Virtual DC Arab Literature Festival Begins May 17

Press release from The Cheuse Center for International Writers:

May 12, 2022

The Cheuse Center for International Writers at George Mason University, in partnership with The Middle East Institute (MEI) Arts and Culture Center and the Abu Dhabi Music and Arts Foundation (ADMAF), are proud to present a two-day virtual literary festival, Narrating The Middle East: The DC Arab Literature Festival, Tuesday, May 17 - Wednesday, May 18, 2022.

Featuring leading Arab and diaspora writers, poets, publishers, and experts on the literature of the Middle East, the festival convenes panel conversations about new writing from and about the Arab world, the challenges of publishing and translating works from the Middle East and how to grow the Arab world’s literary infrastructure.

The festival, the first of its kind in the Washington D.C. area, will open with a keynote from the 2022 winner of the PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction, Lebanese-American novelist Rabih Alameddine, and conclude with an invite-only, in-person poetry reading at the Middle East Institute featuring DC-based Palestinian-American Zeina Azzam, recently named the Poet Laureate of the City of Alexandria, Virginia.

You can find the festival’s complete program here. You can register for the festival here.

“The time I have spent in Syria and the rest of the Middle East has shaped my conceptions of the possibilities and importance of literature, narrative, and storytelling,” said Matthew Davis, Director of The Cheuse Center. “Writers from the Arab world face enormous challenges most American writers cannot conceive: Economic hardship, imprisonment, censorship, and confronting communal and national tragedies. There is no festival like the DC Arab Literary Festival, and we hope you will join us for this two-day event.”

“Literature offers audiences a chance to see the world through the eyes of others and the DC Arab Literature Festival is a window into the complex issues that writers in the Middle East are grappling with today,” said Kate Seelye, Executive Vice President at the Middle East Institute.

H.E. Huda I. Alkhamis, Founder of ADMAF and Artistic Director of Abu Dhabi Festival, says “The two-day online event gives readers all over the world an opportunity to gain insight into the cultural significance of Arab literature from the established and emerging authors of the region, while highlighting the important role cultural diplomacy plays in connecting people through enlightening experiences and cross-cultural dialogue.”

The featured speakers and panelists are: Rasha Abbas, Isobelle Abulhol, Kareem James Abu Zeid, Rabih Alameddine, Nujoom Al-Ghanem, Zaina Arafat, Lana Barkawi, Zeina Hashem Beck, Matthew Davis, Lynn Gaspard, Nujoom al Ghannem, Nathalie Handal, Susan Harris, Lisette Jaquette, Yasmina Jraisati, Ursula Lindsey, Dunya Mikhail, Ahmed Naji, and Marcia Lynx Qualey.

The festival takes place on Tuesday, May 17, 2022 and Wednesday, May 18, 2022 via Zoom. The closing, invite-only event will be held in-person at the Middle East Institute at 1763 N Street NW, Washington, DC 20036, as well as streamed live for virtual audiences. For more information and to register: www.mei.edu/dc-arab-literature-festival.

Join the conversation with @cheusecenter on Twitter and @cheusecenter on Instagram using the hashtag #DCArabLitFest

This press release was produced by The Cheuse Center for International Writers. The views expressed here are the author's own.