Past Events

Celebrate Banipal 45 – Writers from Palestine at The Mosaic Rooms with two authors from the issue – Asma'a Azaizeh and Marwan Makhoul. Join them for readings of their works, for discussion and a reception

Banipal Short Story Circles at the V&A as part of the V&A's Friday Late: Record, Reframe, Resist and the Nour Festival of Arts.

Libyan Authors and Banipal at the Birmingham Book Festival

Vitosha Guest Haus & Pinocchio Theatre
in association with The Alliance for Artists Communities present:

A Reading of Young Writers from Yemen and Morocco – Wajdi al-Ahdal and Abdelaziz Errachidi

Banipal Celebration Reading at the South Bank Centre with Hassan El Ouazzani (Morocco), Khaled Mattawa (Libya), Saadia Mufarreh (Kuwait), Amjad Nasser (Jordan), Iman Mersal (Egypt) and Rasha Omran (Syria)

POETRY PARNASSUS

The largest gathering of international poets ever seen, as part of the UK Cultural Olympiad prior to the opening of the Olympic Games at the end of July 2012

I See Infinite Distance Between Any Point and Another

SECOND BANIPAL BOOK CLUB MEETING

For the second Book Club meeting, we will be reading Out of It by Selma Dabbagh

Organised by Ashur Etwebi and Khaled Mattawa

The first major literary festival in Libya featured poets, scholars, and literary professionals from Algeria, Britain, Egypt, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Jordan, Libya, Morocco, Palestine, Saudi Arabia, Syria, the the United Arab Emirates, and the United States.

The International Prize for Arabic Fiction 2012 and the Abu Dhabi Book Fair

The award ceremony of the International Prize for Arabic Fiction took place in the evening of the 27 March 2012, and was followed by the opening of the Abu Dhabi book fair the next morning.

Join Adina Hoffman as she talks about her biography of the great Palestinian poet Taha Muhammad Ali. This event is part of Jewish Book Week.

Presentation of the 2011 Saif Ghobash - Banipal Prize for Arabic Literary Translation.

1001 Arabian Nights in One Night

Literature from the Arab world

An evening of readings and discussion with guest speaker Banipal's publisher Margaret Obank talking about the current Arabic literary scene

Organised by the English Literature Society as part of the University's One World Week.

A collaboration between New York University Abu Dhabi and Banipal to celebrate Emirati literature in English and Arabic. Part of the New York University conference on World Literature and Translation.

Banipal Winter Reception to Celebrate the Authors and Translators in Banipals 42, 41 and 40.

State of Emergency. An evening of poetry from the Arab world at the Southbank Centre.

Over the course of the festival, Margaret Obank, Amjad Nasser, Kay Ryan and Fergus Allen, and judge of this year's Popescu Prize Jane Draycott gave a number of talks on their work in the Arabic literary field, along with poetry readings.

Past winner Raja Alem (2011) from Saudi Arabia, and former judges Ghalia Kabbani and Paul Starkey in discussion about the importance and global impact of this prize, and the role fiction can play in promoting cultural understanding.

An exciting and inspiring four days for Banipal, with great interest in the three issues of 2011 that were presented at the Fair. 

Sleep Song

From the dreams and nightmares that have haunted US veterans of the Iraq war, Mike Ladd created poems. These poems led to an encounter with the other side. In Baghdad, Ahmed Abdul Hussein, too, felt the war as a source of words and wrote poetry. A meeting between invisible enemies who become visible men. The premiere of Sleep Song was at Fondation Royaumont, Asnières sur Oise, France on 30 September, followed by a second performance 

Harvill Secker Young Translators' Prize

In celebration of the Harvill Secker Young Translators' Prize, author Penelope Lively, journalist Maya Jaggi, Prize founder Briony Everroad and translator Paul Starkey will discuss literature in translation and this year's chosen language for the prize, Arabic.

