Bloomsbury Qatar Foundation Publishing: Now In Business

Susannah Tarbush was at the BQFP's inaugural event in London for a salon with Ahdaf Soueif, in discussion with Peter Florence of the Hay Festival, at St Barnabas House at 1 Greek Street in the heart of literary London. If you missed the event, don't worry -- the next one will take place on 9 September, in Doha. Bloomsbury’s founder and chief executive Nigel Newton announced "the first BQFP Ramadan Iftar, featuring readings by local poets in Arabic and English” in the BQFP villa at the Qatar Foundation. For news and events, check out the BQFP website, where Arab authors can also submit a book proposal for the foundation's children's publishing program: contact the foundation on bqfp [at][ bloomsbury.com. They have just published their first book -- The Selfish Crocodile by Faustin Charles and Michael Terry -- in both Arabic and English (read more in Tarbush's blog), and theya re looking for further titles which will be launched and distributed in Qatar on World Book Day.

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.

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.