IPAF Nadwa mentor: Mohammed Achaari
Eight emerging writers - four men and four women - from eight Arab countries yesterday began the writers' workshop known as the International Prize for Arabic Fiction (IPAF) Nadwa, held annually in Abu Dhabi.
This year's Nadwa is led by two mentors: Moroccan writer Mohammed Achaari - joint winner of IPAF (often referred to as the Arabic Booker) in 2011 for his novel The Arch and the Butterfly - and Lebanese author May Menassa, shortlisted in IPAF's first year, 2008, for Walking in the Dust.
The eight emerging writers participating in the Nadwa are Ayman Otoom (Jordan b1972); Hicham Benchchaoui (Morocco b1976); Samir Kacimi (Algeria 1974); Noha Mahmoud (Egypt b1980); Lulwah al-Mansuri (UAE 1979); Bushra al-Maqtari (Yemen b1979); Abdullah Mohammed Alobaid (Saudi Arabia b1984), and Nasrin Trabulsi (Syria). (Full biographical details are below)
This year marks the fifth anniversary of the prestigious IPAF Nadwa, which brings together emerging writers from
across North Africa and the Middle East and gives them the opportunity to hone
their skills under the tutelage of IPAF winning and shortlisted authors.
This is the sixth year of the International Prize for Arabic Fiction. The longlist for IPAF 2014 will be announced on Monday 6 January, the shortlist on Monday 10 February 2013, and the winner on Tuesday 29 April
This is the sixth year of the International Prize for Arabic Fiction. The longlist for IPAF 2014 will be announced on Monday 6 January, the shortlist on Monday 10 February 2013, and the winner on Tuesday 29 April
May Menassa
This year's eight-day IPAF Nadwa, from 29 October to 5 November, is taking place in the secluded desert resort of Qasr Al Sarab. It is sponsored by HH Sheikh Hamdan bin Zayed Al-Nahyan, the Ruler's Representative in the Western Region.
The eight participants were identified by former judges of IPAF as ‘ones to watch’. Aged from 29 to 43, they come from a variety of writing backgrounds and professions.
The Nadwa offers emerging authors a retreat where they are
able to work on a new piece of fiction, or to develop an existing, unpublished
work. In addition to their mentoring sessions with Mohammed Achaari and May Menassa, the participants will take part in daily discussions with their peers,
critique each other’s work, and discuss literature in more general terms.
the first volume of works produced at the IPAF Nadwa
The fruits of the Nadwa will include eight new works of fiction. These will in time be edited and translated into a bilingual volume of extracts. To date, two volumes IPAF Nadwa volumes have been published, by Saqi Books and Arab Scientific Publishers. Two previous Nadwa participants – Egyptian Mansoura Ez Eldin and Saudi Mohammed Hasan Alwan – went on to be shortlisted for IPAF. Alwan's novel The Beaver, which was shortlisted in IPAF 2012, began life in the 2009 IPAF Nadwa.
Mohammed Achaari said: "I am greatly looking
forward to encountering new texts as they are in the process of being created." He noted that "it is commonly thought that writing is a work which happens between the writer
and their text, in isolation and solitude. Perhaps this is true at a deep
level, but transforming this almost sensory intimacy into open dialogue and
group interchange gives the writing another dimension, as it becomes a shared
effort." Achaari says "it will be exciting to get to know these new works in the mirror of
other texts, both during the workshop and as they develop afterwards".
Fleur Montanaro
IPAF Administrator Fleur Montanaro, who is coordinating the Nadwa, adds: "We are delighted to be celebrating the fifth year of the IPAF Nadwa, which provides a forum for talented young writers from across the Arab world to interact and engage with each other's work. In the company of Mohammed Achaari and May Menassa as mentors, this year’s Nadwa promises to be as inspiring and stimulating as ever".
IPAF is the leading international prize for Arabic literature. Sponsored by Abu Dhabi Tourism and Culture Authority (TCA Abu Dhabi), and run in association with the Booker Prize Foundation in the UK, the Prize aims to celebrate the very best of contemporary Arabic fiction and encourage wider international readership of Arabic literature through translation.
Further information on the Prize can be found at:
www.arabicfiction.org
NADWA 2013: PARTICIPANTS
Ayman Otoom is a Jordanian poet and novelist, born in Jerash, Jordan in 1972. He went to secondary school in the UAE and graduated in Civil Engineering from the Jordanian University of Science and Technology in 1997. He then went on to obtain a B.A. in Arabic Language from the University of Yarmuk, Jordan, in 1999 and an M.A. and doctorate in Arabic Language from the University of Jordan in 2007. He has published several volumes of poetry, including his most recent Take Me to the Al-Aqsa Mosque (2013), and is the author of three novels: My Friend, Prison and They Hear Her Whispering (both published in 2012) and The Taste of Death (2013). He is currently a teacher in Amman.
