ArteEast Presents Two Literary Events Featuring Poets from Gaza (New York, 24 & 25 April 2012)

April 24 at 7pm: Gazan Writers Salon 1: Fractured Web, Gazan Writing Online at Columbia
Center for Palestine Studies, Knox Hall Room 509, Columbia University, 606 West 122 Street, New York, NY 10027. Free and open to the public.

April 25 at 7pm: Gazan Writers Salon 2: From Memoir to Reportage and Back Again, a literary reading at Nuyorican Poets Cafe
236 E. 3rd St., New York, NY 10009. Advance tickets $10 (click here to order), $15 at the door.

Sponsored by ArteEast.

ArteEast is pleased to present a two-part series of literary readings and discussion, the Gazan Writers Salons, to academic and literary audiences in New York as a special program in conjunction with the publication of For Lives Undone: Gaza Summons its Writers to Speak (Min Hutam al-Hayah: Ghazzah Tastantiq Kuttabaha), the Spring 2012 issue of Shahadat, our popular online literary series of works in translation.

Palestine has long been a center of literary and cultural production in the Arab world, with individual voices like Mahmoud Darwish's setting a path for the rich contemporary scene, exemplified by the Palestine Festival of Literature in Gaza, which will hold its fifth edition in May this year.

Through readings of both poetry and prose, ArteEast's Gazan Writers Salon series marks the robust contemporary cultural production that has emerged from this city's traumatic history and allows audiences to discover today's Gaza and Palestine through the observations of a new generation of Gazan writers. Fatena al Ghorra, Soumaya Al Sousi, and Adania Shibli will offer a rare glimpse into the diverse voices that make up the dynamic literary scene in Gaza.

Now is a particularly urgent moment to highlight the work of young Palestinian authors, given the recent denial of a visa to Palestinian poet Ghassan Zaqtan to attend his US book tour and the Pen World Voices Festival here in NY.

ABOUT THE SPEAKERS:
Fatena al Ghorra is the author of five books of poetry including: The Sea is Still Behind Us (Gaza, 2002), A Very Disturbing Woman Woman (Egypt, 2003), Ellay (multiple editions), and Betrayals of god...Multi Scenarios (multiple editions).

Adania Shibli is the co-editor of the online forum Narrating Gaza and will read from multi-genre writings from writers that explore the repercussions of the Gaza War.

Soumaya Al Sousi has produced four poetry collections, including The First Sip of the Sea's Chest (1998), Doors (2003), Lonely Alone (2005), and Idea, Void, White in a joint collection with the poet Hala El Sharouf (published by Dar Al-Adab, Beirut, 2005).

This program has been made possible with generous support from the A.M. Qattan Foundation, New York State Council on the Arts, New York City Department of Cultural Affairs, and the Center for Palestine Studies at Columbia University.