Launch of One Day in April, a new novel by Jad El Hage

Emirati writers Khulood al-Mualla and Sara al-Jarwan with Samuel Shimon at the Berlin International Literature Festival. The visit of the two authors was supported by the Emirates Foundation

SHUBBAK FESTIVAL – The Arab Spring: A Literary Perspective
Authors from Syria, Egypt and Libya in conversation

An Iraqi in Paris:  Samuel Shimon in conversation with Eckhard Thiemann at the Liverpool Arabic Arts Festival

Modern Tunisian Poetry – Tahar Bekri, Amina Saïd with distinguished American poet and translator Marilyn Hacker in Gala Poetry Performances – plus Supper

Ramsey Nasr, Poet Laureate of the Netherlands, at LRB's World Literature Weekend, in conversation about his work and Heavenly Life, selected poems in English translation, with readings 

THE PREMIERE OF

The Ziggurat Builders

a new composition for Voice, Oud and Cello by Marcus Davidson exploring the music of the voice and the Oud from medieval to contemporary sounds, with title and libretto taken from an existing poem by the late Iraqi Assyrian poet Sargon Boulus (1944-2007). 

7.00pm, Saturday 6 November 2010

St. Paul’s Pavilion, Royal Festival Hall, Level 6

Jasmine Donahaye, Adam Foulds, Nathalie Handal and Ramsey Nasr

Poetry International London, 28 October to 6 November, focused on Palestine and the Middle East, hosting poets from around the world on the theme of imagining peace.

Banipal had a stand in the newly organised Weltempfang in the Frankfurt Book Fair's Hall 5. On Sunday 10 October (10.10.1) Banipal's editor Samuel Shimon hosted a discussion on Tunisian literature, the theme of Banipal 39 that was published on 1st October.

To see some of the official photos from this year's Assilah Festival, click here

This year the Festival Director and poet Rasha Omran invited Stephen Watts to join the team of poets for the week-long events.

Last year’s first ‘Arab Evening’ of readings, music, and delectable middle eastern dishes proved so popular there will be repeat helpings at Trinity Hall this summer, with Syrian author Ghalia Kabbani and, from Iraq, playwright Hassan Abdulrazzak and oud player Khyam Allami.

Khalid Albudoor, Khulood al-Mu’alla and Nujoom al-Ghanem, three successful modernist Emirati poets, have their first London reading with specially commissioned English translations of their works

Poetry and Iraq – two poets in the forefront of Iraqi writing today – Fadhil al-Azzawi and Sinan Antoon discuss the place of poetry in Iraq and read from their works

Khalid al-Budoor, Khulood al-Mu’alla and Nujoom al-Ghanem, three successful modern Emirati poets, read their works and meet poetry-loving audiences at the annual Ledbury Poetry Festival

BBC Radio 3's World Routes Academy 2010 – Iraq at Celebrating Sanctuary Festival
An afternoon’s events dedicated to Iraqi culture – live music, spoken word, workshops and discussions

More than 80 authors from around the world converged on Dubai Festival City for the second Emirates Airline International Literature Festival

Visit Banipal at the Frankfurt Book Fair
We're in the International Centre, in Hall 5.0, Stand D912

The London Review Bookshop

The event featured not only the poets Siham Bouhlal and Mustafa Stitou, who came from Paris and the Netherlands respectively, but also the spirit of two others, Hassan Najmi and Ouidad Benmoussa, both of whom should have been there but for the new and infamous privatised system for getting VISAs to come to the UK, which made it impossible for them to make the visit. All with works published in Banipal 35.

The Ledbury Poetry Festival
•  Launching two Arabic poetry books
• Introducing Moroccan Poets

Two Arabic poetry events, featuring the launch of two new books by Banipal Books, Shepherd of Solitude by Amjad Nasser (pictured) and Knife Sharpener by the late Sargon Boulus.  Plus Moroccan poets Siham Bouhlal and Mustafa Stitou, who live in Europe and who wonderfully stepped in when the UK's new visa system prevented well-known poets from Morocco setting foot in the UK.

