New article: ‘Poets of Protest’ reviewed
Electronic Intifada, 28th February 2013 “All revolutions begin as poetry. Poetry and protest are inseparable twins,” says Yehia Jaber. He should know. A former fighter whose memories include patrolling the … Continue reading
UHC’s Tin Town
There are various small but perfectly formed exhibitions strewn along Deansgate at the moment. I’ll be blogging Al-Mutanabbi Street Starts Here at John Rylands for ArabLit, but further towards Castlefield, … Continue reading
Ibrahim Nasrallah, Edinburgh, 12th March
After a string of depressing things, I just got a very nice press release from the Centre for the Advanced Study of the Arab World in Edinburgh, saying that the … Continue reading
Theft at the Palestine Writing Workshop – appeal for donations
This very sad email just came through from the Palestine Writing Workshop: Dear Friends, As many of you have heard, our building in Birzeit was broken into last Sunday night … Continue reading
WB Yeats/The Second Coming
Today has been One Of Those Days. I will not be boring anyone with why – the internet is cluttered up with quite enough white middle-class angst already. Instead, for … Continue reading
Burning Books (II)
A fortnight ago today, Freedom Books, London’s anarchist bookshop, was firebombed. It’s not the first time in Freedom’s 125-year history that this has happened – in 1993 the shop was … Continue reading
Call for stories: Iraq in the future
Via Arablit, here’s a call from Manchester’s Comma Press for short stories by Iraqi writers imagining what the country will look like in 2103. The deadline is 1st June 2013 … Continue reading
‘Kissing the Moon-Like Face’ at the Filmhouse
It may be a bit sacrilegious to say this, but I’ve never managed to take wholeheartedly to the examples of Iranian cinema I’ve encountered in the UK. I can see … Continue reading
New article: London’s P21 gallery and the ‘Refractions’ show
Electronic Intifada, 5th February 2013 Even more shocking, perhaps, is [Laila Shawa‘s] video work “Gaza Fashion Week,” which shows a woman clad in a jilbab (a loose-fit coat) and headscarf … Continue reading
Burning books [1]
The ‘Inventory of Al-Mutanabbi Street’ commemorates the bombing in 2007 of the famous booksellers’ street of Baghdad. Thirty people were killed, a hundred injured, and hundreds if not thousands of … Continue reading
New article: Syria Speaks
This extended blog post on ArabLit includes reports and impressions on the Syria Speaks event at the South Bank Centre earlier this week from Nadia Ghanem and myself. The event … Continue reading
Signing up to BWISP
I’m very happy to have become the 70th signatory to BWISP, British Writers in Support of Palestine. There’s plenty more about the organisation on its own website, but in short … Continue reading
Sarah Irving 