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Overview
This year, for the first time, the winners-nominated by publishers, literary critics, and readers across the Arab world and internationally, and selected by a panel of eminent Arab writers, academics, and journalists-will be published together in a one-of-a-kind anthology. Edited by Samuel Shimon of Banipal magazine, the collection will be published simultaneously in Arabic and English throughout the world by Bloomsbury and Bloomsbury Qatar Foundation Publishing.
Beirut 39 provides an important look at the Arab-speaking world today, through the eyes of thirty-nine of its brightest young literary stars.
Product Details
| ISBN-13: | 9781608192830 |
|---|---|
| Publisher: | Bloomsbury Publishing |
| Publication date: | 09/06/2010 |
| Sold by: | Barnes & Noble |
| Format: | eBook |
| Pages: | 320 |
| File size: | 530 KB |
About the Author
Amin Maalouf is the author of many works of fiction, including Leo the African and Samarkand, as well as non-fiction, including The Crusades through Arab Eyes and In the Name of Identity: Violence and the Need to Belong
www.beirut39.com
Samuel Shimon is the co-founder and deputy editor of Banipal, a highly respected magazine of new Arab writing in English translation. He is also the founder and editor of Kikah, the most popular cultural website in Arabic. His autobiographical novel An Iraqi in Paris was long-listed for the IMPAC Dublin Literary Award.
Writer and publisher Samuel Shimon was born into a poor Assyrian family in Iraq in 1956. He left his country in 1979 to go to Hollywood and become a film-maker, travelling via Damascus, Amman, Beirut, Nicosia, Cairo and Tunis. In 1985 he settled in Paris as a refugee, before moving in 1996 to London, where he has lived ever since. He co-founded Banipal, the renowned international magazine of contemporary Arab literature in English translation and is the founder and editor of the popular literary website in Arabic www.kikah.com. He also edited Beirut 39: New Writing from the Arab World (2010). He is working now on his second novel The Militant Lingerie.
Read an Excerpt
Beirut 39
By Samuel Shimon
Bloomsbury USA
Copyright © 2010 Hay Festival of Literature and the Arts LimitedAll right reserved.
ISBN: 978-1-60819-202-1
Introduction
'Beirut39' is a unique initiative that aims to identify and highlight contemporary literary movements among Arab youth, and to gather young faces and names and provide them with an opportunity to meet, exchange expertise and ideas, and work together in literary workshops.Young Arab writers have transcended geography and local identity in their creative work, aligning themselves with — and inspired by — global literary currents and movements. It is obvious, for example, that many novelists from all over the Arab world, Mashriq and Maghreb, belong to the same literary current across regional barriers. Through their work, they communicate and bond with each other despite geographical distance, such that one can easily speak of the youthful realist novel, or neo-realist novel, or fantastic novel or post-modern novel that young writers from all the Arab countries have contributed to. The literature of young Arab writers has invaded the Arab literary market, making it difficult to speak of the young Lebanese novel, or the young Egyptian novel, or Syrian, or Saudi, etc. A youthful pan-Arab literary movement currently dominates, bringing together novelists from all the Arab countries, and aiming to break down regional boundaries. This definition also applies to poetry: there is no longer a youthful Lebanese poetry that is different from a youthful Egyptian poetry, or a Saudi, Iraqi or Palestinian one. Poets are collaborating to establish new styles and a new poetic language, in addition to their unique visions. The internet age has certainly helped them to overcome the obstacles posed by the difficulty of meeting and communicating in person.
What brings together most young Arab writers is their tone of protest, and their rebellion against traditional literary culture. They have announced their disobedience against the ideological bent that exhausted Arabic literature during the 1960s and 1970s. They have also risen above the idea of commitment so prominent a few decades ago, which was imposed by a political-party and communal way of thinking. Instead, they strive towards individualism, focusing on the individual, the human being living and struggling and dreaming and aiming for absolute freedom. Many young writers have declared their disdain for what they describe as contrived, 'proper' language. Often, they aim to express their personal concerns as they see fi t, freely and spontaneously. And it is important that they protest and reject and announce their frustration with language itself, this language that differs between writing and speech. They want to write as they speak, absolutely spontaneously, unbounded by the censorship imposed upon them firstly by the language itself, and then by religious or moral apparatuses.
These writers believe that the new era, the information age, the computer and internet age does not leave them with enough time to decipher the mysteries of grammar and rhetoric. They seek the language of life. These writers are not afraid to make grammatical errors. Some purposefully don't finish their sentences, others are fond of slang and street talk and dialect.
This book contains selections from novels, short stories and poems by 39 young Arab writers, and presents the reader with a panoramic glimpse of Arab youth literature. It aims to engage the reader in a conversation, and to help illuminate this scene.
Abdo Wazen Beirut, February 2010
(Continues...)
Excerpted from Beirut 39 by Samuel Shimon Copyright © 2010 by Hay Festival of Literature and the Arts Limited . Excerpted by permission of Bloomsbury USA. All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
Excerpts are provided by Dial-A-Book Inc. solely for the personal use of visitors to this web site.
Table of Contents
Preface Hanan al-Shaykh v
Judges' Announcement xi
Introduction Abdo Wazen xiii
Editor's Note xv
from the novel Bedouins on the Edge Abdelaziz Errachidi 1
from the novel The Trip to the Slaughterhouse Abdelkader Benali 8
The Wounded Man Abdellah Taia 17
Amazigh Abderrahim Elkhassar 24
from the novel Skin of Shadow Abderrazak Boukebba 28
from the novel The Twentieth Terrorist Abdullah Thabit 34
At the Post Office Adania Shibli 43
from the novel Frankenstein in Baghdad Ahmad Saadawi 51
eight poems from The Utopia of Cemeteries Ahmad Yamani 57
Coexistence Ala Hlehel 62
Three Poems Bassim al Ansar 68
Two Stories Dima Wannous 72
Mimouna Faïza Guène 82
Three Stories Hala Kawtharani 92
from the novel Secret Pleasures Hamdy el Gazzar 98
from the novel The Last Hanging Poem Hussein al Abri 109
Three Poems Hussein Jelaad 118
Layla's Belly Hyam Yared 123
Who Are You Carrying That Rose For? Islam Samhan 128
from the poem 'The Geology of the I' in The Book of J Joumana Haddad 131
from the novel The Scalpel Kamel Riahi 137
from the novel The Threshold of Ashes Mansour El Souwaim 146
The Path to Madness Mansoura Ez Eldin 155
Haneef from Glasgow Mohammad Hassan Alwan 161
A Boat That Dislikes the Riverbank Mohammad Salah al Azab 168
four poems from Like the Blade of a Knife Nagat Ali 175
The Pools and the Piano Najwa Binshatwan 182
Six Poems Najwan Darwish 194
Thirteen Poems Nazem El Sayed 198
from the novel America Rabee Jaber 204
The Story of My Building Randa Jarrar 215
Guardians of the Air Rosa Yassin Hassan 223
from the novel The Scent of Cinnamon Samar Yezbek 230
Nine Poems Samer Abou Hawwash 237
A Crime in Mataeem Street Wajdi al Ahdal 242
from the novel Raven's Leg Yahya Amqassim 255
Two Stories Yassin Adnan 264
Suicide 20, or The Hakimi Maqama Youssef Rakha 272
Nine Poems Zaki Baydoun 282
Notes on the Text 287
Notes on the Authors 295
Notes on the Translators 301