Casa Árabe is celebrating International Women’s Day along with an Arabic literature collection promoted by the Verbum publishing firm, giving a voice to a little-known author in our country who does, however, have a long-standing literary career as a narrator and poet. “Aicha Bassry plunges us into a tale which, though mysterious, never loses its connection with real experience, with features that evoke the subliminal notions of magical realism, lying somewhere between the superstitious and dreamlike, bordering on the Latin American novel (it is no coincidence that Isabel Allende is one of her favorite authors), all bitterly tinged with a notably poetic character. Aicha Bassry gets her message across with the intensity of a fertile, daring and blunt narrator, with painstaking care of the way she expresses herself, but without renouncing her steadfast commitment, as required by the art of writing, turning mere everyday events into an ecumenical experience and, above all, an experience in solidarity” (excerpt from the novel’s introduction by the Verbum publishing firm).

Aicha Bassry is a Moroccan writer who has authored many novels and poetry anthologies. Amongst the many titles of her work that have been published, we could highlight Evenings (Casablanca, 2001), Angels’ Insomnia (Rabat 2003), A Balcony in the Dark (Casablanca, 2004), A Fragile Night  (Lebanon, 2007), The Fireplace Dialogue (France, 2009), My Friend, Autumn (Morocco, 2009), The Bird’s Seclusion (Damascus, 2010),  Silk Nights (Egypt, 2013), Swimmers in Thirst (Morocco, 2015). Her poetry has been translated into several languages, with three books published in the Spanish language, in Spain, Costa Rica and Chile, respectively: La soledad de la arena (The Solitude of Sand, published by Alfar Ixbilia. 2006), Despliego mis alas (I Unfurl My Wings, published by Universidad de San José, 2009) and Cicatriz de la luz (Scar of Light, published by Mohamed VI Center for Dialogue of Civilizations, 2010).  She is a member of the Poetry House and Morocco’s Union of Writers, as well as a regular contributor to literary forums and journals in Morocco, Egypt, Jordan, etc. 

 

Paula Izquierdo, born in Madrid in 1962, has a career as a psychologist and has been devoted to writing for the last ten years. After her latest essay, Picasso y las mujeres (Picasso and Women, Belacqua), her book Sexoadictas o amantes (Sex Addicts or Lovers) is now out. She has had such novels published as La falta (Alianza), and was a finalist for the sixth Fernando Quiñones Award with El hueco de tu cuerpo (Anagrama) and La vida sin secreto (Plaza & Janés); she has a book of stories titled Anónimas (Seix Barral) and translated Bubu de Montparnasse, by Charles-Louis Philippe (Trama Editorial). In addition to her work as a narrator, essayist and translator, she regularly contributes to ABCD, the cultural magazine published with the newspaper ABC, as well as various other written media. She is a full professor at the Escuela Contemporánea de Humanidades. She belongs to the Executive Board of the ACE and has coordinated, anthologized and taken part in the book of short stories titled Cada vez lo imposible (Alianza). She currently contributes to and belongs to the Editorial Board of the journal Texturas.

Abdul Hadi Sadoun. Writer, Hispanist and publisher. He has resided in Madrid since 1993. For ten years, he co-directed the literary journal in the Arabic language 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 Noting 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 (Memories of an Iraqi Dog, 2012) and Tustala (2014). He has had three anthologies of modern Iraqi poetry published 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.