Writers project Lebanese culture 

Khaleej TImes - By a staff reporter

18 February 2007

DUBAI — The first edition of the Lebanese Cultural Week, being organised by Culture and Co, a French bookstore, in association with Alliance Francaise in Dubai and Abu Dhabi, has received an overwhelming response from people.

Scholars and people who are interested in Lebanese and French cultures are taking part in the event which will end tomorrow.

The week-long activities in schools and cultural centres are attracting arts and literature students eager to meet their favourite Lebanese writers and artists.

Renowned Lebanese journalists and writers Charif Majdalani, May Menassah and Youmna Medlej were especially invited from Lebanon for this event.

Menassah has already delivered two lectures in Abu Dhabi, titled ‘The multi–faceted Beirut’ and ‘Beirut land of gods and men’. She will also be speaking in Dubai. Her five books, including The Last Scene, In Sarah’s Garden and Papers from a Prisoner’s Booknote, are being showcased during the event.

Medlej is taking part in the cultural week with her five books including Byblos, The Excavations of Beirut and The Cedars of Lebanon. Majdalani is promoting his books, The Story of the Big house and A Little Insight into Cultural Mixtures.

Maya Waked, an up-and-coming literary talent, who released her new book, Closed for Inventory, during a ceremony at Culture and Co in Dubai, and Chantal Ghoraieb, who has exhibited her paintings at the French bookstore, have both been living in the city for the past couple of years.

Renata Sader, owner of the French bookstore Culture and Co, said, “The overwhelming success of this first edition of the Lebanese Cultural Week has strengthened our conviction that people living in the UAE, and especially French speakers, long for such cultural activities.”

May Menassah said, “This event gave us the opportunity to meet our audiences and friends who had left Lebanon earlier to settle down in this country, but it also allowed us to meet people from various nationalities who can appreciate Lebanese culture and arts.”