May 16, 2008
Hope in Morocco
The Moroccan Cultural Studies Center in Fes has published an English-language edition of Hope. My book has been used in college courses in Morocco for a while, but this edition (priced for 50 Dirhams) will make it easier for college students to get their hands on it. (Previously, they had to order it on Amazon or--gasp!--photocopy it.) The cover art is by Mohamed Mrabet. I'm thrilled!
Something Old, Something New
Some people will probably not believe me when I say I'm a big procrastinator ("How do you get so much done?" is usually the retort. Mine is: "You should've seen what I had planned!") It's taken me four and a half years to finish my new novel. I'm now slowly trudging along with edits, and I've devised a new system for positive reinforcement. After every two pages of my work, I allow myself two pages from something old (Life and Times of Michael K., at the moment). At night, if I've finished a chapter, I read something new (the new Rushdie, The Enchantress of Florence.) More soon.
May 06, 2008
Thomas McCarthy's The Visitor
I recently wrote a piece about Tom McCarthy's The Visitor for The Nation's online section on books and the arts. Here's how it opens:
On first glance, Tom McCarthy's new film, The Visitor, seems to set itself up as one of those dreadful movies in which a white, male protagonist witnesses some predicament of people of color and then, innocently and chivalrously, proceeds to save them. Think Blood Diamond or Rendition or The Last King of Scotland. Some people cry during these movies; I usually yawn and check my watch. But The Visitor quickly turns the formula on its head. For one thing, the main conflict that propels the story is caused by all the characters, and, for another, whatever realizations are made at the end of the film do not neatly separate the characters as savior and saved.The entire piece is freely available here: "Looking Past Clichés."
(Photo credit: Overture Films)
April 24, 2008
L.A. Times Festival of Books
The Los Angeles Times Festival of Books takes place this weekend on the UCLA campus. On the schedule are panel discussions, readings, and even writing seminars. I will be hosting a panel on Saturday:
April 26, 2008Come on by and say hello.
2:30 PM
Fiction: Not So Ordinary People
Tony Earley, Dinaw Mengestu, Stewart O'Nan, Ann Packer and moderated by Laila Lalami
Los Angeles Times Festival of Books
Korn Convocation Hall
UCLA Campus
Los Angeles, California
April 21, 2008
No One's Puppet
On Saturday I had an op-ed in The Boston Globe about the politics of fear in the current presidential election. Here's how it opens:
A FEW weeks ago, I received an e-mail with the subject line: "Excited about Barack Obama? Read this."You can read the rest of the piece here.The e-mail contained a copy of a Jan. 22 Senate memo, signed by the presidential candidate, in which he asked the American ambassador to the United Nations to "ensure that the Security Council issue no statement and pass no resolution" about the situation in Gaza unless it included a full condemnation of Hamas.
At the time the memo was sent, Gaza had been closed by Israeli forces for several days, its only power plant had ceased operating, and its 1.5 million Palestinian inhabitants had little or no access to food. The e-mail was sent to hundreds of Arab- and Muslim-Americans, and it ended with a bold, highlighted line: "Think again before you cast your vote for another AIPAC puppet," referring to the pro-Israel lobby, the American Israeli Public Affairs Committee.
April 16, 2008
L.A.T. Festival of Books
I will be moderating a panel at the Los Angeles Times Festival of Books, which takes place on the UCLA campus in about a couple of weeks, so I have been busy reading the novels of Tony Earley, Dinaw Mengestu, Stewart O'Nan, and Ann Packer. Tickets will be available starting this Sunday, April 20, and they are free. (Wait--it says there's a nominal fee of $.75. Must be because Ticketmaster is handling the ticketing.) Here are the details:
April 26, 2008Anyway, come to the panel. It will be fun. Do check out the event listing on the website. Several of my colleagues and friends will be moderating or participating in readings or panels, and I hope to make it to as many of them as I can.
2:30 PM
Fiction: Not So Ordinary People
Tony Earley, Dinaw Mengestu, Stewart O'Nan, Ann Packer and moderated by Laila Lalami
Los Angeles Times Festival of Books
Korn Convocation Hall
UCLA Campus
Los Angeles, California
April 11, 2008
New Anthology
One of the short stories from my collection has been anthologized in Stranger Among Us: Stories of Cross Cultural Collision and Connection, edited by Aimee Liu and Stacey Bierlien. Other contributors include Nathan Englander, Ana Menendez, Josip Novakovich, Wanda Coleman, Tony d'Souza, Samrat Upadhyay, Mary Yukari Waters, Luis Alfaro, Amanda Eyre Ward, and many others. My copy just arrived in the mail earlier this week and I was pleased to see what a hefty, exciting book it turned out to be. There should be a reading/signing at BookExpo in May. I'll post details once I have them.
April 10, 2008
Mutanabbi Street Reading
For those who are curious: A podcast from the Mutanabbi Street reading organized last November by the Los Angeles Public Library has been made available. (I read a poem by Mutanabbi himself, and another by Mahmoud Darwish, in Arabic and then in English translation.)
April 03, 2008
Daily Oddities
I woke up this morning with Jacques Brel's "Ne Me Quitte Pas" stuck in my head, and an inexplicable desire to move to London. I wonder what short circuit led to that particular combination.
April 01, 2008
Me@Google
I was recently invited to give a talk for the Authors@Google series, and the video from this event is now available on the @Google site and on YouTube. Enjoy:
Hope in the Netherlands
I just heard that the Dutch publishing house Maarten Muntinga will be releasing a mass market edition of Hope, (or Hoop en andere gevaarlijke verlangens, I should say) this month in Amsterdam. They also did a new cover, entirely different from the hardcover one of last year.
March 31, 2008
Back in Action
On the flight back from New York, I was seated next to an eccentric older woman who seemed to think everyone's job was to keep her entertained, informed, or/and comfortable. She asked a guy across the aisle to help her put her suitcase in the overhead bin, and then five minutes later asked him to pull it back down so she could search through it for reading materials. After she finally took her seat, she looked over at the novel I was reading.
She: "So you like Joseph Conrad?"
Me: "Yes, I do."
She: "I have a first edition of one of his books."
Me: "Oh?"
She: "I can't remember the title, though. It's the one about the boat captain."
Me: "Several of his books have boat captains. Is it Heart of Darkness?"
She: No.
Me: Lord Jim?
She: That one. But, you know, I don't care for his writing.
Me: Oh no?
She: I bought the book because he's so famous and a first edition of his is very valuable, which is what I'm interested in.
Me: ...
I must have had a horrified look on my face, because she immediately asked, "Wait, are you someone who's into books? Are you a writer?" I nodded, and then took out my reading glasses to signify that I wanted to read now, and to please leave me alone, but she wouldn't shut up. I got to hear about her earlier flight, the troubles she had with security people, etc. She complained that the coffee was lukewarm ("It's a plane," the attendant quipped), got drunk on red wine, snored when she slept, and woke me up when I finally managed to doze off so she could go use the bathroom. Every time I travel on an airplane, I become more of a misanthrope.
March 25, 2008
In Rochester, New York
It is about 74 degrees in Los Angeles today and very sunny. Tomorrow, though, I'll be heading out to Rochester, New York, where, according to the weather forecast, it will be snowy and 40 degrees. (That's 3 degrees Celsius? Or 4? I don't know. But bone-chilling cold either way.) The good people at Writers and Books have selected Hope for the 2008 If All of Rochester Read the Same Book. I'll be doing a series of readings and talks in various venues around the city. So if you're in the area, do come to one of the events and say hello. I'll be the one with the blue lips and red nose.
March 18, 2008
Off Days
The term at UCR is over, and now I have two weeks (two whole weeks!) before the new one starts. And of course even that little time is over-committed with dentist visits, talks, and other stuff. I want to lock myself up in a closet with my book.
