Middle East/North African Lit discussion

Hi everyone,

I'll be back this afternoon to edit this post, but i wanted to say generally that we should finalize our structure for reading prize-winning books of the Middle East. We will be polling shortly for our first group read, which will be in February.

I'll be back with short descriptions of each prize, but in the meantime, if anyone has ideas or suggestions about how we should run this project, please leave a comment below. Thanks!

mmmmm

No suggestions ? so should we surprise you with ours ? :)

how do you imagine it is organized? what prizes will we be looking at?

I have 3 Naguib Mahfouz Medal-winning titles on my bookshelf, just waiting for me to read:
2010: Miral al-Tahawy, Brooklyn Heights
2008: Hamdi Abu Golayyel, A Dog with No Tail
2007: Amina Zaydan, Red Wine

There's the IPAF but there's seems to be quite a lag between winning and the translation.

There are the Banipal translation prizes:
http://www.banipaltrust.org.uk/prize/...

Who else?

I don't know really how this project works. Do we put suggestions like books nominated for the Booker Prize short list ?? or any other prize ??

Great Kate :D

So I guess we will start by concentrating on Arabic literature …

* Here is a list of all Naguib Mahfouz Medal for Literature winning titles :

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Naguib_M...

I believe the AUC Press is very active in support of contemporary Arabic literature in translation so we may have multiple choices .


***********

*For IPAF / The International Prize for Arabic Fiction (Arabic Booker)

I believe you are right there's seems to be quite a lag between winning and the translation.

Here are the translations I could reach:

2012
http://www.arabicfiction.org/archive/...

long list
Sarmada

2011
http://www.arabicfiction.org/archive/...

winner
.... a tie
1- The Arch and the Butterfly

Short list
The Grub Hunter
Brooklyn Heights


2010
http://www.arabicfiction.org/archive/...

winner
Throwing Sparks

Short list

longlist
Of Noble Origins: A Modern Palestinian Novel


2009
http://www.arabicfiction.org/archive/...

winner
Azazeel

Short list

Time of White Horses
The American Granddaughter
Hunger
The Scents of Marie-Claire: A Modern Arabic Novel
- only left "The Unfaithful Translator" by Syrian author Fawaz Haddad ;has—to my knowledge—not yet been translated


Long list
The Tobacco Keeper
A Muslim Suicide-N.B about the translation
http://arablit.wordpress.com/2013/01/...

2008
http://www.arabicfiction.org/archive/...

winner
Sunset Oasis

Short list
Cairo Swan Song
In Praise of Hatred

Marwa wrote: "I don't know really how this project works. Do we put suggestions like books nominated for the Booker Prize short list ?? or any other prize ??"

suggest a way to run this project :D how do you like it to be handled ?

Other prizes I knew about :

* Sheikh Zayed Book Award

It is not only about literature and I am not sure about the availability of translations .

List :
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sheikh_Z...

*****
Sawiris Cultural Award

List :
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sawiris_...

We need to check on translations as well .

*******
Also :
Arab American Book Award

List :

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arab_Ame...

Kate wrote: "There are the Banipal translation prizes:
http://www.banipaltrust.org.uk/prize/......"

Good one … Banipal Prize for Arabic Literary Translation

-list :
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Banipal_...

**in translation we also have :
Arkansas Arabic Translati on Award

list:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arkansas...

As soon As Marieke feels better , she will handle this

So ,Do you like to take each prize in turn ? winners in turn ? polls ? free suggestions ?

How about taking the IPAF shortlist of each year in turn ?? We can start with this year nominees. It's kind of like picking our own winner.

Marwa wrote: "How about taking the IPAF shortlist of each year in turn ?? We can start with this year nominees. It's kind of like picking our own winner."

For 2013 ...The problem is no available translations , can't reach any :(

2009 is the luckiest one in translations !

Some ideas :
1- As Marwa suggested IPAF shortlist of each year in turn -use polls?

2- I see Kate is interested in Naguib Mahfouz Medal- Do you like to dedicate each to months for a prize and have polls ?

3- we can pick a year (randomly) and see all winners ,shortlists, best translations
for example, 2008
Sunset Oasis- IPAF
A Dog with No Tail- Naguib Mahfouz Medal
and so on ....

4- members suggest what they want among old randomly ?

I think we can choose two or three major prizes alternatively, and the order can be determined by a poll. Provided that the shortlists of nominees doesn't contain repetitive works (repetitions could be eliminated). Then we make a poll per month for what to read from the shortlist of the prize of the month.

Am I making any sense??

Marwa, i think that makes sense.

Apologies everyone that i have been sick and out of the loop. I'm trying to get caught up on everything. I hope once we get a system for this project, it will move smoothly and we will enjoy the readings.

Hi everyone...in the interest of time, the moderating team decided to make the first selection, but we will be having polls for the future books. So our February selection will be Time of White Horses, which also, incidentally, works well with our current Cruise theme. :)

i hope a lot of you will be able to join us!

I have checked my libraries, AUCPress, and Amazon and it looks like Time of White Horses is not available to be borrowed here (libraries) or read on a device (no ebook), or out in paperback (hbk only). I have sent out information about the book to the college librarians in my system (HCT), and they seem interested in adding it to their collections but by the time I get it, you'll all have finished reading! I am thinking maybe I will find it at the Abu Dhabi International Book Fair but that's not until end of April. I haven't given up but I might read a number of other books while I wait.

If anyone has a suggestion, let me know. I would REALLY like to read along with you.

Hmm that is frustrating, Kate. I guess we will have a lot of kinks to work out as we figure out how to run this project. I also had trouble getting this book--I got it from amazon, but I'm in te US. The only library collection that I have access to that had a copy is Georgetown University, but their sole copy is in their Qatar stacks...are you able to do inter library loan with them? It's a different country, I know... :/

The good news is, we keep these threads open, so it's no problem to join the conversation late. Also it's a long book, so I won't be surprised if it takes awhile for our discussion to really get going.

Yes, I noticed it was really long. I also read a posting by the author and am more interested than ever!

http://www.cultureandconflict.org.uk/...

Hi everybody! In September we will start reading In Praise of Hatred. I hope a bunch of you will join us!

Still waiting for my copy!
Can't wait to start. Hope I can catch up.

Wonderful, Zaina!

I just started reading my copy. I'll open a thread for it this weekend with some introductory stuff. :)

Glad you could reach the book Zaina :)