Beirut Arab International Book Fair Declares Resistance, Challenge

The Beirut Arab International Book Fair has opened its doors on Thursday after a three-year hiatus. Although its 62nd and last edition took place in 2018, this didn’t help keep it out of the Lebanese disputes. Publishers were divided; some believed Beirut needs some hope and everyone should defy the current circumstances, while others thought the timing is not good and it would be better to wait until its annual date, in December. However, the Arab Cultural Club, the association behind the fair, decided to hold an event now, and another in December because ‘the long absence serves no one.’

For the first time, the Beirut Arab International Book Fair is missing prominent publishing houses including Dar Al Adab, Dar Al Saqi, the Arab Scientific Publishers, Dar Al Jadeed, Hachette Antoine, Dar Al Tanweer, and Al Mada Publisher. However, the absence of ‘whales’ could be beneficial for the small publishing houses, said Dr. Abdulhalim Hammoud, founder of Dar Zamakan, referring to the large, prominent publishers. Hammoud sees this fair as an opportunity the new publishing houses could use to meet the readers without competition. “Our house has five signing events and displays new books including one about Fairuz and another about Ziad Rahbani. Each one of the partaking publishers has six to ten signing events as well,” he said. “The fair could be seen as a failure because of the hard situation in the country. But we think differently. A three-year hiatus means piles of new titles, warehouses full of books printed before the crisis and the devaluation of the local currency, and sales for affordable prices. It's’ a great opportunity for publishers seeking to boost their sales. Our house partakes in the fair with four new novels, and we plan to sell the book for 100,000 LBP (around $5) while other houses are selling the book for 200,000 LBP (around $10)”.

Inspired by the hard situation the country is currently living in, this year’s edition is dubbed “Beirut of Resistance…Beirut never Falls.” However, Suleiman Bakhti, owner of Dar Nelson, describes it as the ‘fair of challenge’ and ‘exploration.’ “We lost contact with the reading audience. It’s been a long time; things have changed, and this concerns me as a person interested in cultural affairs. We are seeing withdrawals from the industry, while our mission is to create more interaction through books, theater, and music. This year, we don’t want people to buy, but they must come, meet us, and leave their burdens behind. Following the economic collapse, the Beirut blast, the pandemic, and all the disasters we lived over the past two years, all we really want is to see people standing on their feet again,” Bakhti explained.

The past editions of the Beirut Arab International Book Fair were held at the Seaside Arena, in the heart of Beirut, in a 10,000 square meter hall which was destroyed by the blast on August 4, 2020. The venue was partly renovated, so the fair will be held over a 4,000 square meter space this year. There is a promise that the entire hall will be renovated by the end of the year, and the next date of the exhibition.

Jihad Chebaro, the owner of the Arab Scientific Publishers that declined to partake in the fair, believes such an event cannot be held in the current circumstances. “The venue and the parking lots are not ready yet, and most publishers and the Syndicate of Publishers Union refused to participate, so we didn’t want to oppose this decision. We wanted the fair to happen on its annual date because we didn’t want a failed event, and we were ready to participate with affordable prices,” he told Asharq Al-Awsat.

Rasha al-Amir, the owner of Al Jadeed Publishing, who also refused to partake, wrote on Facebook: “Dar Al Jadeed, which partook in this fair since its establishment, decided to step back this year. We write on our website for free. We publish our works on Amazon for those who can buy books through this comfortable means. We believe book fairs have become a sort of showoff. This kind of demonstration is not among our priorities anymore.”

However, readers have another opinion. Many have applauded the decision to resume the Beirut Arab International Book Fair on social media.

For her part, Salwa Siniora Baassiri, head of the Arab Culture Club, said the organization of the exhibition today is “a cultural awakening call for the Lebanese capital which never gives up.” “People can create the suitable circumstances if they want to. It’s up to us to choose to surrender or to survive. If we have the will, we can definitely stand again,” she said.

“We must not leave books alone. This fair is ours; we can make it succeed or fail. With all my respect to those who refused to partake, I was hoping everyone could engage. We will be there, bearing the high costs. We are experiencing a new situation, but if we don’t hold this event, something will be missing. We want to survive, and culture is a key feature of life,” said Bakhti.

The fair faces many challenges this year, but the Arab Cultural Club and the partaking publishers are making huge efforts to make a successful event.

Schools won’t be partaking this time because of costly transportation. Many publishing houses suffered to find affordable shelves to display their books, and the organizers have been dealing with obstacles they never faced before.

Daily activities scheduled during the event will host many prominent artists and academics like Heba al-Kawas and Zahi Wehbi in a dialogue between poetry and music on March 4. The program also features a musical evening dubbed “On Route of Poetry from Tripoli to Beirut,” and a day to celebrate the Ukrainian culture. Algerian novelists Wasini al-Aaraj, Intissar al-Wazir, Sakr Abu Fakhr, Fawaz Traboulsi, Yahya Jaber, and Yousef Bazzi, are also among the attendees.