March 12, 2008
PEN: Making Histories
Last April, along with Arthur Japin, Imma Monsó, and Michael Wallner, I took part in a panel on "History and the Truth of Fiction" at the PEN World Voices Festival in New York. (The discussion was moderated by the amazing Colum McCann.)
I'm told now that PEN America has collected some of the comments from that discussion (you can read it here: "Inventing the Past" ) as well as fiction, essays and other writings on history and truth in fiction in a new issue of their journal: Making Histories. The journal includes contributions by Chris Abani, Abdulrazak Gurnah, Amitava Kumar, Etgar Keret, Grace Paley, and many others. Check it out.
March 10, 2008
This is Progress
I am over the flu. But I went to the dentist today and now I can't feel the left side of my face. Still, I got a chuckle out of seeing that Le Matin (pro-government paper, largest in Morocco) reviewed my book. And they changed my first name to Lamia. (Second paragraph.)
March 06, 2008
Aches in Fiction
In response to my post on Tuesday about various ailments missing in fiction, a reader sent me a note reminding me about the horrible toothache in Russell Banks's Affliction. The story, you'll remember, revolves around a middle-aged man's steady descent into murderous paranoia; the toothache he suffers from makes things worse. I leafed through my copy of the book to find this memorable passage, where Wade extracts the painful tooth with a pair of pliers:
He uncapped the bottle of whiskey and opened his mouth--it hurt just to open it--and took a bite of whiskey the size of a tea bag and sloshed it around inside his mouth and swallowed: but he felt and tasted nothing, no grainy burn in his mouth or chest; nothing except the cold steel ripsaw of pain emanating from his jaw. He opened his mouth wider and touched the beak of the long-handled pliers to his front teeth, pulled his lip away with his fingers, forcing a cadaverous grin onto his mouth, and moved the pliers toward the dark star of pain back there. The jaws of the pliers angled away from the handles, like the head of a long-necked bird, and he managed for a second to lock them onto one of his molars, then released it and clamped them onto the adjacent tooth. He withdrew the pliers and set them back down on the bench. The pain roared in his ears, like a train in a tunnel, and he felt tears on his cheeks. (...) He set the bottle down on the toilet tank and looked into the mirror and saw a disheveled gray-faced stranger with tears streaming down his cheeks look back at him. He opened the stranger's mouth and with his left hand yanked back the lips on the right side, then took the pliers and reached in. He turned the face slightly to the side, so that he could see into it, pried the mouth open still further, and locked the pliers onto the largest molar in the back, squeezed and pulled. He heard the tooth grind against the cold steel of the pliers, as if the tooth were grabbing onto the bone, and he dug further into the gum with the mouth of the pliers and squeezed tightly again and pulled harder, steadily. It shifted in its bed, and he moved his left hand into place behind his right, and with both hands, one keeping the pressure on the tooth, the other lifting and guiding the pliers straight up against the jaw, he pulled, and the tooth came out, wet, bloody, rotted, clattering in the sink. He put the pliers down and reached for the whiskey.Of course, the toothache here serves a metaphorical purpose, and there really is no symbolic meaning for mine (that I know of.)
And now I must go back to bed, to take care of my own affliction, the flu.
March 05, 2008
Hope in Rochester
There's a profile of me in the Rochester Democrat and Chronicle. I'll be giving a series of readings in Rochester, New York, for their "One City, One Book" program, since Hope is the book in question. There's also a review in the new magazine Elan.
March 04, 2008
Hazards Of Being Me
Three weeks ago, I contracted a terrible cold that left me practically deaf in one ear. The doctor put me on a decongestant, but it had the side effect of making me feel like I was on speed. By the time I was halfway through my afternoon lecture, I was ready to climb on top of the class table just to make a point about, I don't know, characterization. Last week, I cracked two fillings and had to visit the dentist and be lectured about wearing my night-guard every night. I have another appointment today because I broke a temporary crown on a plantain chip. And this weekend, I came down with that terrible flu that's been making the rounds. I wish I could live in a novel. Have you noticed how book people never get the flu and rarely ever have to go to the dentist?
February 13, 2008
Reading: Rancho Mirage
I will be giving a reading with my colleague Reza Aslan (No god but God) tomorrow in Rancho Mirage. Here are the details:
February 14, 2008If you live in the desert, come on by and say hello.
Reza Aslan and Laila Lalami
1:30 - 3:30 PM
Reading & Discussion
Writing from the Desert Series
Rancho Mirage Public Library
Rancho Mirage, California
January 22, 2008
In Memoriam
Last week, while I was in the middle of rewriting a scene in which one of my characters falls to his death, my husband walked into my office, phone in hand, and said that he had just learned that one of his cousins fell from a ladder onto the marble floor of his bathroom and died. Life changes in the instant. How do you cope with something like that? How do you recover from it? Even though we went to a memorial for Alex's cousin, even though we grieved for him, I still have not been able to accept his death as I did his life--which is to say, without question.
January 07, 2008
A Space of One's Own
Today I am waiting to have a desk delivered to the house. I know what you're thinking: "What? You don't already have one?" I do indeed have a desk, but this what it looked like earlier today, and I need the extra space for my novel. I am expecting to get my manuscript back from Antonia Fusco, my editor at Algonquin, this week, and I want to have the space for it, without the piles of books waiting to be read, the files, the papers, the laptop, etc. I want to lay out my chapters, my time line, my character bios, my maps, and everything else. I felt a little silly ordering a whole desk just so I can have some extra space for my novel until I remembered an old, old interview with Joan Didion I'd read in the Paris Review. Here's the excerpt I'm thinking of:
INTERVIEWEROne ought to do whatever works-sleep with the manuscript if one needs to, even. This is the last stretch for me, so I might as well give my novel all the space it needs.Do you have any writing rituals?
DIDION
The most important is that I need an hour alone before dinner, with a drink, to go over what I've done that day. I can't do it late in the afternoon because I'm too close to it. Also, the drink helps. It removes me from the pages. . . . Another thing I need to do, when I'm near the end of the book, is sleep in the same room with it. That's one reason I go home to Sacramento to finish things. Somehow the book doesn't leave you when you're asleep right next to it. In Sacramento nobody cares if I appear or not. I can just get up and start typing.
January 04, 2008
New Short Story
I have a new short story in the fiction issue of the Italian weekly magazine Internazionale. It is titled "Il destino nelle onde," and it is illustrated by Guido Scarabottolo which is very, very cool. (Thanks to Italian reader Patrizia for the info about the illustration!) Other writers in the fiction issue include Elif Shafak, Zadie Smith, Miranda July, and a few others. The English-language version of this story should be coming out in the spring, but more on that once details have been firmed up.
January 02, 2008
While On Hiatus
I spent the last couple of weeks reading fiction; finishing two pieces that are due to appear in January; preparing syllabi for the two classes I am teaching at UCR this winter; corresponding with friends via email and letters; opening holiday cards and wishing I had the time to write some myself; being mystified at the re-casting of corrupt former Pakistani PM Benazir Bhutto as a martyr of democracy; meeting my friend C. at a Japanese restaurant that we spent a half an hour trying to find, a place that had no apparent sign or light (my husband began to wonder, as finally we pulled up in front, if a secret handshake would be necessary in order for us to gain admittance); discovering, much to my surprise, a photo of me in an advertisement in the New Yorker; discussing Morocco with a professor of anthropology; catching up on movies (Atonement, Before the Devil Knows You're Dead, etc.), cleaning my study and filing away the mountain of papers on my desk; and enjoying a homemade Cuban meal for New Year's Eve. Happy New Year, everyone.
December 14, 2007
Out and About
Guess what? I'm traveling again; I'm going to Portland to visit my sister. I'm also trying to finish a new piece before I start teaching in January, so things are a bit hectic at the moment. Posting is likely to be light over the next few days.
