Friday 4th April
-
Ahdaf Soueif in conversation with Peter Florence
Ahdaf Soueif
(8) 12:00-13:00, Carmen de los Mártires Palace and Gardens, 5€
Ahdaf Soueif is the bestselling author of The Map of Love, short-listed for the Booker Prize for Fiction in 1999 and translated into 18 languages. She has written about political and cultural issues for The Observer, The London Review of Books, The Washington Post and Granta, amongst other publications. Her most recent book is I Think of You (stories from ‘Aisha’ and ‘Sandpiper’) and was published in 2007.
Simultaneous translation into Spanish.
Sponsored by Casa Árabe and the British Council
-
Voices from the Empty Corner
Raja Alem in conversation with Jonathan Levi
(9) 13:30-14:30, Palacio de Carlos V (sala de conferencias), 5€
With seven novels to her credit, including the acclaimed Fatma, several plays and collections of poetry, Raja Alem is one of the few Saudi Arabian writers whose work has been published outside of her country. She talks here to Jonathan Levi, a great connoisseur of Saudi Arabia and author of A Guide for the Perplexed, which is partially set in Granada.
Simultaneous translation into Spanish.
Sponsored by Casa Árabe.
-
Spain and the Middle East: A Special Relationship or a Myth?
Fred Halliday and Marian Hens
(10) 13:30-14:30, Carmen de los Mártires Palace and Gardens, 5€
Fred Halliday, an expert on the Middle East and Professor of International Relations at the London School of Economics, appears regularly on the BBC, ABC, Al-Jazeera Television and CBC. He has authored The Middle East in International Relations: Power, Politics and Ideology and 100 Myths about the Middle East. Here he talks to the BBC journalist Marian Hens about the relationship between Spain and the Middle East.
With the support of the London School of Economics and Political Science.
-
Boris Spassky in conversation with Peter Florence
Boris Spassky
(11) 17:00-18:00, Palacio de Carlos V (patio circular), 5€
Russian chess player Boris Spassky became world champion in 1969 and was dethroned by the American Bobby Fischer in 1972 at the height of the Cold War, in a match that was dubbed the ‘Match of the Century’. Thousands of enthusiasts arrived in Reykjavik to see it and hundreds of journalists proved their worth when it came to covering the daily information from the games. Never has chess created so much excitement as it did that day. Here he speaks about his experience.
Simultaneous translation into Spanish.
-
Covering the Middle East in the Press
Jon Lee Anderson, Sami Moubayed and Miguel Ángel Aguilar
(12) 17:00-18:00, Carmen de los Mártires Palace and Gardens, 5€
Jon Lee Anderson, journalist forThe New Yorker has covered over ten wars around the world. Amongst his books are The Lion’s Grave: Dispatches from Afghanistan and The Fall of Baghdad, based on the letters he wrote from the besieged Iraqi capital for readers of The New Yorker. He is joined by Syrian author and journalist Sami Mouyaben whose articles on the Middle East have appeared in a variety of newspapers, including Al-Ahram Weekly, Gulf News, The Daily Star and Asia Times. He is the author of several books on modern Syria. They will talk to the journalist Miguel Ángel Aguilar, Secretary General of the Association of European Journalists and one of its founders, about the relationship of the European media with regards to events taking place in the Middle East.
Simultaneous translation into Spanish.
-
Almudena Grandes in conversation with Paul Preston
Almudena Grandes
(13) 19:00-20:00, Palacio de Carlos V (patio circular), 5€
Writer Almudena Grandes, author of Las edades de Lulú (The Ages of Lulu), and Los aires difíciles (The Wind from the East) dicusses her latest novel El corazón helado. She will speak to historian Paul Preston, a British Hispanist whose research has focused on recent Spanish history.
-
Last sighs
Elias Khoury in conversation with Jonathan Levi
(14) 19:00-20:00, Carmen de los Mártires Palace and Gardens, 5€
Elias Khoury has won numerous awards in Lebanon and internationally for his novels and essays, including the Ouiri award in 2008, making him one of the most highly-regarded authors in the Middle East. A professor of Islamic Studies at the University of New York, Khoury offers a prismatic view of Lebanon, Palestine and the role of the writer in the world. He will talk to the writer and critic Jonathan Levi.
Simultaneous translation into Spanish.
Sponsored by Casa Árabe.
-
The World of Signs: the Ugly and the False
Umberto Eco in conversation with Jorge Lozano
(15) 20:30-21:30, Auditorio Manuel de Falla 5€
Umberto Eco is an eminent Italian semiologist, novelist, winner of the ‘Premio Príncipe de Asturias’ (‘Prince of Asturias Award’) and the recipient of the Degree of Doctor Honoris Causa by the Complutense University. First published in 1956, he has gone on to produce a prolific number of works, his latest two, Del árbol al laberinto: estudios históricos sobre el signo and Storia della bruttezza, are already translated into English as On Ugliness. Since the time of the Greeks, a sign is something that stands for something else and Eco describes Semiotics as ‘the discipline studying everything which can be used in order to lie’. Here he discusses the ugly and the false, amongst many other signs, with his colleague Jorge Lozano.
Simultaneous translation into Spanish.
-
Spain and the Islamic World: The Vision of Travel Writers Today
Tahir Shah, Chris Stewart and Michael Jacobs with Juan Antonio Díaz
(16) 20:30-21:30, Carmen de los Mártires Palace and Gardens, 5€
Three highly acclaimed authors discuss their individual approaches towards travel writing and foreign attitudes today towards Spain and the Islamic World. Tahir Shah, in his latest book, In Arabian Nights, explains how stories are used in Morocco to pass down ideas, values and traditions. Chris Stewart, former Genesis drummer and author of the international bestsellers Driving Over Lemons and The Almond Blossom Appreciation Society, touches on illegal immigration. Michael Jacobs author of Alhambra, In the Glow of the Phantom Palace and Ghost Train through the Andes. In conversation with the academic and expert on British travel writing on Spain, Juan Antonio Díaz.
Simultaneous translation into Spanish.