Empire of the sun A huge number of tourists flocked to the historic city of Luxor to escape the greyness of winter. Al-Ahram Weekly's photographer Khaled Al-Fiqi captured some of their moments at their perfect getaway: temples, Nile cruises and sunny goodness. ♣ The results of the 2013 Saif Ghobash Banipal Arabic Literary Translation prize has been announced. The announcement includes details of the Award Ceremony on 12 February and two special events on 13 February to celebrate the winners. Announcing the joint winners of the 2013 Saif Ghobash Banipal Prize for Arabic Literary Translation Jonathan Wright and–William Hutchins. For the first time the judges have selected two outright winning translators, instead of the usual winner and runner-up. Two enticing and finely translated novels, each in their very different way, captured the judges' attention and passion, leading to the decision to share the prize this year. The prize is shared between: Jonathan Wright for his translation of Azazeel by Youssef Zeidan, published by Atlantic Books and William Maynard Hutchins for his translation of A Land Without Jasmine by Wajdi Al-Ahdal, published by Garnet Publishing. The judging panel comprised renowned translator, twice winner and twice runner-up of the prize Humphrey Davies, playwright Hassan Abdel Razzak and authors Rajeev Balasubramanyam and Meike Ziervogel. They met in December 2013 to select the winning titles from the 21 entries under the chairmanship of prize administrator Paula Johnson of the Society of Authors. The Award Ceremony of Translation Prizes from Arabic, Dutch, French, German, Hebrew and Spanish is due to take place on Wednesday 12 February in London. It will be introduced by Paula Johnson, Prize Administrator Society of Authors, prizes awarded by Sir Peter Stothard, editor of the TLS as well as readings from the winning translations followed by poet and translator Dr Ian Patterson and author Adam Mars-Jones in conversation on aspects of literary translation. On Thursday 13 February, a roundtable on Literary Translation Arabic to English will be held to be introduced by the prize winners and moderated by Professor Yasir Suleiman. On the same day, An evening with prize winning translators Wright and M Hutchins and their novels Azazeel and A Land Without Jasmine entitled “Arabic Literature in English” is due to take place and will be introduced by Paul Starkey with readings from the novels. Followed by a reception and copies of Azazeel and A Land Without Jasmine will be on sale. This is a free event, but do reserve your place by emailing [email protected] The Saif Ghobash Banipal Prize for Arabic Literary Translation is an annual prize of £3,000, awarded to the translators of a published translation in English of a full-length imaginative and creative Arabic work of literary merit first published in English translation in the year prior to the award. From the inaugural prize in 2006 until 2013 the cut-off date for the original Arabic editions was 35 years prior to entry to the prize. From the 2014 prize, starting this year, the cut-off date of the original Arabic has been increased to during or after 1967, a year widely recognised as a “watershed” year for Arabic literature. Entries are judged by a panel of four distinguished authors, critics and literary experts, two of whom read and consider both the Arabic original and the English translation. The prize is administered by the Society of Authors in the UK, as are other prizes for literary translation into English from European languages. The prize, the first worldwide for a published work of English literary translation from Arabic, was established in 2005 by Banipal, the magazine of modern Arab literature in English translation, and the Banipal Trust for Arab Literature. It is wholly sponsored by Omar Saif Ghobash and his family in memory of his father, the late Saif Ghobash, a man passionate about Arabic literature and other literatures of the world. ♠ The Second Independent Arts Festival opened at Al-Hanager Art Centre on the Cairo Opera House grounds with an exhibition curated by artist Mohamed Abla that displays the work of seven artists; Hind Samir, Wessam Koreish, Aya Al-Fallah, Sara Hamdi, Mai Al-Shami, Souad Abdel-Rasoul and Nora Seif. The opening ceremony was presented by actress Salwa Mohamed Ali and featured a short film summarising the activities of the first edition of the festival. This year the festival honoured a number of film pioneers like producer Mohamed Hefzi, singer-cum-actress Hani Adel and art critic Abla Al-Roweini, theatre directors Hussein Gomaa and Abeer Ali, artist Nabil Al-Sounbati, poet Zein Al-Abideen Fouad, actress Khaled Abul Naga and the Al-Fann Midan project. Filmmaker Manal Al-Seifi received the honorary shield of her mother, the late actress Zahret Al-Ola. The made actress Youssra honorary president. ♣ Minister of Culture Saber Arab jointly with his Kurdish counterpart Kawah Mahmoud inaugurated the exhibition Witness to Egypt by Ahmed Heneitar at the Amir Taz Palace. Present were the director of the Cultural Development Fund Mohamed Abu Seada and a number of renowned artists. Heneitar's exhibition includes 100 of his latest pencil drawings illustrating the 25 January and 30 June revolutions. The exhibition runs through 13 February. (see Listings p.22) ♥ Al-Hanager Art Centre on the Cairo Opera grounds saw the inauguration of the seventh Arabic Animation Forum (13-19 February). The event was organised by the Cultural Development Fund (CDF), headed by Mohamed Abu Seada, in cooperation with the Egyptian Animation Society (EAS). The forum chose Saudi Arabia as the guest of honour of this year's edition with the participation of 64 works in the four sections of the competition: the first production prize, the short animation film prize, the long film prize, the serial prize and the experimental creativity prize. This year the forum honours artists Salah Abdallah, Hassan Abdel-Ghani, Ahmed Hanafi, Abdel-Maaboud Nabil and Tarek Rashad. The work of those participating in the forum will be on display at the Talaat Harb Cultural Centre, the Amir Taz Palace and the Child Creativity Centre. ♥ Congratulations! Ahmed Magdy Al-Soukkary successfully graduated from the Netherlands Institute of International Relations “Clingendael Academy” in the world's legal capital, The Hague, in “Diplomacy and International Relations”. Al-Soukkary is an Egyptian university lecturer in International Negotiation Studies and Mediation Process with a D.Phil in International Relations (IR) from FEPS, Cairo University. He is also a postdoctoral research scholar in European Studies, writing for Al-Ahram Weekly on matters related to Turkey and Middle East politics. On this occasion, Al-Ahram Weekly is pleased to congratulate him for this remarkable academic achievement.
