Iraq
by niadavies
Today I travel to Erbil in Kurdistan in Iraq to take part in a translation workshop and the Niniti Literature Festival. The trip is organised by the remarkable Reel Festivals in collaboration with Art Role and the British Council.
You can read more about the trip here including who’s taking part on the Reel website. Look out for blogs from the participants, including myself.
Some things I have been reading/watching in translation in order to learn something about the region:
– The Iraqi Christ – short stories (stories of stories) by Hassan Blasim, translated into English by Jonathan Wright
– Son of Babylon – a film by Mohamed Al Daradji
– Poems from the last Reel Iraq festival workshop by several Iraqi poets translated into English by a group Scottish poets and performed at the festival in London last year. Plus blogs from the participating poets.
– this film about the Iraqi poet Manan Al-Sheikh by Roxana Vilk from the Al-Jazeera Poets of Protest series.
– Fiction, poetry and interviews in the Words Without Borders Kurdish issue
– poems by Sinan Antoon
– the wonderfully informative Arabic Literature in English blog
Then spree 
Excellent, thank you Nia