The Iraqi diaspora in Europe can count a significant number of intellectuals and artists amongst its ranks. Through their literary, artistic and other works, they bear witness to the constant process of negotiating their identity, imposed by the fact that they belong in several places all at once. During this evening, along with journalist and writer Joan Cañete, we will be holding a conversation with two essential voices in contemporary Arab literature, both of whom have had works published in Spanish in 2016. 

El loco de la plaza Libertad (The Madman of Freedom Square) is the first volume of short stories by Hassan Blasim, a writer and filmmaker who has resided in Finland since 2004. Mixing the phantasmagorical with the starkly real, in a style that has been compared with Roberto Bolaño’s because of his penchant for macabre comedy, Blasim immerses readers in the individual destinies of the people who lived through the institutionalized paranoia of Saddam Hussein’s regime, the Iraq war and the later American occupation, of those who had to emigrate and endure human trafficking and the nightmare of trying to build a new life in Europe. 

As for Abdulhadi Sadoun, a writer, Hispanist and editor who has lived in Madrid since 1993, he is presenting his latest book, Memorias de un perro iraquí (Memoirs of an Iraqi Dog), a fable that delves into the deepest reaches of the human soul and its most basic instincts, with the cruel reality of war and dictatorship as a backdrop, seen from the perspective of a greyhound, portrayed as a humanized animal (or just the opposite).   

Hassan Blasim (Baghdad, 1973) studied at the Academy of Film Arts, where he earned awards for two of his most highly acknowledged films: Gardenia and White Clay. During the filming of his controversial movie The Wounded Camera, he was forced to flee as a refugee for years until reaching Finland in 2004, where he now resides. His works have been translated into more than 20 languages, and he is considered one of the finest present-day Arab writers. The Madman of Freedom Square (2009) was his first book of stories, and the only one to have been translated into Spanish up to now. His second collection of stories, The Iraqi Christ (2013) earned him the “Independent Foreign Fiction Prize.” The Corpse Exhibition (2014) is his latest work. 

Abdul Hadi Sadoun (Baghdad, 1968). For ten years, Sadoun co-directed the Arabic language literary journal “Alwah.” He directs the “Alfalfa” collection, which specializes in modern Arabic letters. He is the author of a long list of books which include: No es más que viento (It Is Nothing But Wind, 2000), Plagios familiares (Family Plagiarism, 2002), Escribir en cuneiforme (Writing in Cuneiform, 2006), Pájaro en la boca (Bird in the Mouth, 2008), Siempre todavía (Always Forever, 2010), Memorias de un perro iraquí (Memoirs of an Iraqi Dog, 2012) and Tustala (2014). He has published three anthologies of modern Iraqi poetry in the Spanish language: La Maldición de Gilgamesh (The Curse of Gilgamesh, 2003), A las orillas del Tigris (On the Shores of the Tigris, 2005) and Otros mesopotámicos raros (Other Strange Mesopotamians, 2009). His poetry, as well as his fiction, has been translated into German, French, English, Italian, Farsi, Turkish, Spanish, Catalan and Galician.

Joan Cañete Bayle is a journalist and writer. Cañete was a correspondent in the Middle East, based in Jerusalem, from 2002 through 2007, a time period in which he covered the Second Intifada, the war in Iraq and current events in the region’s countries (Lebanon, Jordan, Egypt, Syria, Israel, the occupied Palestinian territories, Iraq, etc.). From 2007 to 2009, he was a correspondent in Washington, DC. He is currently the Editor-in-Chief of El Periódico de Catalunya and the Opinion section coordinator. As a writer, he has had two novels published, which were co-authored with Eugenio García Gascón: Doce Olas (Twelve Waves, published by Nausicaa, 2007), set in Israel, and Expediente Bagdad (Baghdad File, Siruela, 2014), set during the fall of Baghdad to the United States’ troops in 2003.

Casa Árabe is cooperating with the Second Forum of Culture (in Burgos from November 4-6) with the participation of writer Hassan Blasim in a round-table debate on “Identities, at the Border,” along with Jaume Plensa, Caddy Adzuba and Raúl Briongos.  It is being held on November 4 at 7:30 p.m.

The Second Forum of Culture in Burgos is bringing together thinkers, artists and professionals from different disciplines to analyze the challenges created by democratic co-existence in today’s societies, based on shared interests, examining the relationship between identities and citizenship from a pluralistic, inclusive perspective. Further information at: http://forodelacultura.es/

You can find both books in the Balqís bookshop: