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"The writer's job is to get naked—to hide nothing." Southern Gothic novelist Harry Crews, who passed away Wednesday in Gainesville, Florida, at the age of seventy-six, wrote seventeen novels, including Feast of Snakes and The Knockout Artist. He taught fiction writing workshops at the University of Florida from 1968 until his retirement in 1997.
Beyond Baroque is one of the United States’ leading independent literary arts centers and public spaces dedicated to expanding the public’s knowledge of poetry, literature, and art through cultural events and community interaction. Founded in 1968 as an experimental literary magazine, Beyond Baroque is based out of the original City Hall building in Venice, California. The Center offers a diverse variety of literary and arts programming including readings and workshops.
Last night in Abu Dhabi, Lebanese author Rabee Jaber was awarded the International Prize for Arabic Fiction, given for the past five years for novels originally written in Arabic.
The forty-two-year-old author took the award, also known as the Arabic Booker (it is sponsored by major literary prize underwriter Man Booker), for his historical novel The Druze of Belgrade.
Still unpublished in English, a state that is likely to change shortly if the fate of past honorees' work serves as any indication, Jaber is a well-known author in his native Lebanon. He has published seventeen novels and, in 1992, won the country's Critics Choice Award for his debut, Master of Darkness.
Jaber received fifty thousand U.S. dollars, and each finalist received ten thousand dollars. The shortlisted authors were Jabbour al-Douaihy of Lebanon for The Vagrant, Ezzedine Choukri Fishere of Egypt for Embrace on Brooklyn Bridge, Nasser Iraq of Egypt for The Unemployed, Bachir Mefti of Algeria for Toy of Fire, and Habib Selmi of Tunisia for The Women of al-Basatin.
The award was presented at the launch of the Abu Dhabi International Book Fair. The winner and shortlisted authors will appear in conversation tomorrow evening at the festival to discuss risk-taking in Arabic fiction.
Past winners of the Arabic Booker include Saudi novelist Raja Alem (The Doves' Necklace) and Moroccan author Mohammed Achaari (The Arch and the Butterfly), who split the award last year, as well as Egypt's Bahaa Taher (Sunset Oasis) and Youssef Ziedan (Azazel), and Abdo Khal of Saudi Arabia (Spewing Sparks as Big as Castles).
Look through your desk or visit a thrift store or drugstore to find a selection of postcards. Write short missives to yourself in the voice of an imagined character, sending a dozen or so cards to your home address. Allow your reaction to receiving the postcards and the messages themselves, inspire the beginnings of a story.
Diesel Bookstore is an independent neighborhood bookstore that hosts regular author events. The store also has a branch in Del Mar.
Opened in 1996, Blue Willow Bookshop is an independent bookseller and gift shop. The store offers a wide selection of books for adults and children, along with puzzles, games, and gifts. Blue Willow also hosts regular literary events, book club meetings, and story time readings for children.
This short video, which was shot, directed, and edited by Glen Milner for the Daily Telegraph, shows Suzanne St. Albans's novel Mango and Mimosa being printed by Smith-Settle Printers in Leeds, England.
"Variety may be the spice of life, but brevity is its bread and butter," says Terin Izil as she explains why simple, punchy language is often the clearest way to convey a message in this fun, two-minute video animated by Sunni Brown.
Octavia Books is an independent, locally-owned bookstore located uptown in New Orleans. The store regularly hosts author events such as signings, readings, and talks.
Garden District Book Shop resides inside the historic property called the Rink at the corner of Washington Avenue and Prytania Street, in New Orleans’s Garden District. They carry a large collection of new and used regional titles; design, art, and gardening books; fiction and non-fiction; and signed first editions and limited editions by many regionally and nationally acclaimed authors.