Frome Festival 2009
Arab Writing Today

An exciting event, the first of its kind at the Frome Festival: three Arab writers came together to give readings and to talk about their work.

London Book Fair 2009

Breaking through: Syrian writers in conversation and performance

Hala Mohammed, Monzer Masri, Rasha Omran, Lukman Derky, four Syrian poets - who are also a film-maker, a painter, an arts festival director, and a journalist / scriptwriter respectively - were seen in conversation (on writing, publishing and the arts in Syria today) – and in performance. Audiences were able to hear readings of poems, newly translated for the latest issue of Banipal 31, which included a major feature on contemporary Syrian literature. Free wine and nibbles were served after the event.

FIVE SHORT STORIES FROM NORTH AFRICA

published in translation in BANIPAL MAGAZINE
with some republished in the collection SARDINES AND ORANGES, published by Banipal Books
were broadcast, in the English translation, one a day, as below, from Monday to Friday, 5 to 9 May

Produced by Square Dog Productions for Radio 4.

Ledbury Poetry Festival and London Review Bookshop Hala Mohammad, Monzer Masri, Rasha Omran and Lukman Derky visited the UK for events at the Ledbury Poetry Festival and the London Review Bookshop.

Banipal magazine is the winner of the 2008 Incwriters Outstanding Contribution to Literature (Magazines) award. It was chosen from the short list of ten magazines below and the award presented at a ceremony at Manchester Central Library.

At a splendid award ceremony in Abu Dhabi on 10 March 2008, the chair of judges of the new International Prize for Arabic Fiction, known as the Arab Booker, announced that the inaugural winner of the £50,000 prize was Egyptian author Bahaa Taher for his novel Wahat al-Ghurub [Sunset Oasis].

SMALL AND INDEPENDENT 11

A press publishing talk, Q&A and networking event:

Four publishers and editors shared their experience of setting up a small press and gave advice to guide attendees on their way through the process. Panellists included Shaun Levin, Nii Ayikwei Parkes, Margaret Obank, and Chris Hamilton-Emery.

The world’s largest fair for the book trade was attended by even more visitors than last year, over 280,000. Hall 5, home of Frankfurt Book Fair’s International Centre was a veritable hub, housing the Guest of Honour Pavilion for Catalan Culture, as well publishers from the Arab world, South American and African countries, Iran, Turkey, Russia, Poland, the Czech Republic, Estonia, Armenia, and many others; also booths for small independent literary publishers, such as Banipal, Dar al-Jamal, and Hans Schiler Verlag.

Manchester Festival of Literature’s Independents' Day was a day of activities for independent small publishers,mostly local magazine and poetry publishers.

Banipal's stand exhibited and sold magazines and books, including the two new collections of short stories, Mordechai's Moustache and his Wife's Cats and A Retired Gentleman.

Banipal magazine & the Institut Français

host special reception and poetry reading
to welcome poets from Lebanon
Abdo Wazen, Zeinab Assaf and Bassam Hajjar

FROM
LEBANON
TO LEDBURY

Lebanese poets visited the UK for this exclusive event at the Ledbury Poetry Festival. Two of the poets had never read in the UK before and one is newly translated into English.

The 2nd International Translation Conference of the Arab Thought Foundation was held in Amman, 27 and 28 April 2007. An important panel was organised by the Next Page Foundation, which looked at the experience of promoting Arab literature outside the Arab world, and that means, in translation.

Australians for Lebanon
launched The Myrtle Tree
by Lebanese Australian Jad El Hage, who was introduced by Joe Camilleri, Professor of International Relations, La Trobe University

Organised with the support of Darebin and Australian and Lebanese Historical Society

Afaq Bookshop, Qasr Al-Aini Street, Cairo

Samuel Shimon read from his autobiographical novel Iraqi fi Baris

. . . AN IRAQ'S NEVER-ENDING DREAM is reported by Ahmed Maged in the Beirut Daily Star . . .