The first Gulf literary festival is generating lots of column inches in English-language press from the UK, North America and the Arab world; in the former countries, the emphasis is on censorship (
Globe and Mail), women and clichéd images of Arabic literature (it's about camels!):
The Independent get all three into the headline of their coverage. In the latter, the emphasis is on the diversity of Arab writers, the challenges of translation (
Gulf News) and poetry as a shared culture (
Gulf News). The Saudi Gazette highlights
this last with a headline that draws attention to the wonderful title of the poetry festival: "A Thousand Poets, One Language."
Abdullah Kader, an acclaimed writer, moderated the evening that witnessed a remarkable turnout of audiences.
Kader said: “Poetry does not always command wide attention.
However, Dubai has given poetry a huge window of opportunity to be experienced in all languages, demonstrating the Emirate’s love for culture and its firm commitment to evoke, preserve and evolve the genre as a creative form of expression.”
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