Press Launch of 30th Edition of Sharjah International Book Fair

أعلنت اليوم دائرة الثقافة والإعلام في إمارة الشارقة عن إنطلاق معرض الشارقة الدولي للكتاب لهذا العام رسمياً والذي سيبدأ يوم 16 نوفمبر ويستمر حتى 26 نوفمبر.  ولقد تواجدنا اليوم في المؤتمر الصحفى وقمنا بالتغريد من هناك وفيما يلي بعض من أبرز النقاط والأخبار التي أُعلن عنها اليوم .

- سيشارك العديد من الكُتّاب و روّاد الأدب العربي في المعرض هذا العام .

- تفعيل الإهتمام بالأدب الهندي وذلك من خلال إستضافة دولة الهند كضيف رئيسي مع حضور العديد من الكتاب المعروفين مثل شُبهادي ، شاشي ثارور و جاشي ميشرا وآخرين .

-  ستقام أربع جلسات مفتوحة  لمحبي الأدب والشعر لعرض نتاجهم الأدبي أمام الجمهور في أمسيات الخميس والجمعة خلال أيام المعرض و سوف تستضيف الجلسات مجلة بيج بريدج اونلاين  Big Bridge online Magazine   

-  سيستضيف المعرض مدينة أدنبرة، اسكتلندا والتي صنفتها منظمة اليونيسكو مدينة للثقافة.

- سيقام #Geekfest   يوم الخميس 24 نوفمبر في المعرض.

-  سيقام  هذا العام مركز للرسوم و القصص المصورة  ونأمل في أن يُقدم انتاجاً فنيّاً مميزاً لزوّار المعرض  يومياً .

-سيشترك معنا في مركز الرسوم والقصص المصورة كل من مركز هارفارد لدراسات الشرق الأوسط Harvard Center for Middle Eastern Studies وشركة أوكي للطباعة.

 - سيتم نشر البرنامج الكامل للمعرض من خلال صفحتنا على الفيسبوك   Facebook والمدونة Blog 

- سوف نستخدم نفس الــ hashtag للعام الماضي في التغريد وجوجل +: #shjibf .

- Daily paper ستكون هنالك صحيفة يومية تقدم تحديثات يومية حول فعاليات المعرض #shjibf والزوار والكُتاب والعديد من الأخبار الأخرى.

 نحن ما زلنا نبحث عن متطوعين للتصوير الفوتوغرافي للمعرض، ومدونين للكتابة حول فعاليات  المعرض .

برجاء التواصل معنا عبر صفحاتنا على الفيسبوك   Facebook و تويتر Twitter. 

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Today was the formal launch through the Department of Culture in Sharjah, from where we live-tweeted, but to give you a flavour of this years event:

• Many leading Arab authors attending throughout;

• Country Focus is India, with Shobhaa De, Shashi Tharoor and Jaishee Mishra being amongst others attending;

• Four open-mic sessions of literary and poetry readings, on the Thursday and Friday evenings, hosted by Big Bridge online Magazine;

• City focus is Edinburgh, Scotland, designated a UNESCO City of Culture;

• #Geekfest will be taking place on Thursday 24th November;

• Genre focus is Comics, which we hopefully will be able to produce on a daily basis from the Community Comics Centreمركز مجتمع الرسوم والقصص المصورة,
• Harvard Center for Middle Eastern Studies is our partner for Community Comics Centre with OKI Printers

• Full programme will be posted through our Facebook page and Blog

• Same hashtag will be used as last year in Twitter and Google+: #shjibf

• Daily paper provides updates from Authors, #shjibf plus others, subscribe today;

• We continue to look for volunteers to blog, photograph, draw for comic.Please do contact us through either twitter or facebook or blog page links above.

Sharjah Announces 2011 Book Fair Events | Arabic Literature (in English)

Sharjah International Book Fair organizers, intent on putting their fair on the map of must-attend literary events, announced 2011′s roster of events today. This year’s fair, the city’s 30th, is set to run from November 16-26.

Much like the (myth of the) Emirates itself, the fair seems to have appeared out of nowhere just a few years ago. This year—through major funding, a new translation initiative, and the participation of high-profile artists—it has swollen into a major event, overtaking others in the region. Organizers are taking their fair’s anniversary seriously, celebrating with big-name authors like Egyptians Ahdaf Soueif, Gamal al-Ghitani, and Ibrahim Aslan, and Palestinian novelist Liana Badr.

The International Prize for Arabic Fiction (IPAF) has a particularly big contingent, including all 2011 shortlisters: Egyptian Khaled al-Berry, Sudanese author Amir Tagelsir, Egyptian novelist Miral al-Tahawy, Moroccan Bensalem Himmich, and 2011 IPAF co-winner Mohamed Achaari. From the 2011 longlist: Algerian novelist Waciny Laredj, Yemeni author Ali al-Muqri, Syrian Ibtisam Ibrahim Teressa, Syrian Fawaz Haddad, and Lebanese novelist Fatin al-Murr. From the inaugural (2008) shortlist, May Menassa; the 2009 shortlist, again, Fawaz Haddad, and the 2010 longlist, Saudi author Omaima al-Khamis.

While it’s the fair’s 30th anniversary, this is just the second year that the Sharjah fair has aspired to be a major international event.

According to Director Ahmed al-Amri, in 2007 there were only nine cultural events at the fair. Indeed, for most of the 2000s, there were no major regional book fairs in the Emirates. Sharjah’s low-key ten-day festival was like many other fairs: mostly a way for city residents to gain access to a selection of discounted books in a less-censorious environment.

That began to change in 2007. That was the year when the Abu Dhabi Authority for Culture and Heritage (ADACH) got together with the Frankfurt Book Fair to launch the Abu Dhabi fair, which its organizers now call the “most professionally organised, most ambitious and fastest growing book fair in the Middle East and North Africa.” In 2009, neighboring Dubai held its inaugural “Emirates Airlines Literary Festival.”

And, as Dubai launched its fest, Sharjah also moved toward offering something bigger. In 2009, al-Amri said at last year’s fair, “we increased from around ten [professional and cultural events] to 150. This year [2010] is 200-something.”

In 2011, the Sharjah fair will take a shot at surpassing the other two—not with international glitter—but with regional, Arabic-speaking significance. There will be non-Arab authors, like Amit Chaudhuri and Sunetra Gupta (India is the “country focus”), Peter James and Kate Mosse, but the emphasis is surely on the Arab superstar authors and Arabic literature. This is not just a contest for space within the Emirates: The fair now vies with Cairo’s far older and larger—but chaotic and oddly organized—fair, as well as the fair in Lebanon, for region’s top cultural spot.

It is yet to be seen what 2012 will bring for book fairs in newly reborn Tunis and Tripoli; likewise, the Cairo fair could be an explosion of cultural, creative, and political energy, positive or negative.

The Sharjah fair will be proceeded by a two-day publishers’ event and launch of the Sharjah Translation Rights Centre* on November 14 and 15. The center has a $300,000 translation fund available for any translation deals sealed or started at the fair.

Saudi Arabia is the Sharjah fair’s guest of honor this year, as they were this year in Prague, where the choice raised hackles and eyebrows. Although the KSA boasts a number of significant authors, most of the books officials brought along to Prague were non-literary, to say the least.

Book fairs are book fairs—a place to celebrate Arab authors and Arabic writing, and to do publishing deals—but they are also spaces of cultural power. Who will write the story of the Arabic-writing world?

*Full disclosure: I will be corralling a panel at this event.