A collective retreat that brings together writers in and from the Arab world working with their various first languages: Arabic, English, and French.
The Arab world comprises distinct and vibrant scenes whose writers engage different audiences based on the language they write in, which rarely overlap. This multilingual reality shapes the narratives of the region and these writers and scenes are often unconnected, with little in the form of translation, publishing or meetings bringing them together. In trying to understand what stories they tell collectively, we are interested in bringing these scenes together within a shared space where they can speak for and among themselves. Starting fall 2021.
The first edition of the retreat took place on October 29 & 30, 2021 in Athens, and included Dalia Taha, Farah Barqawi, Fatin Abbas, Karim Kattan, Marwa Helal, Nariman Youssef, Omar Robert Hamilton, Sahar Mandour, Wadia Farzli, & Yasmine Haj.