Bahaa Taher in London

The National has a profile marking the author's tour marking the English publication of Sunset Oasis, his Arabic Booker-winning novel.

Meanwhile, the Complete Review salutes another leading Arabic writer, Zakaria Tamer, with two reviews.

2009 IWP Participants announced

Iraqi poet Soheil Najm and Saudi Arabian short-story writer Hanaa Hijazi will be taking part in a reading at 5 p.m. Sept. 4 in the Shambaugh House, the IWP headquarters at 30 N. Clinton St. on the University of Iowa campus. They're two of the University of Iowa's International Writing Program 2009 participants, alongside novelist, poet, scriptwriter, and translator Yasser Abdellatif from Egypt; French (of Algerian heritage) novelist and essayist Mabrouck Rachedi; and Jordanian filmmaker Yahya Alabdallah.

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.

Good Reviews & Bad News

The Guardian's Saturday Review showed the range of Arab literature (in English and in translation) being published in the UK with three reviews:

Michael Faber on A Child in Palestine: The Cartoons of Naji al-Ali

Joan Bakewell on Hanan al-Shaykh's The Locust and the Bird: My Mother's Story, which was excerpted in the newspaper's Family section in June.

James Lasdun on Elias Khoury's Yalo, which is a 2009 Recommended by PEN title.

Khoury was supposed to be launching the English translation at the London Review Bookshop as part of the marvellous World Literature Weekend, but Khoury was refused a visa at the last minute. And now two of the Moroccan poets who were due to read at the LRB on Monday night have also had their visa applications refused, despite having invitations from the prestigious Ledbury Festival. As Matthew Bell reports in the Independent on Sunday

It was supposed to be a highlight of the literary summer calendar, but this year's Ledbury Poetry Festival has been ruined by the interference of bossy Home Office bods. Three internationally acclaimed poets, one from Indonesia and two from Morocco, were barred from entering the country on the grounds they might try to outstay their welcome. Dorothea Rosa Herliany, who has published eight volumes of poetry in Indonesia, had her visa application rejected by a Home Office official who said, "I am not satisfied on the balance of probabilities that you are a genuine visitor," despite providing her invitation to the festival. Moroccan poets Hassan Najmi and Widad Benmoussa were also denied entry. Chloe Garner, the festival director, is distraught. "This is hugely embarrassing for the festival," she says. "I feel ashamed that the UK is effectively becoming a fortress."

The LRB, who are co-hosting the event with Banipal Magazine with whom the poets were supposed to be touring the UK, are forging ahead with the even. Francophone poet Siham Bouhlal will be there tomorrow night, as will poet and translator Sinan Antoon. Tickets are available on 020 7269 9030 or events [at] lrbshop.co.uk.

If you are as concerned as PEN and the LRB are about the increasing number of writers and artists being refused visas to the UK, please consider supporting the Manifesto Club's visiting artists and academics campaign.

Mourid Barghouti in conversation with Ruth Padel, London, June 2009

Thanks to Opus for cutting the video and to Mourid for posting it on his Facebook page!

Mourid Barghouti with Ruth Padel - Revised from Opus Projects on Vimeo.

L'Amour de Loin (libretto by Amin Maalouf) in London

Three performances still remain for the English National Opera's new production of L'Amour de Loin, Kaaja Saariaho's opera from a libretto by Amin Maalouf.

Maalouf's libretto uses the poem "L'Amour de Loin" by Jaufré Rudel, a twelfth-century troubadour from Occitan, who fell in love with a woman in Tripoli (Maalouf has made the opposite journey in his life, in a sense, from Lebanon to France). The libretto can be read here.

For more on the fascinating relationship of troubadours to Muslim Spain and North Africa, check out María Menocal's The Ornament of the World.

World Literature Weekend @ the London Review Bookshop

With many events crammed into an exciting weekend -- as ever, the LRB brings intelligence, dialogue, style and diversity to literary festival season, with speakers from the Arabic world including Mourid Barghouti (in conversation with Ruth Padel, sure to be a hot ticket!), Hanan al-Shaykh, Elias Khoury and Faïza Guène. The LRB website has more information about events and venues; tickets can be booked on 00 44 (0)20 7269 9030, or books [at] lrbshop.co.uk.

Friday 19 June

3 p.m. Hanan al-Shaykh with Esther Freud

Lebanese author Hanan al-Shaykh examines Arab women’s role in society with Esther Freud.

Saturday 20 June

12 p.m. Translation: Making a Whole Culture Intelligible?

with Independent Foreign Fiction Prize-winning translators Anne McLean, Anthea Bell, Daniel Hahn and Frank Wynne

Anthony Burgess insisted that ‘translation is not a matter of words only’. Umberto Eco has said that ’translation is the art of failure‘. So, what do translators hope to achieve?

2 p.m. Ma Jian with Flora Drew

Ma Jian discusses his novel Beijing Coma and Chinese repression with his translator Flora Drew. Chair: Boyd Tonkin

4 p.m. Faïza Guène with Sarah Ardizzone

Faïza Guène examines the linguistic and cultural chasm between French-Algerian immigrants and the Parisian establishment with her translator Sarah Ardizzone. Interpreter: Carine Kennedy

Sunday 21 June

12 p.m. Dubravka Ugrešić with Lisa Appignanesi

Dubravka Ugrešić ponders femininity, ageing, identity and her new novel Baba Yaga Laid an Egg with Lisa Appignanesi.

