-------- Original Message --------
Subject: I'jaam: An Iraqi Rhapsody - Friday
Date: Thu, 01 Nov 2007 06:55:25 -0700
From: Mizna <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Reply-To: Mizna <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Mizna presents:
Sinan Antoon, book event. I'jaam: An Iraqi Rhapsody.
Friday, November 2
Playwright's Center
2301 E Franklin Ave
Minneapolis, MN 55406
7-10 pm
Publication reading of his book I'jaam: An Iraqi Rhapsody.
About I'Jaam: An Iraqi Rhapsody
An inventory of the General Security headquarters in central Baghdad reveals an
obscure manuscript. Written by a young man in detention, the prose moves from
prison life, to adolescent memories, to frightening hallucinations, and what
emerges is a portrait of life in Saddam's Iraq . In the tradition of Kafka's
The Trial, or Orwell's 1984, I'jaam offers an insight into life under an
oppressive political regime and how that oppression works. This is a stunning
debut by a major young Iraqi writer-in-exile.
Praise for I'Jaam: An Iraqi Rhapsody
"He evokes a Baghdad heavy with Orwellian overtones . . . often he strikes the right
chord, to haunting effect." ? The Village Voice
" . . . a fictional memoir ? of a student/poet in solitary detention for having
ridiculed Saddam Hussein. . . . The student's dreams, memories and fantasies are eerily
beautiful ? he enters a reality far preferable to the one he has lived in for most of his
life." ? Los Angeles Times
About Sinan Antoon
Sinan Antoon's teaching and research interests lie in pre-modern Arabo-Islamic culture,
and contemporary Arab culture and politics. His dissertation, "The Poetics of the
Obscene," is the first study of the 10th-century Arab poet Ibn al-Hajjaj. In 2002,
he was awarded a Mellon Grant to support his research in the Middle East .
His Gallatin course (at NYU) offerings include The Body in the Arabic
Tradition, Arabic Poetry, The Qur'an, and a freshman seminar on Exile.
Antoon's poems and essays (in Arabic and English) have appeared in The Nation,
Middle East Report, al-Ahram Weekly, Banipal and the Journal of Palestine
Studies, among others. He has also published a collection of poems, Mawshur
Muballal bil-Huroob (A Prism; Wet with Wars), and a novel, I`jaam (with City
Lights this year.) His poetry was anthologized in Iraqi Poetry Today.
He has also contributed numerous translations of Arabic poetry into English, and his
co-translation of Mahmud Darwish's poetry was nominated for the PEN Prize for translation
in 2004. Antoon returned to his native Baghdad in 2003 as a member of InCounter
Productions to film a documentary, "About Baghdad," about the lives of Iraqis
in a post-Saddam occupied Iraq , which he co-produced and co-directed. He is a senior
editor for Arab Studies Journal, a member of Pen America , a contributing editor to
Banipal, and a member of the editorial committee of Middle East Report.
Sinan was just interviewed on PRI's "The World" and "Democracy Now". I'jaam: An Iraqi
Rhapsody has received excellent reviews in The Village Voice, The Los Angeles Times and elsewhere. In recent
years, he was interviewed on NPR's "All Things Considered."
Mizna is a forum for Arab American art. Visit our website at
http://www.mizna.org
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_______________________________________________
Mellon Myers Undegraduate Fellowship Program at Macalester (http://macmmuf.org)
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