December 12, 2007
Being Read in Morocco
My friend D. emailed me to say that my book appeared in the best-seller list compiled by the Moroccan magazine Le Journal. It's really lovely to see the Moroccan edition (published by Le Fennec) getting into the hands of readers.
December 06, 2007
Domestic Woes
What happens when I try to cook.
December 03, 2007
While I Was Out
One of the advantages of being on vacation is that, despite having brought my laptop with me, I did not keep up with the news. So until I came back, I had been unaware that riots had ignited in the suburb of Villiers-le-Bel in France, following the deaths of two teenagers of North African and West African descent; that there had been a circus at Annapolis, in which nothing was achieved (well, except for Mahmoud Abbas getting to try on the local haberdashery); that the Sudanese government was using a stupid teddy bear to divert attention from the killings in Darfur; and that my beloved Tangier lost its bid to host the 2012 World Expo.
(The above picture is from Glass Beach in Kauai.)
November 21, 2007
In the Islands
We are leaving for a week's vacation in Hawaii tomorrow (in fact, I should probably be packing instead of blogging.) Last night, while choosing which books to take with me, I ended up pulling out Joan Didion's essay "In The Islands," which was published in her collection The White Album. The opening paragraph reads:
1969: I had better tell you where I am, and why. I am sitting in a high-ceilinged room in the Royal Hawaiian Hotel in Honolulu watching the long translucent curtains billow in the trade wind and trying to put my life back together. My husband is here, and our daughter, age three. She is blonde and barefoot, a child of paradise in a frangipani lei, and she does not understand why she cannot go to the beach. She cannot go to the beach because there has been an earthquake in the Aleutians, 7.5 on the Richter scale, and a tidal wave is expected. In two or three minutes the wave, if there is one, will hit Midway Island, and we are awaiting word from Midway. My husband watches the television screen. I watch the curtains, and imagine the swell of the water.Isn't this the best of Didion, and the worst? The precise adjectives, the varied syntax, the parallel between natural and personal calamity--any writer would envy her those qualities. (I know I do.) And yet, the paragraph also has the worst of her, doesn't it? Did you really need to know that she stays in a "high-ceilinged room" at the expensive Royal Hawaiian Hotel? The best and worst compete with each other for the rest of the essay, and yet of course I felt compelled to finish it, and read the best sentences out loud to my husband.The bulletin, when it comes, is a distinct anticlimax: Midway reports no unusual wave action. My husband switches off the television set and stares out the window. I avoid his eyes, and brush the baby's hair. In the absence of a natural disaster we are left again to our own uneasy devices. We are here on this island in the middle of the Pacific in lieu of filing for divorce.
November 20, 2007
Essay in Nexus
I have an essay titled "Why I Write," in the Dutch literary magazine Nexus. I wrote this piece last spring in Casablanca, at the invitation of editor Rob Riemen, who wanted a piece on the subject of childhood dreams--you can easily guess what my dream was. The essay was translated into Dutch by Ineke van der Burg. I haven't submitted the essay anywhere in the States yet (maybe if I stopped traveling so much...) but maybe someday the original English-language edition will appear somewhere. For those of you who read Dutch, the table of contents is available here, and you can purchase a copy here.
November 19, 2007
Reading: Los Angeles Public Library
I will be taking part in a reading tonight at the Los Angeles Public Library to honor the victims of the bombing of Mutanabbi Street in Baghdad last year. I will be reading two brief poems (one by Mutanabbi himself, one by Darwish) in the original Arabic, followed by English translations. My wonderful UCR colleague Chris Abani will read, as will Beau Beausoleil, Suzanne Lummis, Marisela Norte, Sholeh Wolpe, and Terry Wolverton. Please come.
November 16, 2007
Alike, Not Alike
The lovely and amazing Tayari Jones writes about attending the National Book Awards ceremony, where she was mistaken for other African-American nominees:
While at the National Book Awards, people kept congratulating me on my nomination. Some people complimented me on my beautiful reading. When I didn't win, a couple of really nice folks said they had been pulling for me, and certainly I'll get it next time. I was gracious, of course. But here's the thing: I wasn't up for an award! They had me confused with one of the following people: Edwidge Danticat-- who was nominated for "Brother, I'm Dying." or maybe M. Sindy Felin, who was nominated for "Touching Snow" or maybe Asali Solomon who read in the 5 Under 35 event. The picture at the left is me and Asali. All black people don't look alike but we sorta do.This reminded me of a very funny moment at the 2006 Bread Loaf Writers' conference. The talented novelist Emily Raboteau read a non-fiction piece about a visit to Israel and being stopped and searched at the airport because she was mistaken for an Arab. (Here's an excerpt.) The next day, the faculty and fellows volunteered to serve lunch to the attendees, so I was in the kitchen waiting for an order for my table when a very famous poet, also getting food for his table, approached me and said how much he loved my reading. He went on and on about how great it was. "That was Emily," I said. "My reading's tomorrow."
So, do we look alike?
November 14, 2007
Reading: Cal Poly Pomona
I'll be giving a reading tomorrow at Cal Poly Pomona. Here are details:
12:00 PMIf you live in the area, come on by. The event is free and open to the public.
Lecture and Reading
California State Polytechnic University, Pomona
3801 West Temple Avenue
Pomona, California
November 07, 2007
Panel: Georgetown University
This week, Georgetown University and the Moroccan Embassy are co-organizing a conference in Washington, D.C. on "Morocco: Recent Trends and Future Prospects." I will be doing a panel on Moroccan literature with Abdelfettah Kilito and Mokhtar Gambou on Thursday afternoon. You can view the schedule here and here. If you live in the area, do come by and say hello. The event is open to the public.
October 30, 2007
Panel: Los Angeles, California
I'll be on a panel on literature and immigration tonight at Loyola Marymount University here in Los Angeles. Details below:
October 19, 2007
Hope in Morocco
I am happy to report that Moroccan publishing house Le Fennec is issuing a French-language edition of my book for the local market. Here is the cover art:
De L'espoir will be distributed in bookstores throughout Morocco at the very modest price of 50 dirhams. How cool is that?
October 18, 2007
In Portland
I am in Portland today, at the invitation of a local high school, to give a reading from Hope. Driving in from the airport last night, I cried nearly all the way home. The city is so beautiful, so green, so expansive. (Could it be that a condition of my nomadic life is that I always pine for the place I have just left?) After having dinner with my sister, I hurried to Powell's to browse for books. I found a rare, bilingual edition of al-Mutanabbi's poems, which I had been eyeing for some time now, and I also replaced a couple of essential books that got damaged when they were shipped from Morocco last summer. More later.
October 17, 2007
Day Job
Someone asked me how come I'm on the road so much this fall when I'm supposed to be teaching creative writing at UC Riverside. Short answer: I asked for (and received) a course reduction in the fall, so I will not be unleashed onto students until the winter quarter. Poor things.
October 16, 2007
Art in the Mail
I've written in this space before about the wonderful welcome that Mercy High School extended to me last month in San Francisco, but the generosity of the students turned out to be even bigger. Yesterday, the mailman delivered two boxes, each containing artwork by students. These pieces were inspired by my novel, and use techniques from North Africa:
October 15, 2007
Slow Day
I think I am going to take a day off from reading news, and instead I am going to spend my day with Francisco Goldman's The Art of Political Murder.
On NPR
If you're so inclined, tune in today to NPR's All Things Considered. I was interviewed for a segment on art and censorship.
October 11, 2007
Rome With Love
My visit to Rome went by in a blink. I merely had time to catch a glimpse of the Coliseum on my way back from the Moroccan Cultural Center before jumping into a cab and going to my hotel to pack up for the trip home. Is it possible to fall in love after just one look? I think it has happened to me and I just want to return to Rome and to Italy soon and stay for a good, long while.
