This July: IPAF partners with Shubbak on literary events in London

The International Prize for Arabic Fiction (IPAF) is very excited to be partnering with the 2015 Shubbak Festival, which is taking place this year from 11-26 July.

Shubbak, which means ‘window’ in Arabic, was founded in 2011 and is a biennial festival of contemporary Arab culture based in London. With a programme ranging across visual arts, film, music, theatre, dance, literature, architecture and debate, Shubbak connects London audiences with the best of contemporary Arab culture, and has been praised for its ambitious scope by Metro.

IPAF is bringing authors Ahmed Saadawi, Jokha al-Harthi and Shahla Ujayli to Shubbak to participate in some of the festival’s most exciting events. 2014 IPAF winner Ahmed Saadawi will be discussing ‘Science Fiction in the Arab World’ at 12.30pm on 25 July. Then, at 3pm on 26 July, Jokha al-Harthi and Shahla Ujayli will be examining the development of Arab writing to attack subjects previously considered taboo during the panel event ‘The New Generation of Writers’.

Other IPAF authors will also be appearing at the following events: ‘Speaking Truth to Power’ (6.30pm, 23 July); ‘The Rise of Arabic Literature in English’(11am, 25 July); and ‘Hot off the Press’ (4.30pm, 25 July);

The Chair of the judges for the 2015 prize, Mourid Barghouti, will additionally be participating in ‘Writing Change’, which will address the role of literature in times of upheaval (3pm, 25 July), as well as in the poetry event ‘The Astonishing Form’(5.30pm, 25 July).

All of the above events are open to the public, and will be held at The British Library and the Free Word Centre.

Don’t miss out on these fantastic events!                                                                    

Details on purchasing tickets can be found here:http://www.shubbak.co.uk/category/festival2015/

Source: Press Release