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CAIRO BOOK FAIR:
MAGRIS MONOLOGUE ON STAGE
(ANSAmed) - CAIRO, FEBRUARY 6 - The monologue of Claudio Magris 'She
Will Finally Understand', a revision of the myth of Orpheus and
Eurydice, which has recently been translated in Arabic, was staged
in the Gomhouria Theatre in Cairo. The monologue, which is currently
on tour in Italy and has recently finished a performance at the
hotel Eliseo in Rome, is performed with passion by Daniela
Giovanetti in the staging of Stabile Theatre of Friuli-Venezia
Giulia. It represents the myth of Eurydice, killed by a snakebite,
and Orpheus, who went to Hell to bring her back to earth but lost
her forever, in an original and emotional way. However, in the
wonderful text of Magris the main character is Eurydice, women and
muse, and she is the one to choose not to return to life because she
would not be able to give Orpheus the answers on death he is
seeking. The performance was staged within the 39th edition of the
two-week Cairo International Book Fair, which was closed on Monday
and where Italy was guest of honour. The worst thing in the evening
was the almost total absence of audience. Only 20 of the 400 seats
in Gomhouria Theatre, one of the main theatres in Cairo, were
occupied. This lack of interest is unexplainable in a city where
there are thousands of Italians as well as many Egyptians and
foreigners, who speak Italian. (ANSAmed). 2007-02-06 12:00
CAIRO BOOK FAIR:
END WITH RAVERA MEETING
(ANSAmed) - CAIRO, FEBRUARY 6 - Women writers met at the last
meeting within the framework of the 39th edition of the Cairo
International Book Fair, which ended after two weeks and had as
guest of honour Italy. At this last meeting Lidia Ravera and
Egyptian Salwa Baker discussed the role of women only to reach the
conclusion that despite all existing differences they still remain
less free in both societies. If Muslim women find themselves limited
and constrained in certain situations and by certain religious
rules, Western women are restrained by the myth of eternal beauty
and youth. This is an argument that Ravera treats in her latest
novel 'L'eterna ragazzà (The eternal girl). "Obviously they are
freer (in the West) because they can show themselves, because they
have to do it, they are slaves to a different obligation ... women
can be ugly and old, hence they become freer and calmer. Women,
however, become 'sadder', said Ravera talking to a predominantly
male Egyptian audience in Italy's pavilion at the fair. Women, she
added, are not allowed to grow older "they are shut up in the cage
of being an object of desire". In the advanced West women are not
considered people, but rather "salads, vegetables, chicory,
greenery, as only the greenery should be consumed fresh". In the
Muslim world, said Salwa Baker, author of different stories and
novels including 'Describing the Nightingale', women are nothing
else but 'merchandise''. Other meetings with Egyptian writers were
attended by author and actor Ascanio Celestini and writers Niccolo
Ammaniti, Silvia Ballestra and Tiziano Scarpa. The fair - 1,400
pavilions, more than 650 exhibitors from 26 countries - according to
the organisers visitor numbers stood at nearly two million in the
two weeks since January 23. No official statistics are out yet.
Dominated as always by religious texts, with the Koran in all
different editions, the fair was also an occasion for many young
people to buy discounted books, including Western editions. (ANSAmed).
2007-02-06 11:35
CAIRO BOOK FAIR: AL SAYEGH, FIRST EXILED NOW
THREATENED
By Barbara Alighiero (ANSAmed) - CAIRO, FEBRUARY 6 - There is a
saying in Iraq that "whoever has not seen Baghdad, has not seen the
world, I have seen them both and would love to go back home": Adnan
al Sayegh, one of the most prominent Iraqi poets exiled during
Saddam Hussein's regime, now escapes from the death threats of an
Islamic fundamentalism, unknown in his country until a few years
ago. Sayegh, member of the Iraqi movement of poets of the 1980s, has
written a dozen of collections of poems, some translated in Western
languages. He has won several international awards and lives abroad
- first in Sweden, then in London - since 1993. "It is not a choice,
I cannot stay in Iraq. It is immensely sad, a population that has
never desired anything else than freedom, peace and security now has
no hope," Sayegh said in Cairo, where he took part in the
International Book Fair, that has just ended. The last time he
visited Iraq was in April 2006. He was invited to read his verses at
the Al Marbed Poetry Festival in Basra, in the Shiite south. "Of
course poems are still written in Iraq, but how can we talk about
them?" With two enormous fountain pens behind his back, Sayegh
recited extracts from his collection 'Uncomfortable Verses'. The
audience responded with ovations, but when the poet returned to his
seat a men, dressed in a western suit, approached him and said: "If
you continue we will cut off your tongue". "The guerrillas have
decided that my verses are blasphemous, but they will not stop me, I
will continue to fight with my pen against their forest of weapons.
They will never succeed in silencing the voice of poetry," Sayegh
said. "I am neither a Shiite nor a Sunni, I'm only an Iraqi and they
want to kill me because I say it loudly, because I refuse to fall
into this game of massacre." Born in Kufa in 1955 and raised in
Baghdad, Sayegh started to write poems for his ill father when he
was 10 and continued to do it with passion throughout his life. His
poems are political, full of criticism. "What I have in my pocket is
not a passport, but the story of oppression (of a country) where for
over 50 years we, as animals, have chewed and swallowed speeches...
by the president, streets of the president, songs for the president,
museums of the president, gifts for the president, trees of the
president..." Sayegh wrote during his exile. "I will return to Iraq
when it is free and I will be able to write and read my poems," said
Sayegh, who is well-known in Egypt too. The only thing I want is
freedom. But I miss Euphrates very much," said the poet who loves
Rimbaud and Baudelaire. (ANSAmed). 2007-02-06 09:59
CAIRO BOOK FAIR: ANOTHER EVENT CHAPTER CLOSES
(ANSAmed) - ROME, FEBRUARY 5 - Hundreds of thousands of visitors
and 650 publishers from more than 35 countries took part in the 39th
Cairo International Book Fair, which this year featured Italy as a
guest of honour and which closed yesterday. Italy held 70 events in
13 days, including meeting, conventions, round tables, performances,
most of them organised outside the Fair, at the Italian Culture
Institute, enlivened by more than 60 representatives of the Italian
culture. There were two stands at the Fair, one institutional and
one commercial with books from some eighty publishing houses in a
humble stand without even a sign or writing to identify it as the
Italian area. Many Italian writers arrived in Cairo for the
occasion, from Claudio Magris to Antonio Tabucchi (whose books were
published in Arabic), Edoardo Sanguineti, Daniele Del Giudice,
Domenico Starnone, Lidia Ravera, Niccolò Ammaniti, Ascanio Celestini
who met Egyptian authors including Gamal Al-Ghitani, Mohamed Salmawy,
Salwa Bakr, Ahmed Alaidy, Alaa El Aswany and Hassan Teleb. Lively
discussions came out on issues concerning the meeting between the
cultures coordinated by historians and Arabists such as Franco
Cardini, Isabella Camera d'Afflitto, Francesca Corrao and Antonino
Pellitteri and with the speeches of the 'Limes' editor-in-chief
Lucio Caracciolo and 'Reset' editor-in-chief Giancarlo Bosetti, ANSA
chairman Boris Biancheri and CEO Mario Rosso, plus many
distinguished representatives of the Egyptian media world. On the
sidelines of the fair, ANSA and Egyptian news agency MENA signed the
new agreement for a cooperation active also in the Mediterranean
area, thanks to ANSAmed, which unites 18 agencies from the area to
give them a single voice. The fair hosted also the first big
international Arab conference on copyright which is expected to
bring order in the relations between publishers from the Arab world
and from the west. Italy was represented there with Carlo
Fletrinelli, Antonio Riccardi (Mondadori), Paolo Zaninoni (Rizzoli)
and the director of Italian Publishers' Association (AIE), Ivan
Cecchini. The Italian delegation, led by Culture Ministry
Undersecretary Andrea Marcucci with Italian Ambassador to Cairo
Antonio Badini, gave Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak on the opening
day the numbered anastatic copy of a poetry anthology manuscript by
Ibn Dawoud al Asfahani (9th century Arab writer) on behalf of
Culture Minister Francesco Rutelli. The copy, kept in the Royal
Library in Turin, is dedicated to love which acted as an
intermediary between the Arab lyrical tradition and the European
experience of the troubadours and the poets of the dolce stil nuovo.