More Italy Photos
I am terrible at photography, despite having taken a class at UCLA extension many years ago, but wanted to show you a couple of pictures from Ferrara. On Sunday, the main square near the cathedral is turned into an antique market:
This is a shot of the console that holds all the simultaneous-translation headphones at the Internazionale festival in Ferrara. Attendees had to turn in their national ID cards to get one.
Something you're not about to see in our translation-averse U.S. newspapers. This is a short story by the late, great Abdurrahman Munif, which appeared on the cover of a national Sunday supplement:
The street leading up to my hotel, a.k.a. the Jesuit monastery:
This is as close as I got to seeing the wonderful waters off the coast of Sardegna. I took this in the airport in Cagliari:
October 08, 2007
Panel: Rome, Italy
I will be doing a panel tomorrow at the Moroccan Cultural Center here in Rome. Here are the details:
Tuesday, October 09, 2007Do come. The event will be in English, with simultaneous translation into Italian.
5 pm
Centro Averroe (Moroccan Cultural Center)
Via della Polveriera, 14
Rome, Italy
Shoe on the Other Foot
I am so used to having to defend and explain the Arab/Muslim world when I am in America that it always comes as a bit of a surprise to me when I am abroad to have to defend and explain America. On my first night in Italy, over a delicious dinner of home-made pasta, I was told that Americans were fat. “Like this,” my friend said and held her arms out as if she were holding a door. There was not much I could say to that. Yes, Americans are obese, and the trend is only getting worse, even as all the actresses and models are starving themselves to death.
On my second day, someone asked me why I lived in America. I can think of one very good reason; it's called Alex. But, in any case, my friend was asking out of genuine curiosity. Why, he wanted to know, did someone like me wish to live in the deep, dark pool of ignorance that is America? (He was far too polite to put it that way, so I am paraphrasing a bit here.) We had just walked into a restaurant to have dinner. The conversation veered from Colin Powell’s lies at the United Nations, the war in Iraq, and the murder of hundreds of thousands of Iraqis, to the consumerism of American society, Bratz dolls, and the TV show Kid Nation. “What is that?” asked another one of my dinner companions. Our friend explained, in English, “They created a town run by kids, and they divided them into groups. So one group, for example, is the aristocracy and they don’t do anything.” I don’t speak Italian, but it doesn’t take much to understand our fellow diner’s response: “è una follia totale!” I felt compelled to point out that Kid Nation was widely criticized and did not do that well in the ratings. America is a diverse nation of 300 million people. There are bound to be a few cretins who think these shows are worth making or watching.
It was very hard to argue with the image of an imperialist, consumerist, excessive America, though, and I was quiet for a while. After all, I spend a lot of time criticizing all these things myself. The restaurant was empty by now, and there was a lull in conversation as everyone contemplated America's excesses. Then the voice of Louis Armstrong came on the stereo. "It's Louis Armstrong," I said, to no one in particular. He is America, too, I wanted to say. America is not just the idiocy of its TV shows and the stupidity and cupidity of its rulers, but also the brilliance of its writers, its musicians, its filmmakers, its artists.
I feel like I've been having this sort of conversation a lot since September 11. In Morocco, in France, in Holland, and now in Italy, I've been having similar experiences. There is no amount of 'public diplomacy' this Administration can do that can cover up its belligerence, and the corporatization of the media isn't helping. What can I say? We need a new administration. And I don't mean Hillary.
October 07, 2007
Reading: Cagliari, Italy
I will be at L'universita di Cagliari (doesn't that sound so much better than University of Cagliari?) for a reading and discussion. Here are the details:
Monday, October 08, 2007The event will be in English.
6 pm
Reading and Discussion
University of Cagliari
Department of Anglo-American Literature
Cagliari, Italy
What Ferrarans Are Reading
I arrived at Mel Bookstore early on Friday to give myself time to explore the place before the time came for my reading there. I asked my editor why it was called 'bookstore' and not the Italian word for it, and the response was that many of these bookshops use that word to look more hip. Dear God, I thought, do they really think that using the American word for libreria might make people read? Anyway, as always when I am outside the U.S., I’m always startled to see what American titles are stocked by foreign bookstores. This was my first surprise: The huge stack of Walt and Mearsheimer’s new book, The Israel Lobby:
Schmaltzy best-sellers were everywhere. Here’s Io & Marley:
Of course, the bookstore had its fair share of chick-lit, in this case from Britain:
And no contemporary bookstore would be complete without burqa-lit. Look at this: The Veil of Fear, I think the title says. I’m surprised there aren’t flames rising from each letter.
It was a nice surprise when I stumbled on this huge stack of Cormac McCarthy’s The Road. The cover said that one million copies were in print in the U.S., which surprised me, until I remembered it was on Oprah.
Anyway, take comfort where you can find it. People in Ferrara, Italy, are reading Cormac McCarthy.
October 05, 2007
Panel: Ferrara, Italy
My main event here at the Festival Internazionale in Ferrara takes place this Saturday afternoon. Here are the details:
Saturday, October 6, 2007You can view the entire lineup for the festival right here. If you're an Italian reader of my book, or my blog, or are just curious, please come by and say hello.
4:30 pm
Panel on Fiction and Journalism
With Arundhati Roy, Laila Lalami, Efraim Medina Reyes, and Elif Shafak
Moderated by Goffredo Fofi
Festival Internazionale
Cinema Apollo
Ferrara, Italy
October 04, 2007
Reading: Ferrara, Italy
I am doing a reading from the Italian edition of my book (La speranza e altri sogni pericolosi) at Mel Bookstore tomorrow night. Here are the details:
Friday, October 5, 2007I hope Italian readers can make it.
6:30 pm
Mel Bookstore
Piazza Trento e Trieste
Palazzo San Crispino
Ferrara, Italy
In Italy
After a journey that took me on planes (three), trains (two), and automobiles (two), I am now in Ferrara, Italy, to attend the Festival Internazionale in Ferrara. I am staying in a converted monastery and my room is very bare, with just a bed, a desk, and a dresser. There is no internet access, and the phone doesn't let me make outgoing calls. A large crucifix hangs on the wall above my bed. The red-tiled hallways, the old furniture, the multiple Christs on the cross everywhere remind me of the grade school I attended, which was also in a converted Catholic institution in Rabat. There are relatively few cars on the cobbled streets of the village, because most people ride bicycles. So it's very quiet and peaceful, and I find myself thinking what a great place this would be to write a book. But I am here to talk about one: The Italian edition of my book just came out, and my publicist is starting things off with a reading here. More soon, I hope.
October 01, 2007
Reading: Orlando, Florida
I am in Winter Park, Florida, for a couple of days. I will be giving a lecture, followed by a reading from Hope and Other Dangerous Pursuits, here at Rollins College. Details below:
The event will take place in Tiedtke Music Hall on Tuesday (tomorrow).
September 27, 2007
Reading: Los Angeles
I am doing a reading this evening in support of the anthology X-24: Unclassified, which was edited by Tash Aw and Nii Ayikwei Parkes. Nii will be there tonight, along with contributors Nikki Aguirre, Jennifer Kabat, and yours truly. Details, details:
X-24: UnclassifiedDo come by and say hello.
With Nikki Aguirre, Jennifer Kabat, Laila Lalami and Nii Ayikwei Parkes
Thursday, September 27
6:30 pm
John F. Kennedy Library
Conference Room B530
California State University Los Angeles
September 20, 2007
Back in Action
I am back at home after a couple of days in New York, where I met with my editor, my agent, caught up with some good friends, and stopped by Columbia to attend the CJR panel on book reviewing (podcast here.) On the plane over, I read James Baldwin's Giovanni's Room, which for some reason I had never read before. I've said before that writing a novel is like having a religion: you see signs everywhere. I felt like this book came at the right time for me; it's helped me see how a character's tortured inner life can be dissected and every feeling, every thought, every impulse recorded. Pretty stunning.
