Alison Flood 

Site of the week: Pen Atlas of World Literature

Alison Flood: An exciting bid to create 'a new global community of readers'
  
  


If you fancy dipping into the newest writing from Palestinian authors, some of which has never appeared in English before, then head over to our site of the week, the Pen Atlas of World Literature. Set up by English Pen, the site is intended to be a meeting point for Middle Eastern writers and publishers, and a western audience keen to learn more about the region's literature.

It launched earlier this month, and already features 23 countries, 270 writers and 183 books in English translation, all from the Arab region. Most interesting, though, is the site's blog, where throughout February they're posting regular new work from Gaza - the latest comes from poet Naser Rabah, written in Maghaazi Camp in Gaza. Check out Our New Neighbour:

If we were to plant bullets
What would the earth sprout, I wonder?
Ripe corpses
Or dead trees?

There's more poetry, as well as short stories, from a host of other writers, along with thoughts and links on translation and world literature.

The administrators are hoping the site will create "a new global community of readers", as readers and writers use it to pass on their tips. Although this doesn't appeared to have happened as yet, it's early days, and it's such a good idea that we wanted to flag it up anyway.

 

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