The Italian participation in the Cairo Fair was promoted by the
Directorate General for Books and Culture Institutes at the Italian
Culture Ministry with the Book Institute, together with the
Directorate General for Cultural Promotion and Cooperation at the
Italian Foreign Ministry, the Italian Embassy and the Italian
Culture Institute, in agreement with the Culture committee at the
Conference of the Italian Regions and Autonomous Provinces, Italian
Publishers' Associations and in cooperation with the National
Writers Union. (ANSAmed). 2007-02-05 17:15
CAIRO BOOK FAIR: AL-KHAMISI'S 'TAXI' HELL A
FINAL HIGHLIGHT
(ANSAmed) - CAIRO, FEBRUARY 5 - Khaled al-Khamisìs simple but biting
book "Taxi...or the Danger of Trips" (Taxi... hawadit el mashawir,
publisher el-Shorouk) was a closing highlight of the 39th edition of
the International Book Festival in Cairo, which ended yesterday
after two weeks of activities. The son of renowned author Abdel
Rahman, 44-year-old Khaled al-Khamisi is best known for his
television screenplays. Taxi is an ironic, sometimes dramatic
sequence of the daily nightmare in a huge city of 17 million people,
told by taxi-drivers who remain sleepless sometimes for three days
in a row in order to gain the money needed for the maintenance of
the car. The book is also a criticism of the social hypocrisy, which
finds expression in the veiled women who are forced to uncover for a
restaurant job. The work describes an unknown man crying for the
"curse which has struck Iraq", or speaks ironically of "poor Egypt:
the economy is collapsing, but there is not a single person without
a mobile telephone on the ear or a pack of cigarettes in their
pocket!", or promises "if I were president I would have banned
advertising, which creates useless needs for the people and
encourages communism", or complains "Sadat used to defend us, with
Mubarak Egyptians are mocked at everywhere." "Being a taxi-driver in
Egypt is exhausting in all aspects: physically, for the hours of
sitting inside the car, amid traffic jams, pollution and roaring,
and people are put to a tough trial of their nerves, while police
treat them with methods, worthy of the envy of the Marquis de Sade,"
the author said. "This is a job for those, no matter ignorant or
educated, have not found other work, but very often taxi-drivers are
a species of philosophers who know how to view reality with
unexpected criticism and sarcasm." (ANSAmed). 2007-02-05
16:58
CAIRO BOOK FAIR: ARABIC VERSION OF PELLIZZARI
TOME ON IRAQ
(ANSAmed) - CAIRO, FEBRUARY 5 - The Arabic translation of the
book "La stanza di Ali Baba. Storie di un Iraq sconosciuto" (Ali
Babàs Room. Stories of an unknown Iraq), by Italian newspaper Il
Messaggero correspondent Valerio Pellizzari, has been presented at
the 39th edition of the Cairo International Book Fair, where Italy
is guest of honour. Pellizzari briefed a numerous audience at the
Italian pavilion of the Fair on the story of his book, which was
born during the British-America invasion of Iraq in 2003, and how
"for the first time in my work the words did not help me" to
describe the "confusion of the population", to recount a war he had
"never seen" in 40 years as correspondent of the Rome-based daily in
every conflict in Asia and in the Middle East. This is the tale of
humble people who had lived for 30 years under a dictatorship until
some countries decided to free them with bombs, Pellizzari added. "I
sincerely don't know what exporting democracy means," said the
journalist, drawing parallels with Afghanistan from 25 years ago in
which the Soviets tried to export the revolution. According to
Pellizzari, NATO, "unknowingly, I hope, is making the same mistake
as the Kremlin generals did in Kabul," with the consequent
devastating defeat of the Soviet empire. The presentation was
attended also by Ezzat el Kamhawi, deputy editor of Akhbar Al-Adab,
as well as author of various books, including a critical novel on
the regime in Egypt, "A Room on the Nile". Kamhawi emphasized the
importance of the words and of Pellizzarìs book to resist the
superficiality of the television image - "the only winner in this
war". "They said the war was made by U.S. President George W. Bush
in the name of God and also by Saddam in the name of God, but
neither God, nor mercy was found in the refuge of Ali Baba," famous
Iraqi exiled poet Adnan Al-Sayegh said. The book, published in Italy
in 2004 by Sperling & Kupfer, was printed in Arabic in one thousand
copies by private publishing house Afaq, set up two years ago.
(ANSAmed). 2007-02-05 12:19
CAIRO BOOK FAIR: PUBLISHER COMPLAINS AGAINST
BOOKS SEIZURE
(ANSAmed) - CAIRO, FEBRUARY 2 - Several books, including works of
Milan Kundera and 'Zorba the Greek' by Nikos Kazantzakis, have been
seized by the Egyptian customs authorities preventing their
presentation at the Cairo International Book Fair. "There is lack of
communication between the Egyptian authorities and the publishers on
this issue," Nabil Nofal, sales manager of Lebanese publishing house
Dar al Adab, said. "They ban books without even talking to us and
they do not return them." Nofal said also that he has not been
officially informed about the ban of these books, all translated and
written in Arabic. "We immediately understood it was all due to
censorship," he said. The books seized include two works of French
author of Czech origin, Milan Kundera (including the bestseller 'The
Unbearable Lightness of Being') and an autobiography by Egyptian
author Nawal al Saadawi. Saadawi, well-known feminist activist, told
France Presse that another of her books has been withdrawn from the
Book Fair by the Egyptian publisher Madbouli due to the pressure
exerted by the secret services. Imprisoned in 1981, the author of
some 30 works, including several censored ones, claims she is a
"target because she attacks the taboos of sex, religion and power".
