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Go topBy Ani Karapetyan/Contributing Writer Proverbs are a fabulous way to gain insight into the life of other cultures. Through proverbs, we can see how much common philosophy is shared between cultures. Meanwhile, proverbs demonstrate the uniqueness of one particular culture. Arabic proverbs and aphorisms absorbed wisdom accumulated over the centuries with the experience of dozens … Continued
Source: Arab News By: Manal Shakir “The Baghdad Eucharist” tells the heartbreaking tale of a Christian family in Iraq who must navigate through the ups and downs of life, political upheaval, religious strife and war. Sinan Antoon, a well-known novelist and translator and an award-winning poet, has written four previous novels and two collections of … Continued
Source: PBS In “Dark at the Crossing,” the upheavals and horrors of the Syrian civil war are given fictional life, centered in the border zone between Syria and Turkey. Author Elliot Ackerman is a former Marine who served in Iraq and Afghanistan and now lives in Istanbul. Ackerman joins Jeffrey Brown for a conversation. JUDY … Continued
LEFT-HANDED IN AN ISLAMIC WORLD: An Anthropologist’s Journey into the Middle East By John Mason Paperback: 288 pages Publisher: NAP/VELLUM (January 25, 2017) Buy on AMAZON By Colby Cyrus/Contributing Writer The Arab world. To some, it is an enigma. To others yet, it is a place of danger. For myself, the Arab world’s culture and people remained … Continued
By: Leila Diab/Contributing Writer A quintessential mélange of thoughts and artistic phrasing, This is Not a Border is a publication sealed with the reality of historical truth. This Is Not a Border shares the contributions of literary artists and their life experiences and struggles that were void of any possibilities of freedom, hope, and the … Continued
BY: Mary Elbanna/Contributing Writer Kahlil Gibran was a renowned poet, artist, novelist, and philosopher from Bsharri, Lebanon who immigrated to the United States with his family when he was a child. Gibran grew up in Boston, and became heavily interested in the arts. He took up drawing in school and often explored the cultural world … Continued
BY: Yara Jouzy/ Contributing Writer Legendary British singer, Elton John, performed at the opening of “The Walled Off Hotel” on Sunday night. The singer and songwriter expressed his solidarity with the Palestinians through his incredible video streamed performance at the hotel, which was recently unveiled by famed graffiti artist, Banksy. The honorary guest spoke to … Continued
By GAËL BRANCHEREAU The Times of Israel Noted Syrian poet Adonis, whose name surfaces regularly as a top contender for the Nobel literature prize, says religious fanaticism is “destroying the heart of the Arab world,” but sees salvation in poetry. The 86-year-old lives in exile and is equally scathing about the West’s role in the … Continued
The Arab of the Future 2: A Childhood in the Middle East, 1984-1985: A Graphic Memoir By ETELKA LEHOCZKY NPR Riad Sattouf’s memoir of his childhood in the Middle East stirred up a complicated swirl of emotions when the first volume was released in the U.S. last year. Many reviewers seemed fascinated by something beyond Sattouf’s … Continued
Press Release: Palestine on a Plate Palestinian food is not just found on the streets of the Old City of Jerusalem with the ka’ak (sesame) bread sellers and stalls selling za’atar chicken and mana’eesh (za’atar and sesame bread), but in the home too; in the kitchens all across the country, where families cook and eat together every day, in … Continued
Press Release: Arab American National Museum After a detailed selection process, the winners of the 2016 Arab American Book Awards have been selected and for the first time two books will receive the Evelyn Shakir Non-Fiction Award. The two winning titles – Mona M. Amer and Germine H. Awad’s Handbook of Arab American Psychologyand Moustafa Bayoumi’s This Muslim American … Continued
Stories of fictitious Palestinian village earn Baltimore author a prestigious American Book Award.
Mary Carole McCauley
Baltimore Sun
The Baltimore fiction writer Susan Muaddi Darraj just picked up a major accolade — her short story collection “A Curious Land: Stories from Home” has received a 2016 American Book Award.
“A Curious Land: Stories from Home” will pick up one of 14 prizes handed out during an Oct. 30 ceremony in San Francisco. The award carries no cash prize.
Now in its 37th year, the American Book Awards were created “to provide recognition for outstanding literary achievement from the entire spectrum of America’s diverse literary community,” the organization wrote in a news release.
There are no nominees or categories in the traditional sense — just a list of authors and titles that have been judged by a jury of the authors’ peers to have literary merit.
Darraj set her collection in a fictitious Palestinian village on the West Bank that she named Tel al-Hilou.
In an interview conducted by her publisher, Darraj said that she endowed her creation with “the elements you see in every small community — the family dynamics, the gossip, the leaders (both genuine and corrupt), the love stories, and more.”
Additional authors announced for 2016 Baltimore Book Festival
In addition, she said that she tried to convey the peculiar tensions of living in a country that has been under military occupation for more than six decades. She told her publisher:
“One of the most interesting (and sad) aspects of the Israeli occupation is how much it has changed the physical landscape of the West Bank and Gaza — most villages are being crowded out by Israeli settlements.”
This is shaping up to be a good year for Darraj, who will read from her collection in late September at the Baltimore Book Festival.
Even before “A Curious Land” was published in 2015, the linked collection of short stories picked up the Grace Paley Prize for Short Fiction. Earlier this week, the book won the Arab American Book Award, and it has been short-listed for the Palestine Book Award. (The winner for the latter prize will be chosen this fall.)
Source: www.baltimoresun.com
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