Techno Tuesdays with Alexander McNabb : DubaiEye103.8

Talking publishing, Dubai Today’s Tech Tuesday team titilated Simon Forward’s Kindle E book Evil Unlimited, trilled to Lebanese author Dania Al Kadi about her forthcoming novel being published by Turning Point Publishers and tintinabulated with literary agent Yasmina Jraissati… If that isn’t enough, we talked about the death of newspapers and promise that next weeks show will return to low brow content.

Follow on Twitter: Simon Forward @prefect4d Dania Al Kadi @lebanese_writer and Yasmina Jraissati @yjraissati

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The Sharjah Book Fair: Dar Al Shorouk wins a prize and Youssef Ziedan stirs debate | Al-Masry Al-Youm: Today's News from Egypt

The Sharjah International Book Fair—the region’s second-largest after Cairo—is an event under construction. Just a few years ago, it was similar to Cairo’s January book festival: a place where publishers could sell and residents could jostle, people watch and buy. Now in its 29th year, the 2010 festival runs from 26 October through 6 November and has brought in prominent publishers and authors, such as Nobel Prize-winning J.M.G. Le Clezio and "Arabic Booker"-winning Egyptian Youssef Ziedan.

According to Sharjah fair director Ahmed al-Amri, in 2007 there were only nine cultural events at the fair. Residents might have attended a poetry reading or two, but the ten-day festival was mostly a way for city residents to gain access to a large selection of discounted books from around the region.

At this year’s fair, residents still filled shopping carts with Arabic, English and French books. But the cultural and professional side of the fair was far different.

“What we did last year,” al-Amri said, “was we increased from around ten [professional and cultural events] to 150. This year is 200-something.”

Sharjah also has, for the last two years, offered one of the world’s largest literary prizes: the million-dirham (LE1.5 million) Etisalat Prize for Arabic Children’s Literature. This year, the winner was the Egyptian publishing house Dar al-Shorouk, for its El Noqta El Sooda (The Black Dot). The publishing house will split the purse with the book’s author and illustrator, Cairo native Walid Taher.

Third place was taken by Egyptian publishing house Elias Modern and local author/illustrator Rania Hussein Amin for her Farahana Wa Sir Jamaliha (Farhana and the Secrets of Her Beauty).

In a panel about the prize-selection process, judges gushed about Taher’s book, with the four in attendance agreeing that it was a book both for children and for adults. Judge Penny Holroyde, an agent with the Caroline Sheldon Literary Agency, said that there was little doubt El Noqta El Sooda was the judges’ favorite. “I think all of us really gravitated toward this book almost the minute we saw it.”

She added, “It already has a classic, classic feel to it.”

Dozens of professional events dotted the schedule. Experts like Shorouk publishers Amira Abu al-Magd and Ibrahim al-Moalem spoke to those in the book trade. Other professional events addressed topics such as digital development, translation, how to get published and selling into international markets.

“We’ve been to book fairs from the United States to Japan,” al-Amri said. “We’re trying to promote UAE in general and Sharjah in particular as a cultural hub.”

The pursuit of this distinction is marked by an often over-helpful customer service, one which can be a little uncomfortable for the visitor. In the restrooms, for instance, an employee would rush forward, unbidden, to assist patrons with the sinks’ motion sensors. Some patrons had their hands washed for them.

But, despite well-attended professional events and eager service, the cultural events were a harder sell. Parents and teachers shepherded children to packed readings and puppet shows, but many of the marquis events for adults were poorly promoted and meagerly attended.

Dr. Naif al-Mutawa, creator of the internationally acclaimed comic book seriesThe 99, spoke on a panel about comics attended by only about twenty listeners. Dr. Youssef Ziedan, author of the “Arabic Booker”-winning Azazel, had just a handful more at his “Dialogue about Arts and History.”