(ANSAmed). 2007-02-02 12:16
CAIRO BOOK FAIR: MAGRIS, TABUCCHI, UNGARETTI IN ARABIC
(ANSAmed) - CAIRO, FEBRUARY 1 - "Translation is betrayal. What
should be kept unchanged and what gives the truth and the style of
the text is its rhythm, its music," Claudio Magris said in Cairo at
the Book Fair where Italy is a guest of honour. Magris said this at
the presentation of the translation in Arabic of his "Lei dunque
capira" (She will understand). Predrag Matvejevic and Antonio
Tabucchi have also arrived to take part in the event, again on the
occasion of the translation of their works, while Edoardo Sanguineti
and Antonio Riccardi spoke of the version of "Le Poesie" by Giuseppe
Ungaretti. "Sometimes the translation needs a real distortion in
order to keep the original sense. The symbolic value of a colour,
for example, is different in the different cultures, and therefore
it should be adapted to those who read it," Magris continued. His
historic-narrative essay Danubio is also being translated. Tabucchi
will be presented in the Egyptian bookstores with 'Notturno indiano',
which has been praised by Alaa el Eswany, the author of 'Palazzo
Yacoubian', who is the real star of the Fair. Predrag Matvejevic has
seen recently the launch of his essay 'Mediterraneo'. The Egyptian
version has revised the Tunisian edition according to the stylistic
differences in the two regions. The translation of Ungarettìs poems,
especially those linked to his stay in Alexandria, was welcomed by
everyone and his work was recalled by the two Italian authors and
the translator Adel el Siwi. However, the problem with control and
respect, both legal and cultural, for intellectual property,
remains. Many people in Egypt still make translations without having
the rights and a contract for that, freely amending the original
mostly in those parts, which are incompatible for some reasons with
the absurd and extremist religious rules of the Islam today. "A sign
of the Koran, Mohamed or whatever is enough to change the rhythm,"
Magris said. "This is a crazy story, not even the historical
quotations in inverted commas are respected. This means that I,
writing an essay on Nazism, cannot quote Hitler as his words are
wrong according to the modern ideas and morals," he concluded.
(ANSAmed). 2007-02-01 20:21
CAIRO BOOK FAIR: A DIFFERENT VOICE FOR THE
MEDITERRANEAN
(ANSAmed) - CAIRO, JANUARY 30 - The goal of overcoming barriers
and differences between Europe and Arab countries, between the two
shores of the Mediterranean, has not been accomplished so far. "If
we look at the past ten years what we see it's only failed
attempts," ANSA CEO Mario Rosso said today at a conference on
information in the Mediterranean area held in Cairo within the
International Book Fair, where Italy is guest of honour this year.
From the necessity of creating a "different voice" aimed at
expressing a common point vue the ANSAmed project was launched,
Rosso added. From events such as the Mohammed cartoons or latest
Popés statements on Islam it emerged that "we did not understand
each other", ANSA CEO said. "That is why we have created ANSAmed,
which is not a voice against others but represents a network of
relations between news agencies aimed at giving the Mediterranean an
opportunity to be subject and not object of the discourse," he
added. Italian journalist Lucia Annunziata, former president of RAI,
underlined that besides journalistic information, media such as
television and cinema have to be involved, while Egyptian Galal Aref,
president of the Associationof Egyptian Journalists explained that
"the western world should start considering the arab world as a
whole, not descending from Osam bin Laden but from writer Naguib
Mahfouz". Italian ambassador to Cairo Antonio Badini spoke about
several cooperation projects carried out in the last few years
between Italy and Egypt. As a consequence of that, Egypt has been
and still is the first partner of ANSAmed thanks also to an
agreement with state-run Mena news agency. (ANSAmed).
2007-01-30 20:33
CAIRO BOOK FAIR: POETS SQUEEZED BETWEEN
SOCIETY AND RELIGION
(By Paolo Petroni) (ANSAmed) - CAIRO, JANUARY 30 - It is not
only a matter of extremism, but rather a feeling of being besieged
and living in a kind of wartime regime, in Egypt as well as in the
other Arab countries. And whether this is true or a consequence of
propaganda, it does not really make a difference on a daily basis.
This is what emerges from the meetings organised at the Cairo
International Book Fair, where Italy is guest of honour this year. A
young writer like Ahmed Alaidy, who has also studied in America,
speaks of the youngsters who feel caged as if in a ghetto in their
country after 9/11 and the war in Afghanistan and Iraq, and he is
quick to stress that his play with the words comes from spoken
language and not from the literary and sacred classic language of
the Koran. Multi-award winning poet Abdel Moneim Ramadan spoke of
"the American pressure which is felt everywhere and influences the
artist, who cannot do anything but express this trouble and
communicate it by supporting himself on the Koran itself, on the
language which has precise limits not to cross, as well as on its
teachings." Another poet, equally multi-awarded and much more
popular, Hassan Taleb, speaks in the names of the artist freedom
"who cannot bow to pressure but on the contrary tries to overcome
it" and that "a real poet, signing the religion, writing verses of
religious inspiration, does it out of intimate necessity not to
answer the rules imposed by the religious authorities." It is not by
chance that a historical and critically secular book on certain
aspects of the Koran poetry of Taleb was seized and banned, reminded
Francesca Corrao, Italian Arabist who studied in Cairo for many
years. Corrao was invited to coordinate a meeting between Edoardo
Sanguineti and two Egyptian writers on the difficult theme of the
relations between poetry and society, organised by the Italian
Culture Institute. It was not an easy debate, especially after
Sanguinetìs introduction who spoke of "poetry as rebellion, to put
it in Adornòs words, need to bring chaos into order, because the
poet is viewed as a stranger in the bourgeois society and it is
Thomas Mann's man who makes a deal with the devil in order to become
artist, his voice is one of demonic possession, which in ancient
times appeared a sacred possession, which leads him into present
himself as a rebel and, in the best of cases, as revolutionary." "We
need to be careful on these issues," Teleb answered, "because the
artist, the poet have their social role", adding that "the poet
plays with the words not for pure entertainment but to go beyond
appearances, because the language, in the tensions and variety of
meanings which poetry donates it, becomes alive and makes the reader
feel alive, helps them discover the truth which every human being
preserves in their souls. Here lies religiousness of poetry which,
as in religious texts, is naturally in relation with society, but
indirectly." Corrao reminded how the situation changed after 1967
and the war lost to Israel. "The poets returned to represent the
people and make civil verses, of commitment and fight, like the
ancient Arab authors who expressed the feelings of their tribes, the
pain of all. Perhaps closing in their traditions. Before poetry was
freer and it was enough to remember a figure like Gibran and his
prophetic inspiration which put into discussion the classic
interpretations and raised strong, but free discussions." (ANSAmed).
