Two new books for Dubai poetry fans

A busy season for the local poetry scene gave us book launches by two prolific Dubai-based poets: Frank Dullaghan's third title, The Same Roads Back, and Zeina Hashem Beck's award-winning debut title, To Live in Autumn. Following grand individual launch events, the poets held a joint reading session at DIFC's Bookshop readers' cafe.

After reading out a few of the most characteristic and/or popular poems from their portfolios, Frank and Zeina took questions from and discussed their art with attendees. Topics on the table included the characteristics of "good poetry", free verse vs. metre and rhyme, Zeina's peculiar but apparently effective multilingual composition technique, and some anecdotes and advice on getting published and getting feedback.

Zeina's poems lend themselves well to performance, specifically the creative punctuation and the repetition of words or lines for effect. It makes pleasant reading too, though. Generally more urban in context, the poems refer to colorful personalities, and paint you-had-to-be-there experiences, many of which seem tinged with nostalgia.

Frank's use of metaphorical flourish, combined with everyday language and attention to detail, paints lucid imagery of human and natural scenery, using such phrasing as "quality of light" and "green state of grace". One is easily transported one into the moment, into the perspective of observer or participant. The seemingly mundane is rendered intimate and significant.

The differences between the lived stories of a grey-bearded Irishman and a Lebanese woman who was a college student not long ago are evident in their respective books. There's also some overarching commonality in the use of free verse and vivid descriptions of personal observations. Both books will therefore appeal to fans of this style, while offering differences in content and delivery sufficient to warrant reading both.

Breakfast and food talk with Suzanne Husseini

Opening my very culinary weekend, BookMunch partnered with TV chef and cookbook author Suzanne Husseini for a cozy breakfast event, as part of its "Cook the Book" series. A long table was spread with a wide assortment of Levantine breakfast nosh, straight out of Ms Husseini's books on the region's characteristic cooking traditions. We eagerly tucked in as Fairuz played in the background.

I am not a huge fan of the bread-ish Lebanese foods, so I passed on that tray (left); I did make an exception for the star-shaped biscuit thingy with fresh zaatar, though. Other interesting items in the first wave included labneh balls rolled in nuts and spices (right top), and the dips (right bottom), including a delicious hummus made with yoghurt, and three labneh dips that were each shot through with a different added ingredient.

I was a little skeptical about how well a slimy-textured vegetable would do in an omelette, but the aubergine omelette was really good. The climax of the breakfast was the fatteh hummus, which Ms Husseini provided as a DIY kit to assemble the most fresh and customized FH I have ever had. The yoghurt topping for this had the perfect consistency and taste, and the pomegranate seeds made a huge (and positive) difference.

I saved her spiced and sugar-sprinkled take on scones for last, and they were absolutely scrumptious with soft butter and BookMunch's in-house berry jam. Perhaps I should try this for my next scone tea.

Apart from describing what we ate, Ms Husseini also shared her food philosophy, especially her advocacy of home cooking, eating with family and keeping food traditions alive, as well as her stance against processed and fast food. I chimed in with opinions in favor of instilling cooking skills in the male lineage (with which I think she agreed), and against restaurants having those god-awful "children's menus" (with which she very much agreed). A great morning of food, fun and Fairuz, surrounded by books.

UPDATE: The event was also covered by Kayf TV. Highlights here.

Science, history, and food at Dubai LitFest

With balmy weather outside and excited readers buzzing about the Intercontinental Hotel in Dubai Festival City, this year's Emirates Airline Festival of Literature, seems to have attracted far more people than in previous years; I had to park at the lower level on all three days, for one thing.

 

Identity panel; Arabizi debate

I went to more Arabic and bilingual events this year, one being "A Question of Identity", a discussion on identity among Arab emigrants and mixed-nationality parentage. The two half-Emirati panelists had especially interesting stories to tell, and one screened a nice documentary on mixed ancestry Emiratis.

Right after, I attended a rather heated debate on "Arabizi", the Arabic chat alphabet that uses Roman letters and numbers to represent Arabic phonology. It started well, but soon descended into a verbal brawl that went off into tangents about spoken Arabic, and sucked in even the moderator.

My last event at the festival was also bi-lingual, with three authors and one representative from the National Media Council discussing censorship in the UAE.

