Casa Árabe at the Hay Festival in Segovia

Casa Árabe collaborates again with the Hay Festival in Segovia enabling two of the currently most famous Arab writers, Khaled Khalifa and Habib Selmi to take part in the event.

Khaled Khalifa is the author of “In Praise of Hatred”, an interesting novel which tells the story of a female teenager weaving together with Syrian historical events which took place during the 80’s. The Tunisian writer Habib Selmi is the one who imagined “The Scents of Marie-Claire”, a novel with autobiographical elements which analyses the relationship between a Tunisian man and a French woman.

Both writers have been short-listed for the International Prize for Arabic Fiction (IPAF), the most prestigious literary prize in Arabic, and will discuss with Karim Hauser, from Casa Árabe, on Friday September 28, at 16.00 in the San Juan de los Caballeros church.

About the authors

Khaled Khalifa was born in 1964 in a village close to Aleppo (Syria). After graduating in Law, he created the literary magazine Aleph, but the censorship of his country banned it just a few months later. Currently, he lives in Damascus and works as a cinema and television scriptwriter. Up to date, he has published three novels and is one of the most famous writers in his country. “In Praise of Hatred”, his most recent and controversial piece, has faced Syrian censorship. Although as it has been translated to several languages, it can be found in other countries.

Habib Selmi was born in 1951 in al-Ala, a village close to the historical city of Kairouan (Tunisia). Up to date he has published eight novels and two short story tales collections. “The Scents of Marie-Claire” was short-listed for the International Prize for Arabic Fiction (IPAF) in 2009. His Works has partially been translated into English, French and German, and has been published in the Banipal magazine. Since 1985, Selmi lives in Paris, where he is professor of Arab Literature.