Susannah Tarbush

courttia newland's new novel 'the gospel according to cane'

It is often said there is nothing more agonising for a parent than the death of their child. But for Beverley Cottrell, first-person narrator of the novel The Gospel According to Cane by black British writer Courttia Newland, there is one thing even more agonising, and that is "being uncertain whether your child is alive or dead.” Beverley has lived with this agony for 20 years, ever since her eight-month-old son Malakay was snatched from a locked car. Her husband Patrick had left the car...

judges of 2013 caine prize for african writing announced

the five judges of this year's Caine Prize are to be chaired by Dr Gus Casely-Hayford & include 2000 Caine winner Leila Aboulela

Alan Mackie's book The Sons of Adam: A Memoir of Egypt

British journalist Alan Mackie writes a "highly enjoyable" book on Egypt from the perspective of five decades of engagement with the country

Muslims Yearn for Real Debate

an interview with Muslim scholar Ziauddin Sardar founder of the Critical Muslm journal

'A Lady Cyclist's Guide to Kashgar' to appear soon in paperback

The Lebanese-Syrian food writer & expert Anissa Helou: A Profile

Iraqi novelist and poet Fadhil Al-Azzawi in conversation at Arab British Centre in London

PalFest celebrates 5th anniversary with premiere of the film 'PalFest Gaza 2012'

The short film PalFest Gaza 2012, made during the Palestine Festival of Literature (PalFest) visit to Gaza in May, received its premiere on the night of 5th December at the Free Word Centre in London, during PalFest's 5th birthday celebrations.

Iraqi writer Hassan Blasim takes The Iraqi Christ to the Mosaic Rooms

"His stories are mainly set in Iraq and they are very deeply rooted in often brutal social reality - there's a lot of violence and many of the stories are extremely shocking, but they are shot through with irony, with a very black comedy, and they frequently tip over into the fantastic and a magical. But because the stories are so grounded in social detail - whether it's in friendship or the detail of everyday life - as a reader you just adopt the magical as if it is the everyday and that's...

Iraqi writer Hassan Blasim tours UK & publicises new story collection The Iraqi Christ

The Iraqi short story writer, poet and filmmaker Hassan Blasim begins a three-day UK tour tonight with an appearance at the Lit and Phil Library in Newcastle Upon Tyne at 7pm. Blasim's tour marks the imminent publication by Manchester-based Comma Press of The Iraqi Christ, his second short story collection in English, translated by Jonathan Wright. T

IPAF longlist: a hat trick for Rabee Jaber, and a first for Kuwait

Today saw the release of the 16-novel longlist of the International Prize for Arabic Fiction (IPAF) 2013, worth a total of $60,000 to the winner including the $10,000 that will go to each of six shortlisted finalists. The IPAF 2012 winner, Lebanese writer Rabee Jaber, is longlisted for a third time, for The Birds of Holiday Inn (the English translation of an excerpt is posted on the Banipal website), while Kuwait features for the first time with The Bamboo Stick by Saud Alsanousi.

Banipal Book Club's Story Circles at the V&A

Seven months after it was launched at its first meeting, the London-based monthly Banipal Book Club last night spread its wings beyond its home in the Banipal Library in the Arab British Centre and held three public Short Story Circles at the Victoria and Albert Museum in South Kensington. To judge by the size of the audiences attracted to the Circles, and the lively discussions of the three stories chosen for the event, the experiment tapped into a considerable interest in reading and...

British Museum's Cyrus Cylinder to tour 5 US museum venues

The British Museum today announced that one of its most iconic objects, the Cyrus Cylinder, will tour to five major museum venues in the United States in 2013. This will be the first time this object has been seen in the US and the tour is supported by the Iran Heritage Foundation. The Cyrus Cylinder is one of the most famous objects to have survived from the ancient world. The Cylinder was inscribed in Babylonian cuneiform (cuneiform is the earliest form of writing) on the orders of the...

getting to grips with 'rebuilding libya' at london's frontline club

The five panellists at the ‘Rebuilding Libya’ evening held at the Frontline Club in London on February 15 gave markedly different perspectives on the situation in Libya. The date of the event, chaired by the Guardian newspaper’s Middle East editor Ian Black, coincided with the first anniversary of the start of the uprising in Benghazi two days before the February 17 2011 “day of rage”. The Frontline Club was packed out for the event in which presentations by the panellists were followed by a...

bloomsbury launches selma dabbagh's palestine novel 'out of it' in london

British-Palestinian fiction writer Selma Dabbagh’s debut novel Out of It, newly published in the UK by Bloomsbury Publishing, was launched at the Mosaic Rooms in central London last Thursday with a discussion between Dabbagh and the distinguished British novelist Maggie Gee, followed by a book signing.

bbc correspondent rana jawad's 'knitting in tripoli' radio programme & cake recipes

The journalist Rana Jawad has broadcast on BBC World Service Radio an amazing 55-minute programme Knitting in Tripoli on how she worked underground - using a male persona on air - as a BBC correspondent in Tripoli in the 7-month revolution.

Documenting a Supreme Theological and Religious Experience

Over the past 18 months, the British Museum has organized three exhibitions on the subject of faith. The final exhibition in this series takes a closer look at both the personal and practical aspects of the Hajj and seeks to give visitors a sense of the experience of the Hajj and what the pilgrimage means. By Susannah Tarbush

Libyan Writers in Exile Active in Support of the Uprising

This is proving to be a momentous year not only for Libyan politics and history but also for the country's literature. Libyan poets and fiction writers, particularly those in exile, have emerged as some of the most eloquent and credible Libyan voices to be heard internationally in support of the uprising during its first six months.

IPAF issues synopses and author bios for its 13-novel longlist

The organisers of the International Prize for Arabic Fiction (IPAF, often referred to as the Arabic Booker Prize) have now issued synopses and author bios for the 13 novels on the longlist for IPAF 2012 which was announced on 10 November.

Egyptian author and former Mubarak photographer Ahmed Mourad interviewed by the Observer

During his recent tour of England together with two other Egyptian novelists newly published in English by Bloomsbury Qatar Foundation Publishing (BQFP), Ahmed Mourad - author of the thriller Vertigo - surprised many with his revelation that he was for years official photographer to the now deposed President Husni Mubarak.

Libyan artist Mohammad Bin Lamin's Facebook album of his Abu Salim prison art

Following the trail from a Tweet and photo issued by Libyan writer, blogger and podcaster Ghazi Gheblawi, I am delighted to find that the famous Libyan artist from Misrata, Mohammad Bin Lamin, has assembled a fantastic album on Facebook of his art from Abu Salim Jail Tripoli where Bin Lamin was incarcerated throughout the revolution. I