Amish; Sitwell

A couple of other events I really enjoyed had to do with one of my great passions: history. One was the chat with Amish, the author of The Shiva Trilogy, which is a semi-euhemeristic treatment of Indian mythology, set in the ancient Indus Valley civilization. I read the first book of the trilogy, Immortals of Meluha, way back in 2010; it was a pretty decent read, and still revolutionary in the subject it covers. I was anyway mesmerized by Amish's recounting of the role of the mythology in the culture in which he grew up, how he planned and then un-planned his writing process and the development of the story, and his struggles to get the book published. He also spoke at length about he upcoming film adaptation of his trilogy (much-anticipated), and his views on freedom of expression (particularly relevant, given the subject matter of his books).

Another had to do with both history and cooking (another passion of mine): William Sitwell's flip-through presentation of his book, A History of Food in 100 Recipes, in which he reproduces and explores historical recipes from their original sources.

Being a Sinophile of sorts, I also attended the China Panel. Unfortunately, it did not deliver as much as I had hoped it would; I thought the discussion was somewhat scattered, telling me a lot of what I already knew.

(clockwise from top left) Golden Age talk; Golden Age talk Q&A; With him at the book-signing; In the panel discussion

As a science researcher and science enthusiast, I naturally attended every single event featuring the modern giant of science and rationality: Jim Al-Khalili. These also segued nicely from SciFest Dubai the week before. Al-Khalili's talk about the Golden Age of Arabic Science (with a very good justification for calling it "Arabic" science, as opposed to "Islamic" or "Arab" science) was full of very interesting scientific and historical facts, including trivia like the origins of the word "jibberish" and the decimal point, as well as biographical details and anecdotes about some of the important figures from that era, including some of the lesser-known ones. He also did a great job representing science and science literature in a panel discussion about Big Ideas and in a closing ceremony address, respectively, with his characteristic charisma.

(clockwise from top left) Penguin Fringe word magic; A young performer beatboxing; LiTTLe MACHiNe; The play DNA from Short+Sweet Dubai

As usual, there were plenty of cultural shows at the Penguin Fringe and in the programme to fill in the time between events, including one of my favorite plays from Short+Sweet Dubai. I also loved the LiTTLe MACHiNe concert on Friday night; the very energetic trio using famous poems, from Sappho to Tennyson, as lyrics to their music was, for me, one of the surprise highlights of the festival.

Poeticians' launch of Nietzsche's Camel Must Die by Rewa Zeinati

After a few months away, The Poeticians returned to new old haunt Sublime last Sunday to launch Dubai-based Poetician Rewa Zeinati's book Nietzsche's Camel Must Die.

A couple of poets made their debuts, reading their own pieces on topics ranging from nostalgia to marriage, while relatively new Poeticians Lara Matossian-Roberts and Fiona Patterson entertained us with philosophical and comedic verse, respectively. We also got to witness theatrical readings by Jamal Iqbal, some of Zeina H. Beck's excellent poetic oration (and dark humor), and originals by Hind Shoufani and Dana Dajani that hit you right in the feels.

Rewa Zeinati

Zeinati and a number of other long-time Poeticians took turns reading out of the book that night. I did not have enough time to read all of it yet, but what I have read so far was enjoyable reading.

As would be expected from what is essentially a compilation of a poet's Facebook notes, the book consists of flourishing elaborations on thoughts about random incidents in daily life, and perspectives on then-current events and topics. It's not textbook verse, certainly; those who seek a more observational sort of poetry will appreciate of it.

The notes are formatted as informal commentary, and occasionally as letters, in language and structure that's easy to follow. They are not titled either, being listed by number/date instead. Some are a few lines long, while others run into a few pages. Since all the notes are dated, one can often see their context in a timeline; for example, the notes at the turn of a year about Christmas-related things. That and other nuances lend it an added authenticity.

There is no overarching theme, but Zeinati's home country, Lebanon, makes an appearance now and then, and so do feminist perspectives. There are alsp notes about family and childhood - hers or others'. Some of the notes read as stories, and some others as observations sans narrative. Some start as one and blend into the other.

The choice of topics indicates the kind of keen observation and analytical skill that can pick out absurdity from the otherwise mundane, and (usually) successfully develop some fact/news/encounter into a disquisition about something much bigger. Many of the notes would not be out of place as opening voice-overs for the acts in a biographical sitcom. There is also something for those who like playing with words. I look forward to finishing this book.

Hardcover Book Clock

Now that's creativity.

from http://www.walyou.com/blog/2009/04/02/hardcover-book-clock/