September 17, 2007
In New York
I am in New York for a couple of days, for meetings with my agent and my editor, and to catch up with some friends. On Tuesday night, my friend Mark Sarvas will be taking part in a panel discussion at the Columbia School of Journalism, and I plan on being in the audience. Join us, won't you? Here are the details:
Panel on the crisis in book reviewingThe moderator for the panel will be CJR’s publisher, Evan Cornog
7 p.m.
Tuesday, September 18
Third-floor lecture hall, Journalism Building
116th and Broadway
The panelists will be Steve Wasserman, Peter Osnos, Elisabeth Sifton, Carlin Romano, and Mark Sarvas.
September 15, 2007
Recap: San Francisco
When I was writing Hope and Other Dangerous Pursuits, I could not possibly have imagined it would get the reaction it did from readers, or that it would be used in such varied classrooms as post-colonial North African literature and high school English. On Friday, I went to give a reading at Mercy High School, where the entire class of 600 students had read my book for the fall. What surprised me was how much and well the book was integrated into the curriculum. In drama class, students teased out personality traits for each of the main characters in my novel; in literature class, they looked for simile, metaphor, and other figures of speech; in French class, they translated some key quotes from the book; in ceramics class, they looked for Moroccan designs and used them to create artifacts, and they also chose scenes from some of the stories and recreated them in clay. Students were very familiar with the book by the time I came to read from it, and being in that auditorium with so many teenagers was truly one of the most fun experiences I have had on the road.
September 14, 2007
Hope in San Francisco
I am in San Francisco for the day to do a reading at Mercy High School, which has selected my book for a school-wide read. Sorry, no posts today.
September 10, 2007
Last Stretch
I know I must sound like a broken record by now, but posting may be a bit light this week. I need to finish revising the last chapter of my novel before my trip to New York next week, so please bear with me.
September 05, 2007
Back in Action
I just emerged from a hellish weekend: We opened boxes, set up furniture, shelved books, hung pictures, and all in 95-degree temperatures. It was exhausting. But, it's done! It's done! We've been enjoying sleeping in our own bed, eating meals served in our own dishes, lounging on our own sofas, and reading the books that piled up while we were gone.
August 29, 2007
Otherwise Engaged
I'm waiting for the movers to show up and won't be able to blog through the rest of this week, so I apologize for the lack of posts. I should be back in these parts on Tuesday, when my internet connection is installed.
August 28, 2007
Hope in Italy
For Italian readers: My book, Hope and Other Dangerous Pursuits, is published in Italy by Fusi Orari this month. Here is the cover art:
I'll be in Italy in early October for the Internationale Festival in Ferrara, followed by readings in Cagliari and Rome. You can check my events for more details.
August 27, 2007
Interlude
We went to Powell's last night, and being in those aisles almost brought me to tears. The Blue Room! The literary magazine rack! The Cavallini notebooks! I picked up two travel books by Pico Iyer (The Lady and the Monk and Video Night in Kathmandu), a used hardcover, in excellent condition, of Moroccan anthropologist Abdellah Hammoudi's A Season in Mecca, Coetzee's memoir Youth, and a few other titles for fall. Few places give readers so much opportunity as Powell's to explore and try something different. I don't know what I'm going to do without it.
August 25, 2007
On NPR's Weekend Edition
I'm in Portland this weekend to prepare for the move to Los Angeles, but I wanted to let you know that I'll be on NPR's Weekend Edition tomorrow (Sunday) morning to talk about summer reading. You can tune into your local NPR station or listen online tomorrow.
August 20, 2007
One More Move
Over the last fifteen years, I've lived in Downtown Los Angeles, Koreatown, Torrance, Redondo Beach, Portland, and Casablanca. That's one move every two years. I am so tired of moving--and yet here I am, doing it again. I'm in L.A. with my husband at the moment, looking for a place. We've only been gone from the city for four years, and yet so much seems to have changed. There's so much gentrification; traffic is worse, if that's even conceivable; and there's a café that calls itself 'literati,' because it uses book spines as wall decor. (The horror! The horror!) Still, I've missed L.A. There's a great diner we went to every weekend for 8 years, and it's still open; there are lots of good theaters; amazing music; and of course all our friends and family.
August 15, 2007
Time Up
My time in Casablanca is drawing to a close. It was a wonderful experience, at once heart-expanding and thought-provoking. I feel pretty good about what I've accomplished: I'm almost done with my novel. But, and characteristically for me, I can't help but wish I had been able to do even more: Write more non-fiction, travel around the Middle Atlas, climb Mount Toubkal. Maybe next time, insha'llah. I will miss my brother, the new friends I made this year, the incredible food, the long afternoons spent in cafés, the call for prayer, the music, the light, the way people always rush to help. I will not, obviously, miss having to deal with Maroc Telecom every other week, or coming across the kind of society people Gad El Maleh satirizes so well.
August 13, 2007
Police Encounter
We were driving along a beach road with a couple of friends when a cop stopped us. I was sitting in the back, but being the only Darija speaker in the car, I lowered my window, ready to translate. "You went up a one-way street," the policeman said. "License and registration."
I apologized and explained we had not seen the sign. (Later, we drove by again and saw that it was partially covered by shrub.)
"I have to write you up. The ticket's going to be 400 dirhams."
Upon hearing my translation of what the cop said, my husband, clearly unaware of how these things are supposed to be handled, immediately whipped out the money from his wallet. (You are supposed to start by saying you're very sorry, you were distracted, and yes you made a big mistake; you're busy, so you don't have time to deal with the paperwork; how you wish you could come to an understanding... and then you would bargain the cop down to about 1/3 of the ticket price--about 130 dirhams in this case. My husband had skipped all these steps, and was ready to hand the entire amount over. )
The cop, a tall and lanky fellow with a thin mustache, got very nervous, and walked away. He went to the intersection and directed traffic for a few minutes, before coming back.
"So," he asked, "what are you all doing here? Are you tourists?"
"No, sir," I said. "I'm here for research. But my friends are tourists."
As soon as he heard the word "research," he looked scared. He handed Alex his money back. "We don't want to give tourists a bad image of the country. Here. Just pay attention next time."
I had no idea that "research" was such a red flag for cops.
August 05, 2007
Apologia
Sorry for the silence in the last couple of days. I was busy finishing a piece on Zakes Mda (for The Nation) and now that it's turned in I can spend some time online again.
July 30, 2007
California Dreamin'
I am about three weeks away from the end of my Fulbright Fellowship in Morocco, and I've already received several emails from friends asking me, "What next?" I'm happy to report that I'll be joining the Creative Writing department at the University of California, Riverside. I was hired at the same time as Reza Aslan, and we'll both start in the fall. I'm very pleased about this for several reasons: UCR has the most diverse campus in the UC system. The creative writing department itself is particularly strong. And it offers the opportunity for me to try something new in class. I am going to miss Portland (particularly Powell's, the greatest bookstore on earth!) but it feels right to be back in the Los Angeles area, where I've lived for more than 11 years, and where I have so many friends and family.
(art credit: Kerne Erickson)
July 24, 2007
Caine Prize 2006 Anthology
Last year, my story "The Fanatic" was shortlisted for the Caine Prize for African Writing, along with pieces by Sefi Atta, Darrel Bristow-Bovey, Muthoni Garland, and Mary Watson. The finalists' work appears in a new anthology, titled Jungfrau and Other Short Stories, and it can be ordered from Amazon.co.uk. I believe the book also contains selected stories by writers who have attended the annual Caine Prize workshop, held in Kenya in mid-spring. (There's a brief mention of this in Boyd Tonkin's column in the Independent.)