This edition sees the participation of 90 publishing houses from Lebanon, in addition to publishers from Iraq, Syria, and Egypt. Over 30 activities will be held on the sidelines of the bookfair including cultural seminars, music concerts, and signing events.

The Beirut Arab International Book Fair was the first of its kind in the Arab world. Organized by the Arab Cultural Club, it debuted in 1956, at the American University of Beirut. Then, it has become an annual cultural event that lures readers and publishers alike. The current edition will run until March 13.

Shuntaro Tanikawa, who pioneered modern Japanese poetry, poignant but conversational in its divergence from haiku and other traditions, has died. He was 92.

Tanikawa, who translated the "Peanuts" comic strip and penned the lyrics for the theme song of the animation series "Astro Boy," died Nov. 13, his son Kensaku Tanikawa said Tuesday. He said his father died at a Tokyo hospital due to old age.

Shuntaro Tanikawa stunned the literary world with his 1952 debut "Two Billion Light Years of Solitude," a bold look at the cosmic in daily life, sensual, vivid but simple in its use of everyday language. Written before Gabriel García Márquez’ "One Hundred Years of Solitude," it became a bestseller.

Tanikawa’s "Kotoba Asobi Uta," or "Word Play Songs," is a rhythmical experiment in juxtaposing words that sound similar, such as "kappa," a mythical animal and "rappa," a horn, that makes for a joyful singsong compilation, filled with alliterations and onomatopoeia.

"For me, the Japanese language is the ground. Like a plant, I place my roots, drink in the nutrients of the Japanese language, sprouting leaves, flowers and bearing fruit," he said in a 2022 interview with The Associated Press at his Tokyo home.

Tanikawa explored the poetic, not only in the repetitive music of the spoken word but also the magic hidden in little things.

One of his works is titled, "I wanted to talk to you in the kitchen in the middle of the night."

"In the past, there was something about it being a job, being commissioned. Now, I can write as I want," he said.

In every work Tanikawa tackled, including the script for Kon Ichikawa’s "Tokyo Olympiad," a documentary film of the 1964 Tokyo Games, the respectful love for the beauty of the Japanese language resonates.

He also translated Mother Goose, Maurice Sendak and Leo Lionni. Tanikawa has in turn been widely translated, including English, Chinese and various European languages.

Some of his works were made into picture books for children, and they are often featured in Japanese school textbooks. He also incorporated Japanese words derived from foreign origins into his poems like Coca-Cola.

In his prose poem with that title, in which a boy is opening a Coke can, he wrote: "If, for instance, he saw the infinite universe that started or ended at the tip of his can, he was totally unaware of it. One might be able to opine that he named every bit of the unknown about to swallow him with all the vocabulary he could muster, which included his future vocabulary that was yet dormant in his subconscious."

In his debut poem that catapulted him to stardom, he is more sparse:

"Because the universe goes on expanding, we are all uneasy. With the chill of two billion light-years of solitude, I suddenly sneezed," is the way the poem ends, as translated by William I. Elliott and Kazuo Kawamura.

When asked about it, Tanikawa acknowledged it felt as though someone else had written it, but noted he still thought it was a good poem.

"Tanikawa’s poetry reflects a metaphysical and quasi-religious attitude toward experience. In simple, spare language, he sketches profound ideas and emotional truths," according to the Poetry Foundation, a US literary organization.

Tanikawa was born in 1931, a son of philosopher Tetsuzo Tanikawa, and began writing poetry in his teens, circulating with the famous poets of that era, like Makoto Ooka and Shuji Terayama.

He said he used to think poems descended like an inspiration from the heavens. But, as he grew older, he felt the poems welling up from the ground.

In person, Tanikawa was friendly and unassuming, often reading in public with other poets. He never seemed to take himself too seriously but used to confess his one regret in life was never finishing his education, having dropped out amid stardom at a young age.

His relative isolation from the bleakly serious scholarly poetry scene of postwar Japan likely helped him take his free-verse approach that went on to innovate and define Japanese contemporary poetics.

Tanikawa said he wasn’t afraid of death, implying he perhaps meant to write a poem about that experience, too.

"I am more curious about where I will go when I die. It’s a different world, right? Of course, I don’t want pain. I don’t want to die after major surgery or anything. I just want to die, all of a sudden," he said.

He is survived by his son, musician Kensaku Tanikawa and daughter Shino and several grandchildren. Funeral services were held privately with family and friends. A farewell event in his honor is being planned, Kensaku Tanikawa said.

"As they did with all of you, Shuntaro’s poems stunned and moved me, making me chuckle or shed a tear. Wasn’t it all so fun?" he said. "His poems are with you forever."

Beirut Arab International Book Fair Declares Resistance, Challenge