This week, our editors report on the International Prize for Arabic Fiction, a profound new collaboration drawing attention to the “obliteration” in Gaza, and a movement highlighting women writers and creators in Bulgaria. Read on to find out more!
Ibrahim Fawzy, Editor-at-Large, reporting from Egypt
Last month, the six-book shortlist for the 2025 International Prize for Arabic Fiction (IPAF) was announced at a press conference held at the Bibliotheca Alexandrina in Alexandria, Egypt. The honored books includes two authors previously recognized by the prize: Azher Jirjees, shortlisted in 2023 for The Stone of Happiness after being longlisted in 2020, and Taissier Khalaf, longlisted in 2017 for The Slaughter of the Philosophers. Ahmed Fal Al Din, Mohamed Samir Nada, Nadia Najar, and Haneen Al-Sayegh are first-time IPAF nominees.
The shortlist for this eighteenth edition of the IPAF was revealed by this year’s Chair of Judges, Egyptian academic Mona Baker. She was joined by fellow judges—Moroccan academic and critic Said Bengrad, Emirati critic and academic Maryam Al Hashimi, Lebanese researcher and academic Bilal Orfali, and Finnish translator Sampsa Peltonen—as well as IPAF Chair of Trustees Professor Yasir Suleiman, Prize Administrator Fleur Montanaro, and Director of the Bibliotheca Alexandrina, Professor Ahmed Zayed.
Baker’s statement highlighted the shortlist’s “focus on the humanity of their protagonists [and the depiction of] human journeys.” As for representation, two of the shortlisted titles are authored by women—The Women’s Charter, which centers on a Druze woman in a twenty-first-century Lebanese village, and The Touch of Light, whose protagonist is a young blind woman exploring her world through her four senses—and notably, Ahmed Fal Al Din is the first Mauritanian author to be shortlisted for the IPAF. In an interview to be published elsewhere, Fal Al Din discussed the inspiration behind his shortlisted title, Danshmand: “The idea for the novel probably took root in my mind during my first reading of Al-Ghazali’s seminal book about his intellectual journey, Al-Munqidh min al-Dalal (Deliverance from Error). . . The text ignited my imagination with its story of the greatest mind in the Islamic world abandoning wealth and fame, disappearing in search of spiritual salvation. I imagined him, with my childish imagination at the time, wandering through the cities of Baghdad, Damascus, and Jerusalem, unrecognized despite his towering intellectual stature. Perhaps that imaginative seed continued to grow within my mind—unconsciously—until I poured it onto paper in 2023.”
Carol Khoury, Editor-at-Large for Palestine and the Palestinians, reporting from Palestine
“By the power of modern cartooning, two comics artists have drawn themselves into the Gaza Strip,” declared the New York Review, introducing a striking three-page comic in their February 27 issue, which was later accompanied by an interview with the artists, conducted by Will Simpson. The collaboration, titled “Never Again and Again,” is a “graphic conversation” tackling Israel’s campaign of ethnic cleansing and—as Joe Sacco puts it on the comic’s first page—“obliteration” in Gaza.
The project brings together Art Spiegelman, celebrated for his Pulitzer Prize-winning graphic novel Maus, and Joe Sacco, renowned for his immersive comics journalism—notably his books Palestine, Safe Area Goražde, Footnotes in Gaza, and Paying the Land. In “Never Again and Again,” these two distinctive voices fearlessly confront the ongoing crisis, sparking vital dialogue and controversy through a unique meeting of minds and pens, tackling not just the conflict in the Gaza strip, but also the very nature of the strip itself—the comic strip, that is.
“Never Again and Again” is a work of visual and thematic tension, where the artists’ styles clash and converge. Spiegelman’s iconic mouse mask, a symbol of trauma and survival, stands in stark contrast to Sacco’s detailed, journalistic rendering of faces and landscapes. This contrast underscores the complex moral questions at the heart of the comic: Can the lessons of the Holocaust be universally applied? Is a peaceful resolution still possible in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict?
Despite its significance, the comic’s genesis was not without internal debate. Spiegelman wrestled with the potential backlash, acknowledging the personal cost of speaking out, yet both artists felt a responsibility to engage with the unfolding tragedy, even if it meant facing criticism. In an increasingly polarized political climate, “Never Again and Again” dares to challenge prevailing narratives and demands that readers confront uncomfortable truths about history, power, and the human cost of conflict.
One cannot help but wonder what this collaboration might have looked like with a Palestinian voice at the table. Imagine Naji al-Ali’s Handala, the eternally youthful witness to Palestinian displacement, standing alongside Spiegelman’s mouse and Sacco’s portraits. Would his silent, defiant presence have shifted the dialogue, adding another layer of complexity to an already fraught conversation? It’s a question that lingers, prompting reflection on whose stories are told, and whose perspectives remain unseen.
Andriana Hamas, Editor-at-Large, Reporting from Bulgaria
While there is no official definition for the so-called “bookstagram” world of Instagram, it can be generally observed that it involves book-lovers sharing their current or all-time favorite reads with their online followers—in an aesthetically pleasing way, of course.
Two such Bulgarian accounts, the_bilingual_reader and _the.bookie.monster_, recently announced the launch of the second edition of their annual challenge called “Inspirational Women,” which will see the two bloggers sharing of various riddles focusing on the lives and work of notable female writers, journalists, philosophers, scientists, etc. Once per week, they even provide clues to the whereabouts of a book, hidden near a location whose history is in some way connected to a well-known Bulgarian woman. It is no coincidence that the series of games and puzzles is taking place in March, the month that has been globally marked as International Women’s Day.
What is more, March 8 hosted a twenty-four hour reading marathon, during which the aforementioned accounts challenged participants to pick a book with an inspirational female character in it. The marathon was accompanied by a private chat group in which everyone could share the title they had chosen, their progress, as well as the quotes that had truly touched them. Everyone was welcome to join in the discussions and provide their unique interpretation.
Such initiatives, made possible by modern technology and social media, are still relatively new in the Bulgarian reading universe. However, by bridging the gap between holding a phone and holding a book, they demonstrate that the two do not have to be mutually exclusive—an inspirational act in its own right.
*****
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