Dr. Ziedan was perhaps the fair’s most controversial speaker. The Egyptian professor has now written three novels, as well as over fifty other books about Sufism, Islamic philosophy and Arabic medicine. Earlier this year, two Hesba cases were filed against Ziedan—one by Christian lawyers and one by Islamists—both objecting to his statements about religion. Christian attorneys particularly objected to Ziedan's talk at an Al-Youm al-Saba'a symposium, where Ziedan apparently referred to Christian "myths." The Islamists' case has been dismissed, but the case filed by Christian lawyers is still ongoing.

Dr. Ziedan's dialogue on the fair’s opening night, at which he spoke lovingly about history, turned into a debate on religion. Speakers from Sharjah's academic and religious circles came up to the podium, some with hand-written notes, to dispute the professor on Islam. And, on the festival’s opening morning, the ruler of Sharjah—Sultan bin Mohamed al-Qasimi, himself an historian and writer—visited the Dar el Shorouk booth during his rounds of the fair. Al-Moalem presented Sharjah’s ruler with a number of books, including El Noqta El Sooda and Dr. Ziedan’s Azazel.

At this point, Dr. Ziedan stepped through the crowd to introduce himself. Dr. Sheikh Sultan took the opportunity to chide the Egyptian author for stirring up controversy with Azazel, which purports to be the memoirs of a fifth-century monk named Hypa. The book has upset some Coptic Christians, who feel the book's statements about Christian history are "incorrect." Dr. Ziedan, however, spoke in defense of his choices, noting that Azazel is fiction.

Despite low attendance at some of the newer ventures—such as the author panels and the evening cooking demonstrations—Sharjah organizers are pressing forward with expanding the fair.

“What we believe is … you have to reach the people,” al-Amri said. “In the publishing market, things take time.”

The surrounding city has a number of impressive galleries and museums—including the world-class Maraya gallery, run by Egyptian Mandy Merzaban—while lacking the “tallest this” and “sparkliest that” of neighboring Dubai. But, al-Amri said, that’s for a reason. “We invest in people more than we invest in buildings in Sharjah. [Dr. Sheikh Sultan] invests in people. Because when you invest in people,” it brings a greater return.

Festival organizers were already focused on next year, which will be their 30th in operation. Dr. Sheikh Sultan is apparently writing a special book just for the 30th, and organizers are scouring the globe for international authors and publishers.

A Few Photos from the Sharjah International Book Festival (Kid Stuff!) | Read Kutub KIDS #shjibf

The Kalimat booth before opening morning: Among the bestsellers are Fatima Sharafeddine's new YA novel, فاتن, her new CD, جوز و تين و توت أحمر , and أحمد الحلو .

Kalimat also had this cool new ipad version of الدجاج باق بيق: the book, read-alongs, games, and...watch the chicken lay an egg!

From the UAE-based Buzoor (also before opening): I loved these tissue-box animals! Also, it's where I finally picked up my copy of بيت للأرنب الصغير.

At Asala, of course, they were featuring their أفتش عن هواية. I picked up some other books; I will track them all down and list...maybe later today?

Dar al Hadayek, of course, proud of their award-winners. I picked up a number of books here, as well as some cool posters.

Bright Fingers! I loved these guys. We're already enjoying the literacy puzzles and stencil books.

All the Etisalat winners! Congratulations again to all!

The book bus...beautiful, although I didn't manage to get a peek inside. Parked just outside the Expo Center.

Sharjah Market | David Lebovitz

I have a really dumb habit of always wearing flip-flops, or similar sandal-style shoes, then discovering that I have to do something really precarious a little while later. I remember scaling down rocky cliffs at beaches and almost killing myself, as well as assorted other idiocies attempted with rubber-clad feet. Really, it’s amazing I’m still alive.

Like the flowing robes, sandals are part of the uniform in many Middle Eastern counties, so I took advantage of the warm weather (and freedom from packing all those socks), and donned sandals when we headed towards the market in the Emirate of Sharjah.

