This is Beirut, 19/04 13:00 - Reading : 1 minute(s)
The Italian government announced Friday its decision to grant honorary citizenship to American author Frances Mayes, known globally for her best-selling memoir Under the Tuscan Sun. Officials cited “exceptional merit” as the reason behind the move. In an official statement, authorities confirmed that the Italian Council of Ministers had ...
This is Beirut, 16/04 14:00 - Reading : 3 minute(s)
Movie Literature US France Thriller Culture
Why are American author Freida McFadden’s psychological thrillers selling so well in France? French literary critics are trying to understand the craze but remain doubtful about the true merit of her work. The Housemaid was the best-selling book in France in 2024, with over 600,000 copies sold. By the end of February 2025, it had crossed the ...
This is Beirut, 16/04 09:00 - Reading : 2 minute(s)
Peru Literature Llosa Mexico Marquez Culture
When journalist and novelist Elena Poniatowska headed to a film premiere in Mexico City, she had no idea she was about to witness the literary feud of the century as two future Nobel laureates came to blows. It was February 12, 1976, and Poniatowska wound up seated next to Colombian author Gabriel Garcia Marquez and his wife Mercedes to watch the ...
Madeleine Cadoux, 14/04 13:00 - Reading : 5 minute(s)
Nobel Prize Mario Vargas Llosa literature France Peru
Born in 1936 in Arequipa, Peru, Vargas Llosa left his homeland in the 1950s, believing that true literary ambition could only flourish elsewhere. He arrived in Paris in 1959 at the age of 23 with his first wife, Julia Urquidi, who would later inspire Aunt Julia and the Scriptwriter. He found a city pulsing with intellectual energy—where Sartre ...
Bélinda Ibrahim, 05/04 18:00 - Reading : 5 minute(s)
Writers Neuroses Literature Culture
Literature loves outsiders. But what it cherishes most are organized outsiders—those who turn their strangeness into a narrative engine, their questionable lifestyles into bursts of staggering productivity. This second part focuses on writers who today might be considered, depending on one’s perspective, either misunderstood geniuses or ...
Bélinda Ibrahim, 04/04 18:30 - Reading : 4 minute(s)
Literature Writers Culture Neuroses
The act of writing is peculiar in that it lies at the crossroads of inspiration and method – between the sudden emergence of words and the mechanics of movement. For some authors, routine becomes a sacred ritual, a meticulously orchestrated sequence of gestures meant to ward off the terror of the blank page. Others find in it a form of ...
This is Beirut, 04/04 17:45 - Reading : 1 minute(s)
Literature Edition Freedom Algeria France Boualem Sansal culture
This speech, given for “the German Publishers and Booksellers Peace Prize” and published in Gallimard’s Tracts collection, was originally delivered in Frankfurt, Germany, in October 2011. "The absence of freedom is a pain that drives one mad over time. It reduces a man to his shadow and his dreams to nightmares," Boualem Sansal declares in ...
This is Beirut, 04/04 13:00 - Reading : 2 minute(s)
Britain Literature Crime Shakespeare Exhibition Culture
The Shakespeare First Folio edition stolen from Durham University's Cosin's Library in 1998 is one of only 235 known to survive, and is valued at more than £1 million ($1.3 million). The First Folio, published in 1623, was the first collection of Shakespeare's plays and each version is unique. It is considered to be one of the most important ...
Élie-Joe Kamel, 28/01 16:40 - Reading : less than a minute
Damascus Assad Literature Syrian opposition
Booksellers in Damascus can finally breathe after decades of intellectual terrorism under the Assad regime. Books on Syrian prisons, works by Salafists and banned political essays are now freely available for sale. With AFP
This is Beirut, 04/01 14:00 - Reading : 3 minute(s)
London UK Culture Literature Writer
David Lodge, the celebrated British novelist who earned two Booker Prize nominations, passed away on New Year's Day at the age of 89, his publisher announced on Friday. Known for his sharp wit and insightful commentary, Lodge's works such as Small World (1984) and Nice Work (1988) were both nominated for the prestigious literary award during the ...
This is Beirut, 02/01 14:00 - Reading : 2 minute(s)
Culture Art Cinema Music Literature
Every January 1, thousands of books, films, songs, musical pieces, artworks, and comic characters—95 years old—lose their copyright protection in the U.S. This means they can now be freely copied, shared, reproduced, or adapted, without paying a cent in royalties. The Center for the Study of the Public Domain at Duke University’s law school ...
This is Beirut, 2024-12-28 10:30 - Reading : 2 minute(s)
Culture Author Literature Writing Pakistan
Bapsi Sidhwa, the celebrated Pakistani author whose poignant exploration of the Partition of India captivated readers worldwide, has passed away at the age of 86 in Houston, Texas. She died on December 25, confirmed her daughter, Mohur Sidhwa, to AFP. Born on August 11, 1938, in Karachi to a Parsi family, Sidhwa spent much of her youth in Lahore, ...