The Egyptian capital kicked off on Monday the 18th edition of the two-day Sharjah Narrative Forum.
The event brings together around 60 Egyptian novelists, short story writers, and critics, as well five Arabic authors from Palestine, Syria, Iraq, Yemen, and Libya.
Held under the patronage of Sharjah Ruler Sultan bin Muhammad Al-Qasimi, and with the attendance of the Egyptian culture minister, the edition is themed “Narrative Imagination and Post-Modernism Questions in Contemporary Novel”.
The event will see discussions of work papers, and presentations of Arab and Egyptian novelists and critics, reported the German news agency (dpa).
Poet Hussein al-Qabahi, director of the House of Poetry in Luxor and one of the participants, said the Sharjah Narrative Forum will be held in Cairo for the second time, which highlights the appreciation of the Egyptian role and its leadership in the field of Arabic narration.
He noted that the forum’s sessions focus on “Narration in Face of Modernism Problematics”, and discuss several topics related to the present and future of narration.
Egyptian novelist and critic Mohammed Attia Mahmoud, who’s participating in the event, said the sessions will shed light on four topics: “Narrative Imagination in post-Modernism”, “Novel between Imagination and Reality”, “Transformations in Contemporary Novel Making”, and “Narrative Imagination and Heritage”.
The Sharjah Narrative Forum is one of the most prominent Arabic, narrative forums. Since its establishment, and over its 17 editions, it has attracted many Arabic critics and novelists, as well as Arabized critics and orientalists.
The forum is held in a different Arab capital every year to highlight the narrative scene across the Arab world.