Past Events

You are invited to a Gala Literary Evening 
for
Banipal 57 – Syria in the Heart

Three authors from the issue: Nouri A-Jarrah reads and discusses his dramatic poem A Boat to Lesbos, with a feast of images and Greek choruses of spoken voice in an elegy to all those forced to flee Syria by sea; performance poet Charlotte Van den Broeck, a household name in her native Belgium and a contributor to Guest Literature from Flanders, performs poems from her debut collection Chameleon with English translations by Astrid Alben; and Muhsin al-Ramli with his novel, The President's Gardens (being published in English translation by Maclehose Press), unfurls the terror and tragedy at the heart of Iraq's recent history.

This event is free but please reserve your place
by telephoning 020 7851 2400
or emailing piccadilly@waterstones.com

Download the invitation

Nouri al-Jarrah is a renowned poet, born in Damascus in 1956. He lived in Beirut since 1981, then Cyprus and since 1986, in London as a journalist and editor. His many poetry collections have been published in Beirut, Cairo, Algiers, London, Haifa, Nicosia and Istanbul, with his most recent collection, A Boat to Lesbos, published in Madrid. He has founded and edited a number of literary magazines have had a profound impact on Arabic literature and poetry, despite all being published in London due to the lack of freedom in Arab states: Al-Naqid (The Critic) 1988–1992; Al-Katiba (The Woman Writer), 1993–1995; Al-Rihla (The Journey), 1995–, and Al-Jadeed (The New) 2015–. Some of his collections have been published in French, Spanish and Farsi. Read more


Performance poet Charlotte Van den Broeck, born 1991 in Flanders, has a Masters degree in English-German language and literature and is studying Verbal Arts at the Antwerp conservatory. She has published her poems in Het Liegend Konijn, de Revisor, das Magazin and DWB and is a household name in Belgium. In 2015, with her debut volume Chameleon, she toured Belgium and the Netherlands, and in October 2016 she performed at the official opening of Flanders-Netherlands as Guest of Honour at the Frankfurt Book Fair.Read more

Muhsin al-Ramli is a well-known Iraqi writer, professor and translator of Spanish to Arabic. He has lived in Madrid, Spain, since 1995, where he has published 11 works – collections of short stories, novels, a play, essays and poetry and also co-founded Alwaha literary magazine. He has a PhD in Philosophy and Spanish Literature from the Autonomous University of Madrid (2003), and teaches at Saint Louis University, Madrid. He has three novels in English translation, Scattered Crumbs, Dates on My Fingers and The President's Gardens, with a pre-publication excerpt of the latter published in Banipal 57. Read more

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