Cairo Literature Festival: Dialogue between writers, readers

CAIRO - 27 January 2018: Cairo Literature Festival launches its program for 2018 starting from February 17 until February 22. The festival aims to strengthen the links between readers and writers from around the world.

Arab writers from Palestine, Iraq, Syria, Libya and Saudi Arabia, will be invited to participate in the festival with well-known Egyptian writers in order to establish a closer connection between the writers and the Egyptian readers. The festival organizers will also invite writers from beyond the Arab region, from countries such as Germany, Spain, Netherlands and others.

This objective will be accomplished through cultural events that will be taking place in three significant regions in Cairo: Ain Shams University (which is the second largest university in Egypt), Khedivial Cairo, currently known as Cairo downtown, and Fatimid Cairo; particularly El-Moez Street.

“The dialogue itself is the main drive for the festival,” Mohamed El-Baaly, general manager and organizer of the Cairo Literature Festival told Egypt Today. El-Baaly added that any dialogue that revolves around specific books is fruitful as it conducts varied conversations about the human, his problems and societal issues. He also emphasized that these kinds of dialogues enrich our thoughts intellectually.

According to the project’s vision, it aims to accommodate a cultural exchange between Arab literature and that of other regions through translating specific parts of the participants’ works into Arabic in order to read them in their mother tongue and in Arabic in front of the audience.

El-Baaly mentioned that the festival’s most important point regarding the criteria of selecting the writers and their literary work is the theme of the year. Adding that this year’s topic is about immigration and asylum that is why the festival’s concentration this year is focused on selecting young writers from the current generation.

The topic will enrich the current cultural scene as the festival’s organizers have found that in the last two years, writers and researchers all over the world have conducted noticeable academic researches. These researches present various historical and recent experiences such as the Canadian and the U.S. experience with immigration.

El-Baaly said that the increase of media channels will provide sufficient coverage of the event and the event will be more effective and successful over the years.

The festival will announce soon its schedule in detail, such as the specific locations, dates and times.