhams ($270, 000) to be split between the publisher, author and/or illustrator. The 2009 winner is expected to be announced at the Sharjah World Book Fair, scheduled for November this year.

Abu Dhabi Gets Book

Covering the Abu Dhabi book fair, the Khaleej Times notes a common problem - book sales dropping due to other distractions - and hopes that the fair, symbolised by the Arabic Booker, can bring readers back.

Diverting attention of the youth from the TV and computer screens to books may seem difficult but not an impossible goal. After all, this is the land of Scheherazade and the tales of Thousand and One Nights.

They also report that this year's winner Youssef Ziedan used the prize ceremony to promote religious harmony.

Three Percent have a full report on the festivities, the book fair itself reports a first: RAYA are the first literary agency to take a stall at the fair. RAYA have ten Arabic authors under contract, including Khaled Khalifa who was in the running for the Arabic Booker last year with the brilliantly-titled In Praise of Hatred.

Atwood/Bedell/Dubai/controversy?

Margaret Atwood tells readers of the Guardian that her "head is spinning" in light of new details concerning the "banning" of Geraldine Bedell's book from the Emirates Book Festival. Having discovered that the story had been blown out of proportion, Atwood has the good grace to make fun of her own reactions in the role of

Anti-Censorship Woman! I nipped into the nearest phone booth, hopped into my cape and coiled my magic lasso, and swiftly cancelled my own appearance; because, as a vice-president of International PEN, I could not give my August Seal of Elderly Writer Approval to such a venue.

While the status of The Gulf Between Us in the Gulf remains unclear, Atwood makes some savvy points about the nature of book festivals and authors' egos, concluding -- cape aloft -- with the hope that the incident will provide a forum for serious debate:

The positive effect of this fracas is that the door has now been opened for a discussion of such matters. PEN will send its international secretary, Eugene Schoulgin, to initiate such a discussion; there is talk of a panel. I am considering my options. Should I - for instance - appear at the festival on video screen? Or are there yet more twists and turns to this story?

Books are seriously "banned" and "censored" around the world, and people have been imprisoned, murdered and executed for what they've written. A loose use of these terms is not helpful.

Bedell Banned in Dubai

Guardian journalist and novelist Geraldine Bedell wrote in the Guardian Books blog yesterday that her forthcoming novel The Gulf Between Us has been banned from the Dubai book fair, where she had hoped to launch it. Bedell comments:

It seemed a perfect fit. Mine is the only novel I know of in English (but I can't think there are many in Arabic, either) set in a Gulf emirate. Most of the action takes place in a small fictional state called Hawar, which means either "little camel" or "dispute" in Arabic.

This "hawar", coming close on the heels of the 20th anniversary of the fatwa against Salman Rushdie, will undoubtedly draw attention to the novel. Margaret Atwood has withdrawn from the festival in protest against the censorship of Bedell's novel. Other novelists are considering their invitations, including children's writers Anthony Horowitz and Lauren Child (perhaps as much at the suggestion from the fair to Bedell's publishers Penguin that they consider launching a children's book [read: harmless] instead -- oblivious to the excellent, contentious and controversial children's and YA fiction currently being published). As the festival is being funded by the Emirates Airline Foundation, a boycott of Arsenal might also be considered.

Speaking to the Guardian today, Jonathan Heawood, director of English PEN, said:

Ideally a festival like this should be a chance for authors from all cultures and different backgrounds to come together, share work and exchange experiences. A literary festival should be about cultural exchange, and clearly this one isn't.

Bedell suggests that the "comically long list" of reasons for banning the novel from the fair omit - and in fact disguise - the decision-makers' homophobia (the novel features a gay sheikh). The author of Saudi-set Girls of Riyadh faced a backlash for her portrayal of the sexual double standards among the "velvet class," including a minor character who is a lesbian. The author of Al Akharoun, a Saudi novel with a lesbian protagonist, has to use a pseudonym. So Bedell's guess has some precedents in the region to support it. Al Akharoun was published in Arabic by Dar al Saqi, who also publish Hani Naskshabandi, a Saudi journalist and novelist currently living in Dubai.