July 23, 2007
Back in Action
I'm finally back home, and have access once again to my laptop and (semi-reliable) Internet connection. Over the last four weeks, Alex and I went to Ifrane, Azrou, Meknes, Fez, Tetuan, Ceuta, Tangier, and villages along the Mediterranean coast. We read books, we saw movies, we took friends to see sights, we bargained over souvenirs (it was generally agreed that I was worse at bargaining than even tourists), we swam in the sea.
And everywhere we went, I was the party pooper. "That beach sounds fantastic," I'd sigh, "but, really, I should go back to the apartment and edit Chapter 12." Or "I'll catch up with you in the medina later, I'll just rewrite this one scene I have in mind first." Or "Can we get back on the early side? I have some work to finish?" It went like this for our entire vacation, and although I felt terrible for Alex and our friends, at least I did manage to finish another draft of my novel. Now my plan is to do some fine-tuning before my return to the U.S. in mid-August.
July 20, 2007
Almost Home
Almost done with all the travel! We were up north for a few days. Here's a picture from the very cool American Legation museum in Tangier:
And a view from the city walls in Ceuta. We didn't cross the border until about 12, so by the time we got downtown, nearly everything was closed for siesta.
July 16, 2007
Photos from Fez
I am still running around, packing and unpacking travel bags. I don't have any photos of the Fez conference, but here's a shot of Bab Boujeloud:
The famous tanneries:
Around the corner from the historic Ibn Danan synagogue:
June 29, 2007
Reading in Fez
This Saturday, I will give a reading at the International Conference on Mediterranean Women and Human Development, which takes place in Fez on June 28, 29 and 30. Here are the details:
June 30, 2007The conference will include talks by the likes of Latifa Jbabdi, Nouzha Skalli, Zakya Daoud, Leila Abouzeid, and Fatima Sadiqi, so be there.
5:00 PM
Reading and Discussion
Fes International Conference on Mediterranean Women
Palais des Congrès
Fes, Morocco
June 25, 2007
Pictures from the Road
A couple of photos while I have access to an internet connection. Here's a picture from the reading I gave at Al Akhawayn University in Ifrane. (Great crowd, by the way, and lovely campus.)
I had a couple of friends visiting from the States, and we made a stop in Azrou so they could buy some rugs.
We also visited the Roman ruins at Volubilis. The city was much bigger than I remembered from my last visit, fifteen years ago.
Lastly, an aerial view of Moulay Driss, the ancestral home of my family. The mausoleum had been recently renovated.
June 18, 2007
On the Road
I am going to be on the road for the next three to four weeks, with little or no access to the Internet, so I won't be able to blog. If you subscribe to my XML feed, you'll know immediately when I resume posting. Otherwise, tune in again in mid-July; I will have some major news to announce.
June 15, 2007
Reading: Ifrane, Morocco.
Next Tuesday, I will be reading from Hope and Other Dangerous Pursuits at Al Akhawayn University in Ifrane. Details:
June 19, 2007(The reading and discussion will be in English. ) Hope to see you there!
5:00 PM
Reading and Discussion
Building 4, Auditorium
Al Akhawayn University
Ifrane, Morocco
June 06, 2007
Hope in Brazil
I just heard that the Brazilian edition of my book has been released by Editora Rocco in Rio de Janeiro, under the title A Esperança È Uma Travessia. Here is the cover art:
Check it out, Brazilian readers.
May 25, 2007
HODP in Jeune Afrique
For those who care and/or read French: There is an interview with me about Hope and Other Dangerous Pursuits in the current issue of Jeune Afrique magazine.
May 23, 2007
Otherwise Engaged
Sorry, no posts today. Come back again tomorrow.
May 15, 2007
On Interpretations
I had been told by several friends that the humanities campus of the University of Kenitra has quite a few religiously conservative students, but I had not thought much about this until I gave a reading there last week. I did my usual introduction about the process of writing Hope and Other Dangerous Pursuits, and then I read for about 10 minutes. During the Q&A, a student raised his hand and asked why the father character in "The Fanatic" tries to stop his daughter from covering her hair. "This is strange, " he said, "because most of the time the fathers do want their daughters to cover." I wasn't sure exactly what he based this statement on, particularly since he was a man and did not really know what a daughter's experience is like. I pointed out that, in the amphitheater where we sat, there were many women who covered, and many who did not. I said that no one, least of all my father, had ever asked me to cover. It's a woman's choice, I said. A bearded young man behind the questioner interrupted me, "Actually, it's not a choice." A few people laughed at his temerity, and then I explained that, above and beyond the debate over the veil, the story dealt with a very specific father, a very specific daughter, certainly not people who represent every gamut of experience in Moroccan society.
A young woman asked me, "Your book deals with illegal immigration, fundamentalism, judicial corruption, and so on. Do you think that writing about negative things in Morocco makes your work more attractive to the Western reader?" I must say I was taken aback because I had never thought of my work as being about "negative things." I explained that the book describes complex characters, who are put in complex situations. Some of the things in their lives are positive, others are negative. One could just as easily say that, in addition to illegal immigration, for example, the book deals with filial love and romantic love and platonic love, so why not mention those things, too?
I thought that I had laid those concerns about outsider/insider writing to rest. How wrong I was. A smiling young man in the front row asked, "I found your story "The Fanatic" to be insulting, in the same way that Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe was insulting to Nigeria." This, of course, wasn't so much a question, as a comment, more specifically a challenge to me to say something for myself. The problem was that I had already forgotten about my book by then because I was trying to get my head wrapped around the idea that Things Fall Apart was insulting to Nigeria.
"Have you ever been to Nigeria?" I asked.
"No."
"How do you know that it's insulting? In what way is it insulting?"
"Because Okonkwo is polygamous and he beats his wives."
I was mystified as to how this young student could have possibly reduced Achebe's work to this one-liner. The gentleman who had introduced me, a professor in the English department, squirmed in his seat in embarrassment. I spoke about Achebe's work, explained that the book is set in a very specific time and place in Nigerian history, that there is much more to Okonkwo than the polygamy, that the book deals with many issues, most importantly the appearance of British colonialism and how it changes Okonkwo's world.
As I talked, I realized that this young man (and indeed several of the people who were so eager to ask questions that put literature on trial) was not a regular reader of books. It seems impossible to me that anyone who reads novels on a usual basis could come up with such a reductive interpretation, and I felt an overwhelming sadness, for him, and for what he was missing. After the reading, he came up to the podium to have his picture taken with me. I didn't know what to think. I didn't know if he had asked that question because he truly felt the way he said he did, or because he thought it would be funny, or if he was just being a punk. I think what upset me most was this expectation that my work, or literature in general, should be a stage in which good things happen to good people, and bad things happen to bad people. In other words, what this student wanted was a fairytale. Life is not like that, and neither is literature.
The strangest interpretation, however, came when a student asked me: "In your book, a young woman goes from being a religious conservative who covers her hair to being a prostitute in Spain. Do you think that this is a metaphor for Morocco, which prostitutes itself to the West through the Free Trade Agreement?" I think I heaved a very audible sigh. Sometimes, a scarf is just a scarf, it's not a symbol for a country. I used as an example the anecdote that Sydney Lumet tells about asking filmmaker Akira Kurosawa why he framed a particular shot in Ran the way he did. Kurosawa's answer was that if the shot had been an inch to the left, a factory would have been exposed, and if it was one inch to the right, the airport would be in the frame, and neither of these buildings belonged in a period movie. The students all had a good laugh.
May 02, 2007
Apologies
My apologies for the lack of posts these past few days. I've been busy with travel, and I've also been devoting whatever time I have to my novel. Posting should resume shortly.