2007-01-30 17:42
BOOKS: CAIRO FAIR, ALAIDY AND THE NEW
GENERATION AFTER 9/11
By Paolo Petroni (ANSAmed) - CAIRO, JANUARY 29 - An absurd life
of complete confusion, full of fears and phobias with even violent
consequences: this is how the Egyptian youth lives after September
11, according to an ironic and desperate novel that has achieved a
status of cult among young Egyptians and has sold out three editions
since October. The book is entitled "Being Abbas el Abd" and is
written by, Ahmed Alaidy, 30, born in Saudi Arabia and living in
Egypt since he was 15, during the first Gulf War. Alaidy's
appearance in the Italian pavilion at the Cairo International Book
Fair, where Italy is a guest of honour, was among the most
attractive and interesting events. "We are the generation that has
nothing to lose and came after the generation of the big defeat (the
1967 war with Israel). And now things are even worse. We live in a
war that has never been declared, abandoned to ourselves, isolated.
We are the new Jews, prisoners of our own countries like a big
ghetto." Alaidy is determined and serious in denouncing the disquiet
of his generation "autistic and isolated, and becoming violent"
thanks to mobile phones and the Internet, which "should have been
windows for communication". The protagonist of his novel, which
makes no hint to September 11, is a practically schizophrenic boy
who lives mixing two realities, as well as the two women in his
life. What further deepens the problems is an uncle, a kind of guru,
who wants to cure him but to also profit from him, making him
pursued by one of the unfaithful young women, who will write the
phone number of Abbas in all public restrooms and other places she
visits. Thus, in a whirl of surprises and madness, of personal
interrelations and doubts, of fears and illusions, the book comes to
a seemingly tragic end, but maybe this is not so true as it seems
but on the contrary, everything seems to start again in an end of
the story which sends back to the beginning. It is not accidental
that Alaidy works for periodicals for young people, which imitate
the American mad-magazines, writes for the television, makes cartoon
strips and presents the world as a thing without a meaning, ready
for a spiritual fight or provocations to the verge of absurdity. He
also claims to be interested in mental diseases, to have read books
on psychology and psychiatry in order to create his personage,
finding out that those books have significantly multiplied in the
Arab world since September 11 and the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq.
Telling such a reality on the thread of madness, serves to speak
without being pressed by political implications and external
propaganda, in regard to which he constantly repeats that his
linguistic plays are allowed as they do not use the sacred language
of the Koran, which is untouchable and is perceived quite seriously.
Alaidy affirms that the Egyptians are a people of humorists, but he
found his models abroad, when he went to study in the USA. He quoted
the names of Chuck Palahniuk of "Fight Club" and "Generation X" by
Douglas Coupland, while for the writing, dry, with short phrases,
often for effect, refers to the Internet and chats, but provoked,
answered that "the Arab literature does not need to westernize in
order to become modern, and he has tried a connection between its
tradition, that most open to free invention, and western influences,
hoping that something new and real could come up from this."
(ANSAmed). 2007-01-29 17:46
CAIRO BOOK FAIR: GREECE MOOTED AS THEME
COUNTRY IN 2007
(ANSAmed) - CAIRO, JANUARY 29 - Participating in the 39th Cairo
International Book Exhibition for the first time, Greece has
received a particularly warm welcome. In addition, Greece has been
mooted as the theme country for the 40th edition of the event, the
most important in the Middle East and the Arab World. Greecés
National Book Centre director Catherine Velissari told ANA-MPA news
agency she was satisfied with Greecés participation at this world
forum of publishers from countries including France, Germany, Great
Britain, Spain, China and Turkey. At the exhibition, which was
inaugurated last Tuesday by Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak.
Velissari said the exhibition's president, Nasser Al Ansary, had
proposed Greece to be the theme country for the next exhibition
which will be held next year in the Egyptian capital. At the same
time, the director of the National Book Centre signed a protocol of
cooperation with the president of the Cairo International Book
Exhibition, so that Egypt to officially participate in the
corresponding exhibition in Thessaloniki, central Macedonia. The
39th Cairo International Book Exhibition, ends on February 4. (ANSAmed).
2007-01-29 15:26
CAIRO BOOK FAIR: TERZANI AMONG MEDITERRANEAN
AWARD WINNERS
(ANSAmed) - CAIRO, JANUARY 29 - Tiziano Terzani with 'La fine e'
il mio iniziò (The End is My Beginning), Giuseppe Conte with "La
casa delle onde" (The House of Waves) and publishing house Jouvence,
specialised in texts of authors from the Arab world, are among the
winners of of the Mediterranean Book Awards announced during the
Cairo Book Fair, where Italy is guest of honour. The awards,
coordinated by Arabist Dounia Abourachid and given by a mixed
Arab-Italian jury, was set up to encourage and award translation,
publishing, promotion and spreading of works which help better
understand "the Other." The award will be given annually during a
Book Fair in a Mediterranean country. It is Turin Book Fair's turn
in 2008, when Egypt is guest of honour. Winners of the Cairo edition
are: Section Publisher: Egyptian Afaq and Italian Jouvence. Section
Translators: to Egyptians Khalial Kalfat, Adel el-Siwi and Bechir
Sebaie. Section Promotion: to the literary artistic circle Atelier
du Caire (an award given in cooperation with the Italian Culture
Institute in Cairo). Section Authors: to the work "A Jew in Cairo"
by Egyptian Shehata Haroun (published by Dar El Alam El-thaleth) for
promoting co-existence between religions in a geographic area of
ancient history. 'La fine e' il mio iniziò by Tiziano Terzani
(published by Longanesi) was awarded as an authentic handbook on the
road towards mutual comprehension between the peoples and the
cultures. Giuseppe Contés 'La casa delle onde' (published by
Longanesi) was awarded for having evoked the poetry and the ideals
of great poet Shelley. Lenin El-Ramlìs 'Take off the Masks'
(published by Dar Misr Mahroussa) was awarded for promoting the
co-existence between religions in a geographic area of ancient
history. An award was given to Pier Giovanni Donini for supporting
the translation in Arabic of his work 'Breve storia del mondo
islamico dal 500 a oggi' (Short History of the Islamic World ) (Laterza).
The jury included Maria Ida Gaeta, artistic director of the
International Literature Festival of Massenzio; Hoda Wasfi,
University of Ain Shams, scholar, translator, editor of the magazine
'Fosoul' and theatre director of 'Hanagher'; Franco Cardini,
historian from the University of Florence; Isabella Camera
D'Afflitto, Arabist from the University of Roma; Lucio Caracciolo,
political analyst and director of Limes; Monica Ruocco, University
of Palermo; Mona Zaki, American University of Cairo; Maurice
Mikhail, director of the library Mubarak; Lobna Abd El Aziz, writer,
and Helmi Shaarawi, director of the Arab and African research
centre. (ANSAmed). 2007-01-29 13:46
CAIRO BOOK FAIR: ANTHOLOGY ON MAHFOUZ' CINEMATIC
WORKS
(ANSAmed) CAIRO, JANUARY 29 - A two-volume anthology dedicated
to the work and cinematic efforts of Egyptian Nobel Prize Literature
Laureate Naguib Mahfouz has been presented for the first time at the
39th edition of the Cairo International Book Fair, which runs until
February 4. The anthology, the fruit of 20 years of research and
finished five days before Mahfouz's death last August, was compiled
by the Arts Academy, under the auspices of director Madkour Sabet.