I haven't read The Gulf Between Us, but I'd be curious as to how it compares in its worldview and style to the fiction covered by Laila Mohammed Saleh's Women Writers of the Islands and Arabian Gulf, and to the fiction and non-fiction writing being fostered in UAE by the al-Owais foundation, most of which is not available in English translation. Anyone familiar with writing from UAE who can offer an insight?

Anna Lindh Foundation: Best Arabic Children's Books

The Anna Lindh Euro-Mediterranean Foundation for Dialogue Between Cultures announced its top ten Arabic children's books. The award is part of the Foundation's "100 Books Exhibition" at the Cairo International Book Fair, which aims to circulate 100 Arabic children's books in Egypt, Jordan, Lebanon, Palestine and Syria. The Foundation site hasn't yet posted the top ten on their sight, but Moroccan blog The View from Fez is proud to announce that a Moroccan children's book has made the list.

Written initially in French, Raconte-moi le zellige was recently translated into Arabic by Mohamed Belmlih, and published by Casablanca’s Yanbow Livres Publishing House. According to The View from Fez,

Ahki li ez-zellige (Tell me about zellige) by Nadia Benmoussa takes the reader in an immersion in the art and history of the Zellig (traditional tiles) through the journey of a hero, Ali, and his master. Tell me about Zellige sends young readers in a marvellous travel in Fez, Marrakech and back in Andalusia, to discover the splendour of this Moroccan architectural art.

Cairo Book Fair -- or Cairo Blook Fair?

Marwa Rakha at Global Voices highlights a trend at the Cairo Book Fair, quoting a post from blogger Mohamed Hamdy highlighting the 15+ titles by bloggers available at the Fair, supported by CBF's first-ever seminar to discuss the growing phenomenon of bloggers getting published. The seminar is organized by the renowned writer Youssef Al Ka'eed and bloggers Ghada Abdel Aal, Shady Aslan, and Mayada Medhat. This is definitely a particularly Egyptian phenomenon, of bloggers publishing *novels* based on blogs, as opposed to essayistic or memoiristic texts...

__Updated 28/01/09__

Marwa Rakha posts more news: traditional writers have called these Egyptian blooks "Kleenex" (because they see them as over-intimate and disposable, I guess). Blogger Ahmed Al Sabbagh hits back with a link to Ghada Abdel Aal's video, where she quotes Tawfiq El-Hakim describing the essence of real literature:

It is the open air literature; the literary expression of freedom and passion; words that reach out from one heart to another exposing the depth of the human psyche in freedom, honesty, and sincerity. Tawfiq El-Hakim also said that our share of such kind of literature is minimal just as much as our share of honesty and openness is minimal - This is exactly what we as bloggers do.

Events, Awards, etc.: What's Going On...

Top sellers from the first week of the 52nd Beirut Book Fair, as reported in Lebanon's Daily Star, according to preliminary statistics from the Arab Cultural Club:

Islam and religion: "Umdat al-Raghib," Al-Shaykh Abdullah al-Hirari

Politics: "From Hasan Nasrallah to Michel Aoun," Fayez Qazzi

Science: "Encyclopedia of Family Health," Dar al-Ilm al-Malayin

Art: "International Cooking Series," Dar al-Ilm al-Malayin

Autobiography: "Jass al-Nabad (Taking the Pulse)," Riad al-Rayyes Publishing

The fair is back in business after a two-year hiatus, due to political and security tensions in Lebanon. With an emphasis on younger readers, and reading in education,

Beirut is attempting to reclaim its status as the "international book capital."

210 exhibitors are taking part, with 192 private and 18 government exhibitors are on hand from Kuwait, the United Arab Emirates, Palestine and Oman and Lebanon. There is a week-long series of more than 40 seminars and lectures by publishers and prominent figures from the Arab publishing and literature scene.

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Words Without Borders posts two exciting ventures: 2009 Fellowships in Applied Translation with Dalkey Archive Press (application deadline 1 March, 2009); and Amazon UK have launched a Literature in Translation store.