2 p.m. Mourid Barghouti with Ruth Padel

Palestinian writer Mourid Barghouti and British poet Ruth Padel talk about language and exile, themes which permeate his poetry collection Midnight.

3.30 p.m. Voicing the Masters (and Mistresses): Translation with Variations

Marina Warner is in conversation with Robert Chandler about Russian translation, with particular reference to Platonov.

5.30 p.m. Elias Khoury with Jeremy Harding

Lebanese author Elias Khoury talks to the journalist Jeremy Harding about the narrative frameworks of his recent fiction.

Muslim Writers Awards 2009

The third annual British Muslim Writers Awards will take place on 27th May 2009 at London’s Park Lane Hilton. The MWA initiative recognises the breadth and quality of literary talent within the UK’s Muslim community. The Muslim Writers Awards initiative is now in its third year, and is organised by Innovate Arts – a non-profit body set up to encourage creative expression within economically deprived communities. MWA 2009 will recognise the work of 15 writers across eleven categories, including the prestigious “Writer of the Year” award.

Irfan Akram, Project Director for Innovate Arts, commented: “The number of submissions we received clearly demonstrate that British Muslims are passionate about creative expression. The body of work that we’ve reviewed this year includes earnest poetry, compelling journalism and gripping fiction. The winners represent the cream of British Muslim literary talent. And they will act as role models for a new generation of Muslims keen to develop their powers of creative expression.”

The ceremony will be broadcast live to millions of viewers across the UK, Europe and the Middle East by several satellite broadcasters including Islam Channel, the world’s number one Muslim channel. I'll post news of the winners here as soon as they're announced.

BBC World Book Club goes to Egypt

Today's book club sees Nawal El-Saadawi in conversation with Harriett Gilbert, discussing the still-controversial classic Woman at Point Zero. You can listen to the broadcast online here.

On the same page, there's the opportunity to submit questions for the forthcoming bookclub with Alaa al-Aswany, who will be talking about The Yacoubian Building on 28 May -- and to see the discussion take place, at 4.15 that day in Bush House in London. If you would like to put a question to Alaa Al Aswany, or be in the audience, please email worldbookclub@bbc.co.uk or call on 0207 557 2778.

Voices from Around the World: Translation Tidbits

A slightly random post that, as a snapshot, reflects the diversity and confluences of world literature and your opportunity to get involved in it!

Monica Carter of Salonica, the "virtual salon dedicated to promoting international literature," has put out a call for unpublished translations for a new digital literary journal, E.Lire.

Three Percent have updated the design of their site -- and also their translation database, with the first installment of news for 2009.

If you're in London, there's a chance to meet writers from the UK, India and beyond at the PEN Literary Café at the London Book Fair. Over in New York, you can catch writers from around the world at the PEN World Voices festival.

And a future translation... Maya Jaggi meets Yousef Ziedan and discusses the international impact of the IPAF.

Souk it To Me: Dubai festival takes poetry to the malls

The Saudi Gazette reports that as part of the festival, there are poetry contests being held in Dubai's world-famous malls, bringing together an Arabic poetry tradition and the newer mode of the poetry slam/Pop Idol.

The festival aims to revive the ancient poetic tradition of the historic Souk Okaz dating back to 500 BC, where literary contests and poetry recitations were held by prominent Arab poets in the pre-Islamic era, and which was revived in Taif, Saudi Arabia, last year. Similarly, the Dubai festival “will act as a forum for poets from around the world, to remove the barriers of borders and speak the language of poetry,” Al-Shaali said. As the nature of ancient souks has changed, so will the rules of the game of contemporary souk literary contests. The festival organization committee has planned to transport this tradition to the modern-day souk – the shopping malls – and host short plays and story recitations reflecting the contemporary human spirit in the poetic tradition.

And it's pretty hardcore:

This year’s event features prominent contemporary Arab poets like Saudi Prince Badr Bin Abdul Mohsin, Sheikh Hamdan Bin Mohammed Bin Rashid Al Maktoum and Sheikh Ahmed Bin Mohammed Bin Rashid Al Maktoum from the UAE, and Saudi scholar Dr. Aayid Al-Qarni, Abdulrahman Rafi from Bahrain, Farouk Juwaydah and Ahmad Hijazi from Egypt, Hussein Darwish from Syria, Mahmoud Abdulghani from Morocco, and Abdu Wazin from Lebanon, and more.
Poets from other parts of the world include Mathew Sweeney from England, Raphael Urweider from Switzerland, Patrizia Cavalli from Italy, Enrique Moya from Venezuela, and Joachim Sartorius and Wolfgang Kubin from Germany. The poetic talent of the sub-continent will be represented by Kamal Vora, Ranjit Hoskote and Imtiaz Dharker from India, and Saba Ekram from Pakistan.

Has anyone been to one of these events? What was it like? Reports in ghazal form please :)