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In the secluded Liwa desert resort of Qasr Al Sarab, eight writers have completed the fifth annual IPAF nadwa, or writers’ workshop. Sponsored by his Highness Sheikh Hamdan bin Zayed Al-Nahyan, the Ruler’s Representative in the Western Region, the workshop ran from 29 October to 5 November.
Uniquely, the nadwa enables writers to explore new texts as they are created, and compare different styles and approaches. The writers read chapters from their novels or short stories, and held wide-ranging group discussions about the art of writing. They examined the relationship between personal experiences and writing, structure and narrative techniques, and how human concerns are explored in their work.
The workshop mentors were Mohammed Achaari, who won the International Prize for Arabic Fiction for his ‘The Arch and the Butterfly" in 2011 and May Menassa, whose novel ‘Walking in the Dust’ made the IPAF shortlist in 2008. At the close of the nadwa, May commented:
"There is no doubt that the peaceful and secluded Qasr al-Sarab (Mirage Palace), surrounded on all sides by golden sand dunes, was the right place for the eight nadwa writers to create original new works. The environment fired imaginations, and provided an opportunity for artistic exchange through writing, as the participants got to know one another."
Mohammed Achaari added that: "The nadwa can be an Arabic laboratory for new novel and short-story writing inspiring a new generation of writers. They are more interested in the details of personal lives, issues related to the individual, pressures from social change and multiple means of expression. The nadwa brings these experiments to the fore and helps to develop them."
Fleur Montanaro, IPAF administrator, expressed her satisfaction at the positive atmosphere of the group sessions and the measured, in-depth debate between the writers. Each participant either wrote an entirely new text, or completed one they had begun prior to the workshop. The works produced during nadwa 2013 will be published in a bilingual English/Arabic volume.
This year’s nadwa participants were: Hicham Benchaoui (Morroco), Nasrin Trabulsi (Syria), Abdullah Alobaid (Saudi Arabia), Ayman Otoom (Jordan), Samir Kacimi (Algeria), Noha Mahmoud (Egypt), Bushra al-Maqtari (Yemen) and Lulwah al-Mansuri (UAE).
The International Prize for Arabic Fiction is the leading international prize for Arabic literature. Sponsored by Abu Dhabi Tourism & Culture Authority (TCA Abu Dhabi) and run in association with the Booker Prize Foundation in the UK, the Prize aims to celebrate the very best of contemporary Arabic fiction and encourage wider international readership of Arabic literature through translation.
Further information on the Prize can be found at: www.arabicfiction.org.
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