Of course, I’d forgotten that the market included a live animal market, which I got a quick reminder of when I stepped out of the car and was surrounded by stalls of bleating goats, all competing with each other apparently to see who could shout at the highest volume. The loudest was a poor little fellow getting a shot of medicine, that reminded me of me at that age when I saw a hypodermic needle.

I was in the United Arab Emirates to do a cooking demonstration at their annual book fair and was thrilled when my time there overlapped with Middle Eastern food expert Anissa Helou. And it wasn’t just that she was an expert in cooking, but she was also smart about visiting markets as she had slipped out of the swanky sandals she was wearing earlier that day and had on sensible, closed shoes while I dodged dubious brown puddles in my unencumbered glory.

“Really, they’re the oldest shoes I have.” Anissa said, as she sidestepped the puddles and earth as we headed toward stalls with live goats, sheep, and assorted other animals for sale. Obviously she’s been navigating a lot more live animal markets than I have.

After we saw all the animals eating and doing what animals seem to do best, we headed over to the butcher stalls, which were amazingly clean. Each stall owner has his own little ‘store’ about the size of six phone booths pushed together, and each was outfitted with a massive marble table, air-conditioning (temperatures in the summer in the Emirates can climb to 60ºC, or 140ºF, and they told me going outside was pretty impossible), and each butcher’s space was crowded with all sorts of slabs of meat and hanging carcasses.

I’d never been to a fully Arabic country, and it was a somewhat gloriously surreal adventure; men and women in long robes and headscarves, a swirl of cultures and religions passing around you, a genteel politeness, and the beautiful cursive writing of a language that I swear I’m going to try to learn at least a little of before I meet whatever maker you believe will take of us in our afterlives.

In Paris, there is a large Arabic community, and I’m one-quarter Arabic as well. But to be immersed in a place that you just see snippets of on television or in magazines, is quite a cultural eye-opener. It really is a very different place and it took me a few days to adjust to the differences in culture. Plus Sharjah is a “dry” city so I had to make do with drinking fresh carrot juice or mint-infused lemonade instead of wine, which to be honest, was something I could get used to.

The market isn’t far from where I was staying but when I asked how to go on foot anywhere in the city, people were incredulous that I wanted to walkanywhere. But I like to move around that way to get the feel of places. And I noticed a lot of small supermarkets, and I love going into them, as well as going to the outdoor markets, in foreign countries.

Plus I have a slightly irrational fear of getting in taxis or having drivers take me places. It might be a loss-of-control issue perhaps? Or maybe it was getting stuck listening to too many rants by drivers or stepping off a plane after eleven hours and getting grilled on my life, and my opinions. And worse, listening to theirs. So unless I have heavy suitcases, walking is my preferred way to see a place.

Although I was glad when I stepped outside into the fierce midday heat that Hussein, my driver who was actually quite the pal and took me everywhere I wanted to go, had the AC going. Plus with the dust, the heat, the pounding sunshine, and someone telling me, “I am here to take you wherever you want to go and to do whatever you want, Mister David” well, maybe it was time to conquer my fear of drivers. (But if they stopped addressing me as if I was a hairdresser, that would be great.)

Like the meat market, the outdoor live animal market pens were scrupulously clean. And it doesn’t get more local than this.

There were lots of little lambs and sheep—Anissa, who speaks Arabic, asked the price and they were around $200. She told me when they have camels, they go for about $1000, which seems a bit expensive to me. So if you get one, don’t throw away that hump.

To be honest, though, we weren’t really in the market for any live animals (and I’m not sure I want camel hump), plus my sandal-clad feet has stepped in a few dubious brown puddles, so we marched over the fish market.

There was a lot of small fishes, which had come off the decorative wooden boats moored just across the way. They were all sparkly, wet, and fresh, but I didn’t recognize a lot of them. And I was more concerned with not wiping out on the wet floor rather than taking notes, which I’m sure you can understand.

