Thursday 3 December 2009

Hay on Wye Book Festival


"A" marks the spot!

I loved this article in the National about the Hay on Wye book festival in the UK. It seems to focus on Arab writers which is a great thing. Arabs have a great history with the written word, however, today we seem to have failed and failed miserably compared to our glorious past.

The full article:

http://www.thenational.ae/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20091130/ART/711299980/1186/enewsletter

Excerpts from the article:

Hay, now in its 22nd year, is a literary institution. In May, more than 100,000 people braved the rain to head to the sleepy book town on the Welsh border. The festival has hosted ex-presidents, rock stars and Booker prize winners and has extended its global reach in recent years to include offshoots in Cartagena de Indias, Colombia, Segovia and Alhambra in Spain and Nairobi, Kenya. Beirut39 follows Bogotá39, which launched in the Colombian city in 2007 and identified many of the most promising rising Latin American talents, including Daniel Alarcón, Junot Díaz, Wendy Guerra, Andrés Newman and Juan Gabriel Vásquez.

5 comments:

Para Glider said...

The Hay-on-Wye book festival is a fantastic annual event. I've been a few times as it's only about 70 miles from my home town. I don't know how much you travel, but if you get the chance to visit, you won't be disappointed!

BuJ said...

Hi there Para!

Actually I been to the lovely Hay a few times before

I love that town!

Many of my old books and manuscripts come from Hay :)

I miss it and want to visit soon!
R u from Bristol then?;)

Anonymous said...

You might want to check out this website that is considered the largest electronic Arabic book library:

http://spreadsheets.google.com/pub?key=r6wharOxPespMyfz5KkPllg&gid=0

I was so happy to find my favorite Nizar poetries; Ihsan AbdulQudoos novels and Nawal Al-Saadawi's rebelious writings.. reminds me of my teenage days; I used to read a book per week..

In fact, I'm always in the company of a book; be it an autobiography or a novel or an inspirational one..

Enjoy reading

Para Glider said...

From Scotland originally but home is now in Malvern (when not in Qatar!)

BuJ said...

IYM, thanks so much for the spreadsheet.. "amazing" falls short in describing this spreadsheet!!!!

Paraglider!! Malvern!! i been there twice.. if i remember correctly there are 3 Malverns.. not sure why! a small, medium and large.. or something similar.. can't rely on my memory!
i used to visit my friend there that works in QinetiQ...

those were the days!