The two big volumes contain all written works between 1947 and 2000
on Mahfouz's films, also the scriptwriter of different films based
on his novels. The work, in Arabic, will be translated in English,
French and German. (ANSAmed). 2007-01-29 11:36
CAIRO BOOK FAIR: A TRUE BAZAAR OF TOP QUALITY
(ANSAmed) - CAIRO, JANUARY 26 - It may not be the most important
book fair in the world, but it's certainly the most visited book
bazaar - and the outlook is promising. Mark Linz, director of the
publishing house of the American University of Cairo (AUC Press,) is
convinced that the International Book Fair of Cairo, open until
February 4 in the Egyptian capital, will grow in prominence - and
not only in the Arab world. Even if visitor numbers reached half a
million and not 1.5 million as in 2006, the Cairo Fair would remain
the most visited in the world, in terms of general public and not
professionals in the sector, Linz, who has led the main
English-language publishing house in the region for ten years, told
ANSAmed. The first time he visited the fair was in 1983. Much has
changed since then, it is better organised and the event is no
longer only an exposition space for books but has become an
important cultural event in the area, Linz said. Unfortunately,
there are generally too few delegations of European publishers, who
sell their books but do not personally visit to the fair. According
to official statistics, this 39th edition will see the participation
of 667 publishing houses, of which 514 Egyptian, 118 Arab and 35
western. "It is a bazaar, a typical Arab fair, a market where you
bargain to get the best price," Linz added. Egyptian readers, who
are not numerous but whose mass is growing, save money to go and buy
books at the fair and this is encouraging, he added. The AUC Press
pavilion will present the 800 books in its catalogue, novels by
modern Arab authors, reprints of Nobel Prize winner Mahfouz, who
died last year, history books, books dealing with political,economic
and social issues. AUC Press publishes 80 new titles every year.
There have never been any serious problems with censorship and there
is no self-censorship, Linz said. AUC Press first published the
English version of the controversial bestseller The Yacoubian
Building by Alaa al Aswani and will also publish the new novel by
the same author, titled Chicago. The production in English is not
only for foreigners, those who have learned this language or those
who are in contact with the western world for various reasons prefer
this version, Linz said. (ANSAmed). 2007-01-29 10:03
CAIRO BOOK FAIR: WRITERS READ RIOT ACT OVER
POLITICS BAN
(ANSAmed) - CAIRO, JANUARY 26 - Politics excluded from Cairòs
International Book Fair? The demand of the fair's new director,
Nasser al Ansari, who wants to limit the event to a market of books
at bargain prices, were received with irony and disdain. "These
statements reflect the regimés fear of the opposition. It is normal
that an elderly police officer like Ansari makes such decisions. In
any case, it would be difficult to keep politics away," writer Alaa
Al Aswani, author of the best seller The Yacoubian Building, said.
The 39th edition of the major book fair in the Arab world, which
opened to the public on January 25, 2007, is much more than a huge
bookstore, also thanks to the programme prepared by Italy, the
country guest of honour, which includes the participation to round
tables of dozens representatives of the Egyptian cultural world. "If
you want politics you should turn somewhere else," Ansari told
Egyptian journalists. "From now on the activity of the fair will
consist in selling books at low prices," Ansari, former director of
the Arab World Institute and director of the Cairo Fair as of this
year, added. Demonstrations have been repressed in the last two
editions of the event which until several years ago offered the only
opportunity to discuss in public politics in Egypt. The moderate
reforms in 2005, restrained by the events in the region such as the
victory of the Islamic Hamas movement in the Palestinian general
election which awoke the fears of the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt,
led undoubtedly to bigger freedom of expression. However, any kind
of protest is suffocated, with more or less violence. (ANSAmed).
2007-01-26 15:33
CAIRO BOOK FAIR: CONFERENCE ON INTELLECTUAL
PROPERTY RIGHTS
(ANSAmed) - CAIRO, JANUARY 26 - 'Intellectual property rights
and development, from cultural diversity to social prosperity', is
the theme of an Arab conference on intellectual property rights (IPR)
which begins in Cairo tomorrow. The two-day gathering is organised
by the World Intellectual Property Organisation (WIPO) in
cooperation with the Arab Publishers Union. WIPO, based in Geneva,
Switzerland, is a specialised agency of the United Nations dedicated
to developing a balanced and accessible international intellectual
property system, which rewards creativity, stimulates innovation and
contributes to economic development while safeguarding the public
interest. The WIPO convention was established in 1967 with a mandate
from its member states to promote the protection of IPR throughout
the world through cooperation among states and in collaboration with
other international organisations. (ANSAmed). 2007-01-26
11:18
CAIRO BOOK FAIR: ORIENTALISM UNDER FIRE
(ANSAmed) - CAIRO, JANUARY 25 - Orientalism came under fire at
one of the first round tables of the rich programme of Italy, guest
of honour at the 39th Cairo International Book Fair, which opened to
the public in the Egyptian capital today. "Is there still a role for
Orientalism?" was the question addressed, quite differently, by
Hassan Hanafi, professor in philosophy at the Cairo University,
Antonino Pellitteri, professor in History of Islamic countries at
the University of Palermo, Alaa Al Aswany, author of the best
selling "The Yacoubian Building" and Michele Capasso, president of
the Mediterranean Foundation Laboratory. Capasso accused Orientalism
of "being responsible for having confused the ideas and led to
misunderstandings" and criticised the orientalists who "isolated in
their shell, in their cage, lose sight of the speed with which the
world walks." Pellitteri answered him with a curt: "I am an
orientalist and I am proud of being such." According to the Sicilian
professor there is not only one Orientalism, but many different
forms, and the question is much more complicated than false
simplifications. There is a colonial Orientalism, but there is also
the wise Orientalism, that of the Encyclopaedia of Islam which be a
good reference for those who want to speak of the subject.
Pellitteri spoke of the oriental despotism, of the ethnic sense of
History, of Arabism in anti-Turkish function, but also of Leoni
Caetani and his work, of the beginning of the last century,
fundamentally to know the Arab world. "I don't want to praise
Orientalism, I know well it has been a colonial instrument... but
there are more Orientalisms," the professor concluded. Capasso,
denying the existence of any "shock of civilisations", denounced the
"shock of ignorance": the Arab world knows about 70% of the Western
world, while the West knows about 3% of Islam's world. More
traditions, even "simple" material, such as cartoons or manuals, are
needed in order to fill in the gap. Hanafi underlined that the
Islamic world feels under "a second attack" and suffers "apartheid".