Hicham Benchchaoui is a Moroccan
writer. Born in al-Jadida, Morocco, in 1976, he trained as a journalist and has
written for several Arab newspapers and periodicals. From 2008 to 2010 he
worked as a cultural reporter for Iraqi newspaper Al-Mada and Moroccan
newspaper Al-Jarida al-Oula. He also co-edited the seventh edition of Sisra
magazine, published by the cultural association Aljouf, Saudi Arabia. He is the
author of two novels and four short story collections. His novel Nap on an
Autumn Sunday came third in the Al Tayeb Salih Award for Creative Writing in
2012.
Samir Kacimi is an Algerian novelist. Born in Algiers in 1974, he
graduated with a Law degree and currently works as a newspaper columnist. His
first novel was Declaration of Lostness (2009), the first Algerian novel to
deal with prison in Algeria, which won the Hashemi Saidani Award for the best
Algerian debut. In the same year, he published his second novel A Great Day to
Die, the first Algerian novel to reach the IPAF longlist. His third novel, Halabil, was published in 2010 and
chapters from his next work In Love with a Barren Woman (2011) were featured in
English translation in Banipal Magazine. His most recent novel is The Dreamer
(2012).
Noha Mahmoud is an Egyptian
writer, born in 1980. She currently writes for Egyptian newspaper The Republic.
She has published three prose works and three novels: Telling Stories Sitting
on Marble Blocks (2007), Rakousha (2009) and Hallucinations (2013), for which
she won the Dubai Cultural Prize.
Lulwah al-Mansuri is a writer
and journalist from the United Arab Emirates. Born in 1979, she has a B.A. in
Arabic and a diploma in Family and Media Studies. Her novel, The Last Women of
Lengeh, was published by the Department of Media and Culture in Sharjah in
2013. Her short story collection, The Village Which Sleeps in My Pocket, won
the Dubai Cultural Prize in 2013.
Bushra al-Maqtari was born in Taiz, Yemen in 1979. She is a writer and
novelist and member of the executive board of the Union of Yemeni Writers. She
has published a prose collection called The Furthest Reaches of Pain (2003) and
a novel, Behind the Sun (2012). Her writing has been published in various Arab
newspapers and periodicals. In 2013, she was awarded the Françoise Giroud Award
for Defence of Freedom and Liberties in Paris and also the Leaders for
Democracy Prize, presented by the Project on Middle East Democracy, in
Washington.
Abdullah Alobaid is a Saudi Arabian writer. Born in Riyadh in 1984, he
studied Management Information Systems at the King Fahd University of Petroleum
and Minerals in Dhahran. He is the author of one novel, Nicotine (2011), and
Companion, a book of prose and poetry (2013). He has also written scripts for
television dramas and, for the last four years, has performed stand-up
comedy.
Nasrin Trabulsi is a Syrian
writer. Based in Kuwait, she works as a television news presenter. She has a
B.A. in Dramatic Literature and is the author of three collections of short
stories – Waiting for a Legend (1997), Scheherazade Got Bored (2004), The Last
Dance Rehearsal (2008) – and a book of prose poetry, entitled Speech of the
Dumb (2009). She has published a number of critical articles in Arab newspapers
and specialist periodicals on literature and the theatre, as well as a series
of articles called From the Balcony of Humanity in Sawa Magazine and the
Kuwaiti al-Qabas newspaper. Currently, she writes a column for Al-Quds al-Arabi
called Fadaai'yat. She has hosted several literary evenings in which she
dramatically enacted her short stories, in Damascus, Kuwait, Cairo and
Sharjah.
NADWA 2013: MENTORS
Mohammed Achaari was born in 1951 in Zerhoun, Morocco. After studying
Law and Administration, he worked in political and cultural journalism and was
editor of a number of newspapers and cultural supplements. He has written
articles on literature and the arts, including poetry and short stories. For
three consecutive years, he was head of the Union of Moroccan writers and his
political work led him to take up various government posts, including that of
Minister of Culture in Morocco from 1998-2007. His 11 poetry collections have
been published in Baghdad, Beirut and Casablanca, and he is regarded as one of
the most prominent poetic voices of the 70s generation in Morocco. His 2011
novel The Arch and the Butterfly won IPAF and was recently nominated for Italy’s Ziator Prize. His works have been
translated into a number of languages. He lives in Rabat, Morocco, where he is
a full-time writer.
May Menassa was born in Beirut in 1939 and holds a postgraduate diploma
in French Literature. She began her career as a broadcast journalist in 1959.
She has worked as a critic for the Lebanese newspaper An Nahar since 1969. She
has published eight novels, as well as two children’s books and she has worked
on many translations, mainly from French into Arabic. Her fifth novel Walking in
the Dust was shortlisted for IPAF in 2008. Her first novel, Pages from
Notebooks of a Pomegranate Tree (1998), was translated into French in
2012.
