This year’s Arkansas Spring Writers Festival features three major authors from the Middle East: Sinan Antoon, Randa Jarrar, and Shahrnush Parsipur. While the theme of this year’s festival was inspired by the revolutionary events of the Arab Spring and the Green Movement of Iran, these writers were invited not only as representative of their countries’ problems or politics, but because they write tremendous novels of broad appeal.
The Festival features individual readings and a joint forum. Events will be held at the University of Arkansas Global Campus in downtown Fayetteville, the Fayetteville Public Library, and Nightbird Books on Dickson Street. All events are free and open to the public. In advance of the festival, University of Arkansas faculty will lead open discussion groups on the works of each presenting author.
The Festival is sponsored by the University of Arkansas Creative Writing Program, the King Fahd Center for Middle East Studies, and the Osher Lifelong Learning Institute of the UA Global Campus, with additional support from the UA Fine Arts Activities Fee.
Sinan Antoon is a poet, novelist and translator. He was born in Baghdad and studied English literature at Baghdad University. He left Iraq after the 1991 Gulf War and studied Arabic literature at Harvard where he earned his doctorate. He has published two collections of poetry and three novels in Arabic. His novel I`jaam: An Iraqi Rhapsody was published in English in 2006. A translation of his latest novel, The Pomegranate Alone (2010), is currently being completed. He has also translated the works of Mahmud Darwish, which won the 2004 PEN prize for translation.
Antoon currently teaches Arabic Literature at New York University.
Randa Jarrar is the author of the critically acclaimed novel A Map of Home (2008), which won a Hopwood Award and was named one of the best novels of 2008 by the Barnes and Noble Review. Her work has appeared in Ploughshares, the Oxford American, the New York Times Magazine, the Utne Reader, and Salon.com. She was chosen to take part in Beirut39, which celebrates the 39 most gifted writers of Arab origin under the age of 40.
Jarrar teaches literature at Cal State-Fresno and is currently completing a collection of stories and a new novel.
Shahrnush Parsipur was born in Tehran and has been one of the most widely read Iranianwriters of her generation. She authored thirteen books, including Touba and the Meaning of Night (1989) and Women Without Men (1990), which are available in English. Her first book The Dog and the Long Winter (1974) was the second great novel to be published by an Iranian woman. Women Without Men was adapted into a critically acclaimed movie (2009) by Shirin Nashat, a well-known visual artist.
Parsipur currently lives in California as a political refugee after multiple imprisonments. Her books are banned in Iran.
Schedule of Events
Pre-Festival Discussion Groups:
3 April 2012 at 7:00 pm
Book Discussion: Women Without Men
by Shahrnush Parsipur, led by Padma
Viswanathan and Kaveh Bassiri
4 April 2012 at 7:00 pm
Film Screening and Discussion: Women
Without Men by Shirin Neshat led by
Joel Gordon and Kaveh Bassiri
9 April 2012 at 7:00 pm
Film Screening and Discussion: About
Baghdad by Sinan Antoon led by Joel Gordon
10 April 2012 at 7:00 pm
Book Discussion: I'jaam: An Iraqi Rhapsody
by Sinan Antoon, led by Joel Gordon and
Padma Viswanathan
17 April 2012 at 7:00 pm
Book Discussion: A Map of Home by Randa
Jarrar, led by Mohja Kahf and Padma
Viswanathan
Pre-festival discussion groups at UA Global
Campus (2 East Center Street, 72701)
Festival Events:
20 April 2012 at 7:00 pm at Global Campus:
Reading by Randa Jarrar
21 April 2012 at 10:30 am at Fayetteville
Public Library: Panel Discussion with the authors
21 April 2012 at 3:00 pm at Nightbird Books:
Reading by Sinan Antoon
21 April 2012 at 7:00 pm at Global Campus:
Reading by Shahrnush Parsipur