WORDS WITHOUT BORDERS

Just found this WONDERFUL website, when doing a search for Badr Shakir As-Sayyab. It's called Words Without Borders: The Online Magazine for International Literature. It features translations into English, of poems, fiction, and other writings. There are sections on the Middle East, Africa, and other areas. It's great :)

In the ABOUT US section, the editors have this to say:

Words Without Borders undertakes to promote international communication through translation of the world's best writing--selected and translated by a distinguished group of writers, translators, and publishing professionals--and publishing and promoting these works (or excerpts) on the web. We also serve as an advocacy organization for literature in translation, producing events that feature the work of foreign writers and connecting these writers to universities and to print and broadcast media.

Courtesy of NASA: Alexandria from space.  

STARMAKER

Good article about the program Starmaker in Egypt Today.

EGYPTIAN TRADITIONAL MUSIC FESTIVAL

An article in this week's Cairo Times discusses an open air concert in Port Said. Click on the last article, titled "Canal Crooning." From the article:

Having an open-air concert and gathering such a large audience—with no distinction of social class—to listen to shaabi (popular—a term not always used in a positive sense) music was a special event in itself.

THE IMA

Check out the great information at the Arab World Institute in Paris. I'll be linking to this in the sidebar.