Putting his author's cap on, Aswany said that literature does not
know religions or ethnicity. For his part, Italy's Ambassador to
Cairo, Antonio Badini, said that despite being good orientalists,
orientalism as such has to be redefined. The questions included one
which was directed to Italy in particular: How ever has it never
managed to politically use the omnipresente "Italophilia" which
exists in the Arab world? There was no answer, however. (ANSAmed).
2007-01-25 19:33
CAIRO BOOK FAIR: GALAL AMIN, THE SMILING FAULT
FINDER
By Barbara Alighiero (ANSAmed) - CAIRO, JANUARY 25 - He loved
and still loves the Beatles, is married to an English woman, studied
in Britain and the U.S. and is currently probably the Arab World's
most critical secular voice against the "prejudices and
preconceptions" of the West. Galal Amin, author of 30 books in
Arabic and English, is one of the controversial participants in the
39th edition of the Cairo International Book Fair, which opened on
Tuesday. 'The Illusion of the Progress in the Arab World' is the
latest work of the famous economist, professor at the American
University of Cairo. The book's title speaks for itself: believing
that history is a constant, unstoppable movement towards the better,
or that the future will necessarily be better than the past, is an
illusion. And trying to impose western concepts on the Arab World on
this basis is wrong and counterproductive. "I trigger many disputes,
but no one has so far issued a fatwa (religious decree) against me,"
the professor said with a hearty smile in his villa in Mahdi, a
residential area with alleys shaded by blooming but still neglected
trees. The chaos of the big city seems very distant. The
60-something Amin is critical of everything, towards the imposing of
human rights whose values must be Western by default, and a
democracy that is denouncing its decadence even in the West itself.
"It is an ill civilisation and this is obvious." He despises
technology that results only in consumerism, condemns capitalism and
the privatisations carried out by Egyptian Prime Minister Ahmed
Nazif's government. But most of all he criticises the Arab
intellectuals' sense of inferiority compared to the people of the
West. From an economic point of view, Amin disagrees especially with
the reports of the international organisations which were "only
figures that do no take into account other factors". Reports such as
the one of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) from
2005, which denounced the lack of democracy and freedom in the Arab
World. According to Amin, terrorism is a word invented by the West
in an attempt to find new, abstract enemies after the fall of
communism. The clash between civilisations is another invention of
the West. (ANSAmed). 2007-01-25 15:52
CAIRO BOOK FAIR: AL ASWANI BREAKS NEW TABOOS
WITH 'CHICAGO'
By Salwa Salem (ANSAmed) - CAIRO, JANUARY 23 - Five years after
the publication of his bestselling "The Yacoubian Building", Alaa al
Aswani returns to bookstores with his new novel "Chicago", which
once again attacks religious, sexual and political taboos via the
story of the life of Egyptian professors and scholarship holders in
U.S. universities. "Chicago" is an open criticism of President Hosni
Mubarak's regime and will be presented at the Cairo International
Book Fair, which starts tomorrow in the presence of Mubarak. In
contrast to his previous novel, rejected by many publishing houses
and which the author had to finance with his own money for
publication, "Chicago" was released by the most important Arab
publishing house 'Al Shorouk', which reportedly paid the highest
ever sum to an Egyptian author. Just like in "The Yacoubian
Building", published in Italy last year by Feltrinelli, 'Chicago' is
based on the author's personal experience during his PhD studies in
medicine in the American city. Aswani sets the plot in the period
after the September 11, 2001 attacks in an attempt to describe the
raging Islamophobia in the U.S. The novel levels criticism at the
"stupidity" of George W. Bush's administration, but also condemns
Mubarak and the police state Egypt has become. Young women in veils,
persecutions of Copts, political opportunists, dissidents and
protesters, but also Egyptian emigrants lost in the confusion
between Western and Eastern values fill the pages of the novel,
which is develops by alternating dramatic irony and suspense. The
main character, Naguib Abdel, has been refused a prestigious
position at the University of Cairo because he opposes the regime.
His best friend is a brilliant surgeon also banned from teaching at
the faculty due to the fact that he is a Copt. However, despite his
secularity, Abdel cannot overcome the decades of hatred and
hostility and preserve ideal relations with a young American Jewish
girl, Windy, who will ultimately leave him. "We belong to two
different worlds, I am of the enemies of your country, even if you
love me, you will never forget I am Jewish," she declares. This is
yet another sad-end love story that describes the advance of
political Islam in a predominantly secular society. The book will be
soon translated in French and English and the producers of "The
Yacoubian Building¿" film have already purchased the film rights to
Aswanìs new tale. (ANSAmed). 2007-01-23 12:39
CAIRO BOOK FAIR: HUMAN RIGHTS PAVILION FOR
FIRST TIME
(ANSAmed) - CAIRO, JANUARY 23 - Cairo International Book Fair,
which opened today in the Egyptian capital, has for the first time
in its almost 40-year-history a pavilion dedicated to publications
on human rights by non-governmental organisations (NGOs). The
National Association of Human Rights (NAHR) said that this was an
excellent opportunity to circulate the published materials, mainly
researches, and have direct contact with the public. So far six out
of about fifty NGOs in Egypt have joined the initiative, Gamal Manaa
from Human Rights Information told ANSAmed. (ANSAmed).
2007-01-23 11:51
CAIRO BOOK FAIR: MUBARAK VISITS ITALIAN
PAVILION
(ANSAmed) - CAIRO, JANUARY 23 - With a visit to the pavilion of
Italy, guest of honour country, Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak
opened today the 39th edition of the Cairo International Book Fair,
the major sector event in the Arab world. The fair, which will be
open to public from Thursday until February 4, will host
participants from 26 countries and 667 publishers, with 400 seminars
and meetings on the relations between different cultures, the use of
nuclear energy for peaceful purposes and the role of civil society.
The Italian participation envisages a cultural programme including
exhibitions, meetings and performances as well as two exhibition
spaces where forty Italian publishing houses will show and sell
their books and available editions translated in Arabic. A number of
round tables, focused on the comparison, exchange and influence on
relations between the Mediterranean shores from a cultural,
political and economic point of view will take place. (ANSAmed).