April 30, 2007
Back in Action
My trip to New York was great. My first event was the History and the Truth of Fiction panel, which was held at NYU. We had a great turn out, and it was particularly nice to see a few familiar faces in the crowd. Colum McCann, our moderator, was fantastic; he knew how to ask questions that would involve all of us and get us to discuss with one another. Several wraps up have popped up online (see, for instance, this, this, or this) and some photos as well.
One of the highlights of the PEN festival for me was getting to meet Abdulrazak Gurnah, whose latest novel, Desertion, was one of my favorites of last year. We were on one panel together, Where on Earth: The Refugee Emergency, which was about different experiences of exile, whether old or new, forced or desired, brutal or peaceful. (We also shared a memorable cab ride, during which the driver, a fellow Moroccan, treated us to his life story, including an anecdote about how he worked as a bartender for ten years while being an observant Muslim.)
My final event was a gathering of storytellers, with Jonathan Ames, Pico Iyer, Edgar Oliver, and Neil Gaiman. Ordinarily, Alex loves to talk to writers, but he was so intimidated that he fell completely silent in Neil Gaiman's presence--which was quite amusing considering that Gaiman is so nice, and so down to earth. I was fortunate enough to spend some time with Pico Iyer at the rehearsal, and heard so many wonderful stories of his travels, including the one he told at The Moth, about a trip to Aden to do research on a fourteenth-century Chinese Muslim eunuch admiral. (Yes, you read that last part right. More on Zheng He here.)
I didn't get a chance to go to many other panels, but I loved the Town Hall Readings, and the panel on Gritty Realism, with Daniel Alarcon, Guillermo Arriaga, Jorge Franco, and Patricia Melo, moderated by the amazing Francisco Goldman. You can read various reports about the panels and readings at the World Voices blogs, and at TEV.
April 26, 2007
The Moth: PEN World Voices
My last event for the PEN World Voices festival is a gathering of storytellers:
An Evening with The MothSee you there!
With Neil Gaiman, Pico Iyer, Laila Lalami; and Jonathan Ames as your MC
Thursday, April 26
8 – 10 PM
37 Arts: 450 West 37th St.
New York, New York
Tickets: $30 (includes wine and beer)
Purchase tickets from Ticketmaster: www.ticketmaster.com or (212) 307-4100
Panel: PEN World Voices
I am doing two events today. Here are details for the first:
PEN World VoicesHope to see you there.
Where on Earth: The Refugee Emergency
With Ishmael Beah, Abdulrazak Gurnah, Laila Lalami, Saadi Youssef; moderated by Russell Banks
Thursday, April 26
3 – 4:30 PM
Lang Recital Hall, Hunter College: 695 Park Ave.
New York, New York
Free and open to the public. No reservations.
April 25, 2007
Panel: PEN World Voices
I'm in New York this week for the PEN World Voices festival. Here are the details for a panel to which I'm contributing today:
PEN World VoicesHope to see you there.
History and the Truth of Fiction
With Arthur Japin, Laila Lalami, Imma Monsó, Michael Wallner; moderated by Colum McCann
Wednesday April 25
1 – 2:30 PM
Hemmerdinger Hall at NYU: 100 Washington Square East
New York, New York
Free and open to the public. No reservations.
March 26, 2007
Hope in the New York Review of Books
Pankaj Mishra reviews Hisham Matar's In The Country of Men, and my book, Hope and Other Dangerous Pursuits, for the April 12 issue of the New York Review of Books The review is freely available online, here.
March 21, 2007
New Anthology
I have a story in a new anthology called X-24: Unclassified, edited by Tash Aw and Nii Ayikwei Parkes. It's a slightly older piece; I haven't written any new short fiction this year since I'm trying to focus on finishing the novel. But the book includes fantastic contributions by people like Naomi Alderman, Daniel Alarcón, Mohammed Naseehu Ali, Sefi Atta, and many others, so check it out.
March 19, 2007
Reality/Fiction
I was relieved when I had to travel to Rabat for the Fulbright Symposium because it meant I would get away from the news coverage of the foiled terrorist attack in Casablanca. Last week, As Sabah published a color picture of the torn body of Abdelfettah Raydi, the 24-year-old man who blew himself up inside a cyber cafe in Sidi Moumen on March 11. Al Massae showed the second terrorist, 17-year-old Youssef Khoudri, while he was transported to Ibn Rochd Hospital. An Nass, meanwhile, printed a photo of him being stitched up. Not to be outdone, La Vie Economique did a dossier on the events, and included a photo of the severed head of Raydi.
Despite the sensationalism, the articles accompanying the photos were, for the most part, well researched and interesting. They included interviews with the man who had alerted police, with witnesses and survivors, and with the terrorists' family and neighbors. Many journalists asked why nothing had been done about the shantytowns in Sidi Moumen since the attacks of May 2003, and cautioned that more attacks remain possible so long as there is fertile ground for them. But a columnist for Aujourd'hui le Maroc fumed that "barbarians should not be pitied." (You'd think you were reading Max Boot.)
The details that have emerged certainly give pause: the seizure of 200 kg of explosives in Sidi Moumen; the fact that Raydi had already served two years of prison for suspected Salafi activities before being released in an amnesty in 2005; the claim that it took only two weeks to convince Youssef Khoudri--an illiterate mint seller and sometime drug user who lived in a one-room house with his five siblings and parents--to take part in the attack; the suggestion that the targets included the police headquarters on Zerktouni; and so on.
All this took me back to my work. Large parts of my novel are set in Sidi Moumen and it is difficult to write about something knowing not only that it could happen, but that it does happen. It's not easy to use one's imagination while at the same time grappling with a similar reality. In the end, I had to shut off the real in order to focus on the fictional; I had to stop reading the papers--at least until coverage subsides--so I can finish my novel. The symposium came at the right time.
March 14, 2007
Out: Fulbright Symposium
Posting will be light to non-existent for the next three days while I travel to Rabat for the annual Fulbright Symposium. Come again soon.
March 01, 2007
Reading: Casablanca, Morocco
I've been invited by the Moroccan American Circle to do a reading from Hope and Other Dangerous Pursuits. The event will take place tonight at the Churchill Club here in Casablanca. Details:
7:00 PM - 10:30 PM(The reading and discussion will be in English. ) Hope to see you there!
Reading & Discussion to be followed by drinks and tapas
Churchill Club
1 rue de la Méditerannée
Aïn Diab, Casablanca
(Admission 100dh)
February 28, 2007
Good Things Happen To Good People
I have been following my good friend Mark Sarvas's progress as he wrote his novel, revised it, polished it, found an agent, and went into the submission process. And I am thrilled to share with you the happy news that he has just sold his novel, Harry, Revised to Bloomsbury. Having read the book a couple of months ago, I can tell you you're in for a treat. Congratulations are in order!
HODP in Tangier
At the time I was writing Hope and Other Dangerous Pursuits, that is, between the spring of 2002 and the winter of 2004, I had not visited Tangier in more than fifteen years. I had spent several summers in the city as a child and teenager, and, perhaps presumptuously, I felt I still knew the place well enough to be able to describe it in a decent way. I wrote about streets and buildings and cafés, but I was working essentially from memory.
While in Tangier this past weekend, I decided to visit some of the places I wrote about in the book. I walked through the Gran Socco and the Socco Chico, and it was interesting to see how much they had changed (many of the historic buildings have been renovated), and also how little (there are still plenty of tourist guides, kif smokers, and vendors in sombreros.) The talk of the town was the city's candidacy to host the 2012 World's Fair. The train station has been moved to a new location, and the port now includes a free trade zone. Tangier felt like a city in motion, just as I remembered it.
