THE LEVANT: ZONE OF CULTURE OR CONFLICT? By SAMIR EL-YOUSSEF The following essay is an adaptation of the November 2012 talk that I delivered at Boston College, under the auspices of the Heinz Bluhm Memorial Lectures Series in European … Continue reading
Laura Phillips on Egyptian Novelist Bahaa Taher In Love with Isis Egyptian novelist Bahaa Taher takes the long view. Born in Cairo in 1935, Taher, who won the first International Prize for Arabic Fiction, has a postgraduate diploma in History from the … Continue reading
Writing for Peace! BY SAMIR EL-YOUSSEF Last week, and only one day before the start of the new war in Gaza, I gave the following talk in Milwaukee. The event was organised by The Sam and Helen Stahl Centre for Jewish … Continue reading
His Way! Laura Phillips on Israeli Yoram Kaniuk In a teasing note at the start of Yoram Kaniuk’s Life on Sandpaper, he says: “It isn’t entirely incorrect to call this book a work of fiction, despite its being an account … Continue reading
Leading Dutch Novelist Arnon Grunberg reports from North Iraq Saddam’s Dozen Translated by Sam Garrett “God created red meat for us to enjoy,” says Professor Sedat Akar, dean of Ishik University at Erbil, the capital city of … Continue reading
TOBY LICHTIG The Lost Story Schurr, extra meta-fiction The anglosphere’s appetite for Hebrew literature is hearty. According to Todd Hasak-Lowy, translator of Asaf Schurr’s novel Motti, over five hundred full-length Hebrew books have been published in English over … Continue reading
A Jew Abandoned in Baghdad Fiction by Mati Shemoelof To Almog Behar Salah has to be late on the one day when I didn’t take my mobile, and this crumbling café doesn’t have a single working phone. Of course … Continue reading
Lady Macbeth Smells of Sardine By Kamal Boustany Al-Rashidia Refugee Camp ‘The world is what it is; those who are nobody, who allow themselves to be nobody, have no place in it.’ V. S Naipaul, Bend in the River … Continue reading
SOON Adoring Imam Khomeini Lebanese writer Hazem Saghieh recalls times when he was still young and innocent. ‘Without being a believer, I nevertheless believed. My daily consumption of whiskey doubled, as things grew worse in Beirut, yet I couldn’t help being … Continue reading
Egypt of the Movies By Dalal El-Bizri I knew Egypt long before I visited it, and later lived in it. I knew it while we were still in Casablanca in the second half of 1950s. Two events occurred which my memory … Continue reading