2007-01-23 11:39
CAIRO BOOK FAIR: ITALY GIVES MANUSCRIPT COPY
TO MUBARAK
(ANSAmed) - CAIRO, JANUARY 23 - On the occasion of Cairo
International Book Fair, which opens today in the Egyptian capital
with Italy as guest of honour, the Italian government has given to
Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak a numbered anastatic copy of a
poetry anthology from the 9th century. The anthology, composed of
works by Arab writer Ibn Dawoud al Asfahani, includes poems
reflecting the exchange between the Islamic and Christian worlds at
the time. The original text is kept in the Arab section of the Turin
Royal Library. (ANSAmed). 2007-01-23 10:41
CAIRO BOOK FAIR: INNOVATION AND TRADITION FROM
LAZIO REGION
(ANSAmed) - ROME, JANUARY 22 - To herald its participation in
the Cairo Book Fair, the Region of Lazio presents a selected
exhibition of Lazio publishing, a thematic screening on the culture
in the territory and free gifts for the visitors of the Italian
Pavilion of cards capturing the artistic influence and landscape of
the region. For Lazio, the representative images of jewels portray
the beach of Chiaia di Luna, at the Island of Ponza, and a sight of
the excavations in Ostia Antica. Apart from the exhibition of
publications on the Lazio cultural landscape, Lazio has an
appointment with the public of the Fair on Saturday, January 27, at
1700 in Hall 3 of the Italian Pavilion for the screening of the
video 'Regione Lazio, tra innovazione e traditione' (Lazio Region,
Between Innovation and Tradition). "It is an important showcase for
Lazio publishers which are presented to the international public
with a selection of books on tourism, archaeology and regional
culture," Laziòs councillor for small and medium-sized enterprises,
trade and craftsmanship Francesco De Angelis said. "The Cairo Fair
is, in fact, the main African event of all."(ANSAmed).
2007-01-22 19:38
CAIRO BOOK FAIR: APULIA PRESENTS
'MEDITERRANEAN LIBRARY'
(ANSAmed) - BARI, JANUARY 22 - The Apulia Region will be
presented at the Cairo Book Fair on January 25 at 5pm local time in
Hall 3 of the Italian pavilion with the video 'Apulia, Infinite
Treasures'. The Institute of the Mediterranean Cultures of the
Province of Lecce will present the activity of the Mediterranean
Library created at the institute in Martignano, including a
collaboration agreement with the library La Penna Palestinese in
Jerusalem signed recently with poet Hanna Awad during her visit to
Lecce. Another important initiative of the institute is the
translation in Italian of the accounts of Arab travellers including
Moroccan Ibn Battuta, Egyptian Rifa A Rafi Thatawi and Lebanese
Ahmad Faris Shidyaq. The initiative is a result of the collaboration
between the Arab language and literature department of the
universities of Lecce and Palermo and the Lecce-based Argo
publishing house. (ANSAmed). 2007-01-22 18:58
CAIRO BOOK FAIR:
PUBLICATIONS AND EVENTS FROM PIEDMONT
(ANSAmed) - TURIN, JANUARY 22 - Not only a selection of the most
interesting regional publishing and publications narrating in words
and images the artistic attractions of the territory, but also a
moment to meet the public with a recital. This is the presentation
of the Piedmont Region at the Book Fair of the Arab world, running
from January 23 to February 4 in Cairo. Piedmont is one of the five
Italian regions to take part in the event, in which Italy is the
guest of honour. There will be publications on the regional cultural
landscape and a double event on January 28. The event will begin
with an unedited recital, between words and notes, starring Mimmo
Locasciulli singing the poetry of Leonard Cohen. That event will be
followed by a meeting of two leading figures on the cultural scenes
in Italy and Egypt: Turin International Book Fair director and
writer Ernesto Ferrero and renowned Egyptian narrator Gamal Al
Ghitani. 'Mother Tongue' is the theme of the dialogue. The
exhibition and events will be accompanied by a classic souvenir for
visitors: in the 'postcards from Italy' pack, Piedmont showcases two
significant images depicting fascinating sceneries: the 'Galleria di
Diana' of Reggia di Venaria, which will re-open to the public in
September this year and which is part of a vast Baroque complex at
the gates of Turin, subject of the biggest European construction
works to restore a historic artistic heritage; and a hall of the
Castello di Rivoli (Turin), which houses the Museum of Contemporary
Art. (ANSAmed). 2007-01-22 18:31
CAIRO BOOK FAIR: CAMPANIA REGION DONATES 500
BOOKS
(ANSAmed) - NAPLES, JANUARY 22 - The Campania Region will gift
500 books published in Campania by the Italian Cultural Institute of
Cairo at the end of the International Book Fair. The Region's
delegation consists of 52 publishers from the provinces of Naples,
Salerno, Caserta, Avellino and Benevento. It is the first
participation of the Campania Region in the Egyptian fair, which has
with time become one of the most important international cultural
events, both for the number of publishers present and for the number
of visitors. This year Italy is the guest of honour. The presence of
the Campania Region in Cairo aims to promote and boost the cultural
exchange with the Arab world in general, and with Mediterranean
countries in particular. The documentary 'Campania, una terra alla
luce del sole' (Campania, a land in the light of the sun) will be
screened on January 25 in the Italian Pavilion as part of the event
'Italian Cultural Landscape'. Other initiatives will unfold in the
following days curated by the Museums and Libraries Sector of the
Culture department of the region. (ANSAmed). 2007-01-22 17:27
CAIRO BOOK FAIR: AN OCCASION TO MOVE BEYOND
FEAR
(ANSAmed) - ROME, JANUARY 22 - Occasions such as the Frankfurt
Book Fair (also known as Buchmesse), which in 2002 featured Arabs as
guests of honour, are always welcome. And now the Arab world's
biggest book fair, in Cairo from January 23 until February 4, will
have Italy as guest of honour at its 39th edition. "This is because,
despite 9/11, our knowledge of the Arab world improved a little in
these years, but it remains too loaded with stereotypes and
generalisations and, above all," says Isabella Camera D'Afflitto, a
university professor in Arab literature at the Istituto Orientale in
Naples. "The Cairo Book Fair has the advantage of being a situation
opposite to that in Frankfurt: while in 2002 the Arabs were the ones
who presented and sought contacts, now we are the ones, invited to
go and know and discover them on the spot," explains Camera
D'Afflitto, one of the most active people in Italy in creating
exchange and translations between the two worlds - to the point that
she will be the first Italian to receive the International Award for
Translation at the Egyptian Fair. "In Cairo, one realises that it is
a big metropolis and that there is a little of all that exoticism
which limits our perspective. The many meetings scheduled between
Italian and Arab writers will show the quality and calibre of their
great intellectual, quite removed from the fundamentalist voices
which often seem to be the only ones heard in our world," the
scholar adds. Not to forget, however, that "also in the Arab world,
little is done to really know our culture, and the debate there is
in the West and on both sides, and those who do act to something for
reciprocal understanding are mainly private and small publishing
houses." In Italy, the main movers and and shakers in this sense are
including Jouvance, which has reached 40 titles, Lavoro, E/O, Ilisso
and some others. The big publishers almost never translate from
Arabic, but use French or English translations. "Or perhaps Arabs
who write in those languages and are successful in the West, such as
Tahar Ben Jelloun, who is practically unknown in Egypt." "Great
attention is paid to European and Italian literature in Egypt and in
Arab countries much has been translated for quite a long time:
French and Russian 19th century classics are successful, for
example, but our contemporary writers are also known. Pirandello is
published and read but none of use knows early 20th century great
Arab playwright Tawfik Al Hakim. The most loved among the Italians
is perhaps Buzzati, especially with his 'Deserto dei tartari' (The
Desert of the Tartar), then come Calvino, Tabucchi and also
Moravia." The author of 'La Noia' (The Empty Canvas), for example,
would seem provocative in a world the way we imagine it ¿ dominated
only by the most conservative extremism. "But the reality is totally
different. Just think of the success which Al Aswany's 'Yacoubian
Building' had in Egypt before worldwide fame, even if it touches
upon delicate issues, starting with homosexuality, which if the
topic of the book. Many other such novels in Arabic are
circulating," concludes Camera D'Afflitto who hopes that "Italy
manages to seize and use the occasion offered by this year¿s Cairo
Book Fair, for which our diplomacy has worked so hard and so well."
