This week, we are proud to introduce one of our newest Editors-at-Large, Amal Sarhan, for Bahrain, alongside first-time contributor Alejandra Camila Quintana Arocho, who gives us a dispatch from Puerto Rico. From a long-delayed book fair and ongoing discursive panels in Bahrain to the launch of a new book festival in Puerto Rico, read on to find out more!
Amal Sarhan, Editor-at-Large, Reporting from Bahrain
Bahrain is a quiet country to many. Dotted with date palms, surrounded by sea, and appearing as a mere speck of dust on the world map, it is natural for locals to feel an air of insignificance, including with regards to its literary scene. While the bellows of the recent launch of the 20th Sheikh Zayed Book Award, the Riyadh International Book Fair in October, and the ongoing Sharjah International Book Fair reverberate far into the Arabian Sea, the Bahraini equivalent has been delayed for years, our dismay at which has been cleverly captured in this very poignant caricature by the famed Bahraini artist Khalid Al Hashimi.
Scholar and author Dr. Fahad Hussain once told me that despite the vibrancy of the cultural scene in Bahrain and the diversity of literary talent on the islands, there nevertheless exists a dearth of engagement with literature and reading among many. The endless postponement of the Bahrain International Book Fair is a stark example. The good thing is that there are many individuals (including Dr. Hussain) and groups invested in promoting these very important cultural practices as well as encouraging a stronger relationship with Bahraini heritage and literature. More recently, the Bahrain Historical and Archeological Society formed the Dilmun Reading Club, a revived version of an old reading group, dedicated to exploring important Arabic language texts (including translations from around the world) in a plethora of genres. The free-entry initiative is proving to be a major success, attracting both young and old from various parts of the country who, in the first informal session, all expressed their desire to uplift and appreciate the beauty of the language and the literary geniuses of the region. The next discussion, which took place on November 19th, will be on The Longing of the Dervish by Sudanese author Hammour Ziada. The Society additionally hosts regular talks, including by important writers and critics such as Dr. Hasan Madan, who presented a talk on “A Reading of Hafez Wahba’s Memoirs” and discussed the Saudi diplomat’s life and work.
In other news, the Bahrain Writers Association, founded in 1969, held its latest session earlier this week, hosting a talk on “The Importance of Intellectual Thought and Critical Thinking in Translation,” highlighting the importance of paying attention to the intricacies of language when translating literary texts. Additionally, the second edition of the “We Write in Arabic” initiative was officially launched in Bahrain late last month, calling for submissions of short stories, poems, novels, and comics. The programme, run by the Bahrain Islamic Bank and patronized by His Highness Shaikh Nasser bin Hamad Al Khalifa (representative of humanitarian work and youth affairs), offers rewards of up to BHD 1,000 (approximately £2,000) for up to twenty young writers, whose work will be published in an anthology commemorating their talent and potential. Another recent event, the Reesha Wa Qalam (Feather and Pen) Initiative, headed by Amana Creative Collective and Al Mabarrah Al Khalifia, and in which Dr. Hasan Madan was also involved, highlighted the role of cultural institutions in encouraging literary activity and intellectual engagement, as well as the relationship between art and literature as complimentary and interwoven aesthetic practices embedded in Bahraini culture. One must therefore not ignore the many active groups and initiatives that continue to carry the torch of literary expression, exploration, and appreciation on the islands.
Alejandra Camila Quintana Arocho, Reporting from Puerto Rico
The literary and arts world at large in Puerto Rico just celebrated the inaugural iteration of the Feria Internacional de Libro (FIL RÍO 2025), the first book festival organized by the University of Puerto Rico’s Río Piedras campus, and by any local university in recent history. Dozens of Puerto Rican writers, translators, scholars and editors from independent presses who live in the archipelago and across the diaspora participated in the fair’s extensive programming. Major figures of Puerto Rican literature gave keynote lectures, like poet and novelist Giannina Braschi, who is known for her Spanglish avant-garde novel Yo-Yo Boing! (1998) and whose most recent work PUTINOIKA (Brown Ink, 2024) is a political satire in the key of a Greek tragedy.
Many writers of different literary generations from Puerto Rico and from other parts of Latin America and the rest of the world participated in the various panels, workshops, readings, performances, and film screenings that made up the festival. To name just a few, Magali García Ramis, Vanessa Droz, Mayra Santos Febres, Mara Pastor, Yara Liceaga-Rojas, Cezanne Cardona Morales, Nicole Cecilia Delgado, Huáscar Robles, Frank Báez (from the Dominican Republic), along with the Cuban singer Daymé Arocena and the French film director and producer Sébastien Onomo. The programming centered around themes like migration, translation, dissident identities, poetic practices of solidarity, and indigenous Latin American literatures.
The FIL RÍO also celebrated recent books published in Spanish and in translation, including Roque Salas Rivera’s trans epic poem Algarabía (Graywolf Press, 2025) published in September, a new bilingual critical edition of Julia de Burgos’s poetry, letters, and essays I Am My Own Path edited by Vanessa Pérez-Rosario (University of Texas Press, 2025) published last month, and Xavier Valcárcel’s historical fiction novel Los nidos (Casa Riel, 2025), which was published this month.
The fair fulfills a need for members of the arts scene in Puerto Rico at large and beyond to gather and share in their love of literature–a need that has perhaps been felt since the last Festival de la Palabra, which was held in 2018. Hopefully, the FIL RÍO will become an annual occasion and continue contributing to an ever-growing cultural programming alongside other celebrations, like the Festival Internacional de Poesía en Puerto Rico, which will be held in its fifteenth iteration in March 2026.
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