The Orwell Prize is Britain’s most prestigious prize for political writing. It is awarded each year for the book which come closest to George Orwell’s ambition to ‘make political writing into an art’.
Samar Yazbek is on the Orwell’s long list with her book on Syria, The Crossing. The winner will be announced end of May.

Yazbek was featured on La grande librairie last Thursday, guest of Francois Busnel,  along with Amin Maalouf and Erik Orsenna, both of which thought the book was important.

Listen to her piece on the website of the Cultural Frontline, where Arts and news collide.

Olivia Snaije writes a portrait of Dujols, for Publishing Perspectives, January 2016
Arabic literature is notoriously difficult to translate — not only for the complexity of the language but also for the variety of dialects and the challenge of making the prose accessible to Western readers. Arabic literary translators are few and far between, and the Arabic-to-English translators have become, in their world, akin to rock stars, thanks to the establishment in 2005 of the Saif Ghobash Banipal Prize for Arabic literary translation. In France, although translators are given more recognition …