2007-01-22 16:41
BOOKS: ITALIAN ANTHOLOGY COMBINES IMMIGRATION
LITERATURE
(ANSAmed) - ROME, JANUARY 22 - Since the early 1990s until today
there are many stories and poetry in Italian published in Italy by
authors of foreign origin. Now the anthology "Nuovo planetario
italiano" (New Italian World) offers works by 53 authors from
different geographic areas who live and write in Italy. There was a
need for "comprehensive and useful reflection on everything that
happened in Italy in these years", the curator of the anthology,
university teacher Armando Gnisci, told Repubblicàs weekly Metropoli.
The first two books written by African immigrants together with
Italian journalists date back to 1990, since then the literature of
immigration has flourished thanks also to the numerous literary
competitions. The publication in 2006 of two other collections, both
of them related to literary competitions, 'Linguamadre Duemilasei'
(by Seb 27) and 'In Madrelingua' (by Traccediverse), is another
demonstration of the vivacity of immigrant literature. (ANSAmed).
2007-01-22
CAIRO BOOK FAIR:650 PUBLISHERS AT ARAB WORLD'S
BIGGEST EVENT
(ANSAmed) - CAIRO, JANUARY 22 - Created in 1969, Cairo International
Book Fair today attracts between 1.5 million and 2.5 million
visitors, not all bookworms but including sector professionals, the
plain curious and families who find among the pavilions a rare
occasion to make a trip to Egypt's sprawling, polluted capital. The
event remains the most important book fair in the Arab world. A
total 650 publishers from 35 countries will exhibit their production
at the 39th edition this year, from January 23 until February 4,
with Italy the guest of honour. "We have 60 publishers more compared
to last year," said Wahid Abdel Meguid, vice-chairman of the General
Egyptian Book Organization, the government institution which created
the fair almost four decades ago, "pushed by the need to fill the
gap between Arab and western societies." Last year the Fair was
visited by 1.5 million people, 25% less compared to 2005. But
according to the Culture Ministry, the drop was due to the fact that
the half-year school exams coincided with the event. "In any case,
it remains the most important fair in the Middle East and the second
after the one held in Frankfurt," Meguid said. The Fair has become
with time an important moment of cultural exchange. This year one of
the themes at the centre of debate will be the conflict between
Islam and the west. In a tribute to Nobel Prize winner Naguib
Mahfouz, who died last year, the fair will feature seminars devoted
to his work ¿in Arabic and in 40 translated languages - attended by
literary critics and specialists. The first Egyptian edition of 'Awlad
Haratina' (Children of the Alley) will also be at the fair. The
novel was published in excerpts in the 'al Ahram' daily in 1959 and
1960 before it was banned for years for blasphemy. The book,
published at the time in Lebanon and edited in various languages,
was published in Egypt only after the death of the author (it is
unclear whether in the past few years he himself opposed the
publication). The book is already a best seller. The star of the
2007 edition will be Turkish writer and Nobel Prize winner Orhan
Pamuk, who will participate in a seminar on his life and works on
January 25. The Egyptian Book Organization has won the rights to
translate in Arabic several books of Pamuk. All foreign books which
will be presented at the Fair will be scrutinised by the the
Information Ministry, but last year the Organization and the
ministry reached an agreement not to ban any text, Meguid said. Some
10,000 new titles were published in Egypt in 2006, 25% of which
touched upon a religious theme, 17% on a literary theme and 10%
relating to science. "Generally the most read books are the
religious ones, while the translations are directed only to the
elite," Meguid said. (ANSAmed). 2007-01-22 16:11
CAIRO BOOK FAIR: 650 PUBLISHERS, 35 COUNTRIES,
PAMUK TO STAR
(ANSAmed) - CAIRO, JANUARY 19 - Created in 1969, Cairo
International Book Fair today attracts between 1.5 million and 2.5
million visitors, not all bookworms but including sector
professionals, the plain curious and families who find among the
pavilions a rare occasion to make a trip to Egypt's sprawling,
polluted capital. The event remains the most important book fair in
the Arab world. A total 650 publishers from 35 countries will
exhibit their production at the 39th edition this year from January
23 until February 4, with Italy the guest of honour. "We have 60
publishers more compared to last year," said Wahid Abdel Meguid,
vice-chairman of the General Egyptian Book Organization, the
government institution which created the fair almost four decades
ago, "pushed by the need to fill the gap between Arab and western
societies." Last year the Fair was visited by 1.5 million people,
25% less compared to 2005. But according to the Culture Ministry,
the drop was due to the fact that the half-year school exams
coincided with the event. "In any case, it remains the most
important fair in the Middle East and the second after the one held
in Frankfurt," Meguid said. The Fair has become with time an
important moment of cultural exchange. This year one of the themes
at the centre of debate will be the conflict between Islam and the
west. In a tribute to Nobel Prize winner Naguib Mahfouz, who died
last year, the fair will feature seminars devoted to his work - in
Arabic and in 40 translated languages - attended by literary critics
and specialists . The first Egyptian edition of 'Awlad Haratina'
(Children of the Alley) will also be at the fair. The novel was
published in excerpts in the 'al Ahram' daily in 1959 and 1960
before it was banned for years for blasphemy. The book, published at
the time in Lebanon and edited in various languages, was published
in Egypt only after the death of the author (it is unclear whether
in the past few years he himself opposed the publication). The book
is already a best seller. The star of the 2007 edition will be
Turkish writer and Nobel Prize winner Orhan Pamuk, who will
participate in a seminar on his life and works on January 25. The
Egyptian Book Organization has won the rights to translate in Arabic
several books of Pamuk. All foreign books which will be presented at
the Fair will be scrutinised by the the Information Ministry, but
last year the Organization and the ministry reached an agreement not
to ban any text, Meguid said. Some 10,000 new titles were published
in Egypt in 2006, 25% of which touched upon a religious theme, 17%
on a literary theme and 10% relating to science. "Generally the most
read books are the religious ones, while the translations are
directed only to the elite," Meguid said. (ANSAmed).
2007-01-19 20:09 |
