“C’era una volta, in un paese piccino e lontano adagiato sulla riva orientale del Mediterraneo, un luogo zeppo di pini dritti come donne in lutto” scrive Jabbour Douaihy.

Najwa Barakat’s Workshop ‘how to write a novel’, first of its kind in the Arab world, is being regularly covered by the press. This time, the workshop makes it as a headline on the main francophone Lebanese daily’s first page. No doubt, Barakat’s workshop is not going unnoticed. Barakat’s explicit aim is to discover young talents, help them find their own voice, and accompany them until their work is published. To some extent, Barakat is acting like a free-lance editor – with a pedagogical twist.
In a part of the world …

Maya Ghandour wrote in the Lebanese francophone daily, L’Orient le jour, an article on the second session of Najwa Barakat’s workshop ‘Mohtaraf kayfa taktob riwaya’. Young talents from all over the Arab world, if you have a novel or other creative project, end of September 2010 is your deadline.

In his review of June Rain, Pietro Chelli says that when you hear “we are better than them because” … it is usually too late. The uncontrollable violence that identity delirium unleashes is just around the corner. “We are better than them, because…”, such is the story that Jabbour Douaihy tells, an antidote against the world’s stupidity.