The event will include attendance by the author himself, an Arabist and professor emeritus at the Universidad Autónoma de Madrid, as well as Teresa Aranguren, a journalist and member of RTVE’s Board of Directors. Sent in as a contribution to the event will be a text by Luis García Montero, a Spanish poet, literary critic, essayist and professor of Spanish literature at the University of Granada. It will be presented by Pedro Villena, General Director of Casa Árabe.

At the Foreword’s Borders: Seeing Arab writings through others’ eyes brings together a part of the work by Pedro Martínez Montávez that could be defined as lying “at the borders,” because it consists of a collection of forewords for books written by other authors. Martínez Montávez has ordered them in such a way that they create an original sequence, starting with the first foreword written in 1972 to the most recent in 2015. The first part, “Atalayando” (“From the watchtowers”), deals with the Arabic language, Islam and the Arabs’ philosophical legacy. “Por los arriates de la literatura” (“Through the flowerbeds of literature”) is the title of the main body, while “Desde las alcalás de la historia” (“From the castles of history”) completes the volume. In all, there are 49 texts, many of which were taken from publications that are quite difficult to find at present. The book includes a foreword by Rosa-Isabel Martínez Lillo, and it was published with the cooperation of the Municipal Government of Alcalá la Real, the Enrique Toral Cultural Association and Pilar Soler.

Presentation information sheet