The blue-legged crabs were gorgeous though, and I’m going to add them to the short list of foods that are naturally blue, since that’s always something that stumps me when I see blue-colored anything. (Blue foods, unless naturally that color, scare me.) Small sharks were lined up, something that looked like bonito were on offer, and there was a kind of fish with an ugly mug and catfish-style whiskers that were like steel tubes with fins.

I did love the thin wire baskets the smaller fish were stacked up in but I didn’t know what I’d do with the twenty to thirty fish inside, so like the camel hump, I unfortunately passed. And we headed in to the arched fruit and vegetable market.

The relaxed politeness of the city permeated the atmosphere of the market as well and instead of being hassled to death so much that you never want to return, like in other countries (Morocco, I’m looking at you…), the vendors were cheerful and friendly, offering tastes and even asked me if I could take their photo.

There were plenty of greens that I had never seen and lots of parsley, Arabic thyme (which resembles tarragon but has the elixir-like taste of concentrated herbs), fresh mint, feathery dill, and basil leaves. If you’ve not had real تبولة‎, go to an Arabic country. Instead of being a heavy mound of bulgur with a few herbs flecked in here and there, tabbouleh is meant to be an herb salad, and I mean lots and lots of herbs with just a few bits of tomato and maybe some nubbins of cucumber poking around in there.

I loved the giant coconuts, which came in green and orange, and for a few dirham (about $1) they’d take out the machete and hack the top off a young coconut, stick in a few straws and hand it over, which made a refreshing drink. Did you know that coconut water apparently is sterile, at least until it’s opened? Even more interesting was the date market outside and I’ve never seen so many dates piled up on platters anywhere.

My only regret was that if one is going to be sitting on an airplane for seven-plus hours later than evening, eating a couple of dozen dates probably wasn’t such a great idea.

But they were hard to resist: the dates were so different—and so good! Some were sweet, others had a slightly burnt coffee-like flavor, and others were spicy and sticky, or as rich as creamy toffee. They kept handing us samples to try and it was very hard not to pop yet another one in our mouths when offered.

Amongst all the dates was a stand with sugar cane that they’d feed into a machine which pressed out the juices into a cup.

It sounds sweeter than it is, believe me. But is quite tasty and not any sweeter than various kinds of tropical fruit juices you’re used to drinking. It’s probably best served over ice, which they offered, but we weren’t certain where it was from so we took a pass on that. (Suspicious water after eating too many dates isn’t a wise combination, I think.)

Afterward we went into Dubai to Shabestan for a lovely Persian meal which Anissa recommended and I was happy to take her advice.

And even though Hussein was quite sweet, it was nice to know that men everywhere don’t want to stop and ask for directions when they’re lost. And after a few choice words passed in Arabic between them, we finally made it to the large, modern hotel where the restaurant was located.

I often avoid hotel restaurants, especially if they’re part of a giant hotel chain, as was this one. But Anissa explained to me that people in the Emirates like eating in hotels (perhaps because most of the new buildings seem to be housing banks in the lobby and restaurants aren’t the natural accompaniment to ATMs) and we ate splendidly.

I saw a lot of charred kabobs going by and really wanted one, but considering I was with a Middle Eastern food expert, I decided to follow her lead and order something that I couldn’t get elsewhere or wouldn’t even know what it was if I saw it on a menu.

We had Halim Bdjm and Mirza Ghasemi, two eggplant-based appetizers, then had two stews: Ghormeh Sabzi and Fesenjan. And the only reason I can recall the names so accurately is because of the check.

Handmade Iranian flatbread with sesame seeds and yogurt, cucumber, and fresh garlic dip is the Iranian version of bread & butter to eat before the meal, and dip into every once in a while when the mood hits, and every bite made me think what a much better alternative to bread & butter this Arabic combination is. But what was the most memorable were the mounds of rice.

Each pile of rice was like a dream; so light, fluffy, and the grains so perfectly separate it made me think there was a team in the kitchen polishing each one individually. One mound was colorful and verdant green, with fresh dill tinting the rice and a flurry of saffron-orange grains scattered over the top added for striking contrast. But my favorite, which is now officially The Best Thing I Ever Had in My Life was the tah-deeg (or tahdig), which are the crisp rice shards that forms at the bottom of the pot when the rice is cooked to just the right point.

When they brought the first platter of plain rice, which had one measly chard leaning against the side of it, sensing upcoming sparring between the two of us,Anissa immediately told them we needed a very big dish of it. And within seconds, out came a plate of them that made me want to push just about everything else aside on the table and focus on that. Like Socca, tah-deeg is one of those things you can eat and eat and eat and eat, no matter how full you are. Which we did.

Lisa Dempster › Book signing throne @ #SHJIBF

Official book signing throne at Sharjah Book Fair.

Lisa Dempster › Hamzat Wassl @ SHJIBF

The Sharjah International Book Fair has its own paper, Hamzat Wassl, which I think is published every couple of days.

Yesterday I was excited to see that the Emerging Writers’ Festival had rated a mention:

The Melbourne based Emerging Writers’ Festival (EWF) Director Lisa Dempster has been invited by the Sharjah International Book Fair. Impressed with EWF’s innovate Twitterfest and EWFonline programs of 2010, the Sharjah Book Fair extended an invitation for Lisa to speak on the topic of literary social media and emerging writers in Sharjah.

The topic gains importance in wake of the increasing popularity of the social media platforms like the Facebook, Twitter etc that have come to define the new age communication between millions of people across the world.

Hamzat Wassl is in English (one side) and Arabic (the other) (or maybe it’s the other way around) – it’s so impressive to see a Book Fair with its own news service!

Lisa Dempster › The #SHJIBF Daily

As well as the printed Hamzat Wassl, the Sharjah Book Fair has a daily online newspaper, The SHJIBF Daily.

The SHJIBF Daily aggregates posts or tweets that are using #shjibf or shjibf tags into a single, easy to read digest. Cool, huh?

The service that does this is paper.li. There was an edbookfest edition in Edinburgh this year and you can be damn sure that there will be one at Emerging Writers’ Fest next year.

Lebanese Writer: Arab Publishing, the reality?

The first session I attended today at the Sharjah International Book Fair was the one titled “Manufacturing of Arabian Publishing, the reality and ambition”. Having read the (depressing) statistics about the status of publishing in the region, I was prepared for what I was about to hear. Mr. Fathi Al Biss, a former publisher and Vice President of the Association of Arab Publisher talked passionately and from experience about the challenges that have plagued the book industry in the Arab world for decades.

According to various pieces of research, the average Arab reads for less than 6 minutes a year and whereas countries such as the UK publish 1 book for every 500 people, in the Arab world the ratio is as low as 1 book for 12000 people.

The challenges are many, but all, according to Mr. Al Biss are caused by the same factor: the lack of government support which showcases itself through censorship, absence of budgets, difficulties in distribution, overall disinterest in promoting culture etc.

I agree: apart from a few enlightened programs in the Gulf and especially the UAE, our governments have never implemented any significant cultural programs. Ministers are happy to have their photo taken cutting ribbons at book fairs, but that’s about all the support we can expect.

Therefore, why don’t we be realistic? In our region governments are often a roadblock, rarely a facilitator. The private sector has to fend for itself.

In many ways it has. If I look at the growing number of book retailers, I cannot but wonder if the figures used above aren’t too narrow. I mean the likes of Antoine Library, Magroudi’s, Virgin or Borders cannot possibly have been making losses all these years and it’s probably because they haven’t relied on Arab publishing. Walk into any of these bookstores today and you’ll most likely be presented with English or French best sellers rather than local reads. Somewhere, somehow people ARE reading, but we’re just not reading Arabic books, nor books by Arabs that are published in the Middle East.

This then begs the question: are regional publishers producing the right content, are they investing enough in packaging and marketing or are they out of touch with their audience? I cannot claim to have answers to those questions, all I can say is that as a reader, I often find myself at a loss for regional content and end up digging into the international best sellers pile.