In "Better Luck Tomorrow," my character Murad spends time in a Café la Liberté, which was a fictional place, but as I was walking down one of the streets that led to the socco, I discovered there really was a Café La Liberté. I sat down for a cup of coffee there, and there really was a football match playing on the screen, and deals being made at the tables. 
In the story, Murad meets some tourists who are curious to find the famous Café Central, so of course I went there as well. It has been nicely renovated, and the outside tables were packed. I took a photo of the Pension Fuentes that sits across the lane. I walked into one of the antique shops where the action in "The Storyteller" takes place. I felt like I had stepped, once again since writing it, into my own book.
February 18, 2007
Reading Recap: Dar America
We had a great turnout at Dar America on Thursday. I find the experience of meeting my readers very pleasurable, but I have to say it feels even more special to be able to read from Hope and Other Dangerous Pursuits here in Casablanca. The questions revolved around the theme of immigration: "Why did you choose this? Is it because it's in fashion?" I had to smile at this, and explain that devoting three years of my life to something that may be 'à la mode' would not be the best use of my time. I didn't set out to write about immigration; I set out to write about one young man's desire to prove to his family that he could be a success if only the right opportunity came along. And the story of Murad turned into something bigger and more complex, until I ended up with this book. The other questions were about individual stories, the process of writing Hope, the title of the book, what I am working on now, and so on. I had a wonderful, wonderful time.
Signing: Casablanca Book Fair
I signed copies of the French edition of my book at the Casablanca Book Fair on Friday. The Moroccan staff at the Librairie Nationale booth was so welcoming, offering me mint tea and assorted pastries, and keeping me company while readers drifted in and out. In the photo above, I am meeting two bloggers, who had come by for a quick interview.
February 16, 2007
Reading: Casablanca, Morocco
This afternoon I'll be reading from Hope and Other Dangerous Pursuits at the Casablanca Book Fair. Here are the details:
4:00 PM
Reading & Discussion (in French)
Librairie Nationale Booth
Casablanca Book Fair
Foire des Expositions
Casablanca, Morocco
This event will be in French.
February 15, 2007
Reading: Casablanca, Morocco
Later today, I'll be giving a reading from Hope and Other Dangerous Pursuits, to be followed by a discussion. Here are the details:
Reading and DiscussionThis event will be in English (Friday's will be in French). See you there.
Thursday, February 15, 2007 @ 5:00 PM
Dar America
10, Place Bel Air
Casablanca
February 05, 2007
'Free' Speech in Morocco
A brief opinion piece I wrote about freedom of speech in Morocco appeared in Saturday's New York Times. Its starting point is the lawsuit that was brought against the magazine Nichane (which I've mentioned previously on this blog) and the denouement of the case involving Aboubakr Jamai and his magazine Le Journal Hebdo (also mentioned briefly here). Here is an excerpt:
In the United States, Morocco is often seen as a liberal country and a bulwark against Islamic extremism. Certainly, the reforms that have taken place over the last few years, particularly in terms of women’s rights, are steps in the right direction.You can read the full text of the op-ed at the NYT site.But while the court cases against independent news magazines like Nichane, Le Journal Hebdomadaire and several others are within the bounds of Moroccan law, they appear to single out the independent press, to the exclusion of more partisan publications. These cases highlight a particularly troubling pattern, in which the regime represses the progressive voices it claims to champion
Out of Commission
Apologies for the lack of posts this past week. I've been struggling with a sore throat and an injured back. The latter is not such a bad thing; I tend to work with my laptop on my knees, and if I hurt my back it means I'm probably getting at least some work done. See? The glass is half full.
January 26, 2007
HODP in Tingis
The latest issue of Tingis, the Moroccan American magazine of culture and ideas, includes a long review by Anouar Majid of my book, Hope and Other Dangerous Pursuits.
Reading Recap: Fes
I took the train to Fes yesterday to give a reading from Hope and Other Dangerous Pursuits at the Moroccan Cultural Studies Centre at Sidi Mohammed Ben Abdellah University. The students had all read the book and some of my articles beforehand, so we had a very lively and thorough discussion after the reading. I was so impressed with their talent and intelligence--they asked good questions, tough questions, and I was thrilled to have such an engaged group of readers. My only regret is that it was such a short trip (I had to get back to Casablanca, and back to my desk) and I saw nothing of the city. I think the last time I was in Fes was when I was nine or ten, and I really want to go back and do a proper visit.
January 15, 2007
Dutch Wrap Up
I had set my novel aside during the hectic move to Casablanca, and when I picked it up again a few weeks ago and reread it, I noticed a strong satirical element throughout. Then I was invited to the Winternachten literary festival, and I was asked if I could take part in a two-day workshop on... satire. It's perhaps only a coincidence. But I think writing a novel is a bit like converting to a new religion; one starts to see signs everywhere. The workshop became a sign of something the universe was trying to tell me--that I should embrace the satirical element, maybe. It's all a bit silly, really. Still, the first two days I spent in the Hague proved extremely useful, and made me see a bit more clearly what I am trying to do in my work. (The amusing bit is that we couldn't even agree on a good definition of satire beyond "We know it when we see it.")
After the workshop, I met with my Dutch editor, did a few press interviews, and hung out with a good friend of mine. I also read from Hope and Other Dangerous Pursuits in front of a packed house at Theater aan het Spui. Abdelkader Benali was a great, tough interviewer, and he asked me questions about the book that I don't think I've been asked at any of my readings in the US. I had a wonderful, wonderful time. I even managed to steal some time away to go visit the Vermeers that were on display at Maurithuis, a wonderful little museum in the Hague. The most inspiring element of the whole trip was being surrounded by so many Moroccan and Dutch Moroccan writers, poets, musicians, and artists. I felt so energized and ready to take on the world--or at least the rest of my novel.
I am now in Paris for a couple of days, doing some interviews for the French edition of Hope. More soon, I hope.
January 12, 2007
Reading: The Hague, Netherlands
Tonight I'll be reading from Hope and Other Dangerous Pursuits at the Winternachten Literature Festival. This will be followed by a conversation with Abdelkader Benali. Here are the details:
9:40 PMIf you happen to be in town, come by and say hello!
Reading and Discussion
Winternachten Literature Festival
The Hague, Netherlands
January 10, 2007
At Winternachten
I am awfully busy here in the Hague, and don't have time to compose a proper post, so I give you instead a photo of the Moroccans present here. From left: Novelist and playwright Abdelkader Benali, me, and novelist and essayist Fouad Laroui.
January 09, 2007
In Den Haag
I am in The Hague this week to take part in Winternachten. I've visited the Netherlands only once before, and I stayed mostly in Amsterdam then. I remember long afternoons spent walking along the canals, hours and hours spent at the museums (The Night Watch and The Milkmaid were on display), and the taste of those amazing Dutch pancakes. It is my first time visiting The Hague, a city about which I know next to nothing. I hope to find out more.
January 04, 2007
'It's Still By The Book'
I have a brief opinion piece in the Guardian about the hoopla surrounding Keith Ellison's swearing-in ceremony today. A snippet:
Ultimately, however, Keith Ellison was not elected in order to represent Muslims, but in order to represent Minnesotans, regardless of their faith. So I hope that, once the curiosity has waned, the media will remember this important fact. I hope they will let him attend to his work, just like any other Congressperson. I hope they won't go to him every time they need a sound bite on American Muslims, or, worse, on Islamic fundamentalism. I hope they just leave him alone.You can read it all here.
January 03, 2007
Profile in Vacature
(Photo credit: Stijn Pieters)
January 02, 2007
Holidays 2007
Since my parents are out of town at the moment, we spent the Eid el-Adha (or Eid el-Kebir) holiday with my uncle in Rabat. It was a lovely weekend getaway, and I was surprised to rediscover so many details I had forgotten: