04-06-2009
Akram Musallam's novel, Diary of a Sweating Scorpion , winner of the Young Writer Award 2007, which was published in 2008 by Dar Al-Adab in Beirut, has been nominated for the Arabic Booker Prize. Other literature news includes support for an Arabic Literature Conference at Bethlehem University Arabic Literature Department. This year's focus was on Palestinian oral literature. Finally, Dar Al-Farabi (Beirut) has just published with the Programme's support an Arabic translation by Maha Bahbouh of Victoria Brittain and Gillian Slovo's plays Guantanàmo – Honour Bound to Defend Freedom and The Meaning of Waiting. The project was supervised by Rosemary Sayigh.