What a Strange Idea: To be a Writer in the Arab World!
Anouar Benmalek
Monday 17 September, 2012
6 - 7:30pm, $0
Columbia University, Buell Hall
515 West 116th Street, East Gallery
It is a gamble for a writer to live in the Arab world. Violent dictatorships and intolerant societies put a high price on the act of writing: They either destroy the desire to write, or they force the writer to follow the advice of a poet who sacrificed his life for his craft: Silence is death / And you, if you remain silent, you die / And if you speak, you die / So speak and die.
Anouar Benmalek is a Franco-Algerian writer, poet, journalist and professor of mathematics. He was a founding member of the Algerian Committee Against Torture and editor of the Cahier noir d'Octobre about the torture committed by the Algerian army and police during the riots of October 1988. He is the prize-winning author of many books including Le Rapt (2009) and Tu ne mourras plus demain (2011).
His book, Abuction (Le Rapt, 2009), will be available for purchase at the event.
Co-sponsored by the Institute of African Studies and Middle East Institute and Department of Middle Eastern, South Asian and African Studies
Anouar Benmalek is a Franco-Algerian writer, poet, journalist and professor of mathematics. He was a founding member of the Algerian Committee Against Torture and editor of the Cahier noir d'Octobre about the torture committed by the Algerian army and police during the riots of October 1988. He is the prize-winning author of many books including Le Rapt (2009) and Tu ne mourras plus demain (2011).
His book, Abuction (Le Rapt, 2009), will be available for purchase at the event.
Co-sponsored by the Institute of African Studies and Middle East Institute and Department of Middle Eastern, South Asian and African Studies