Comma Press and the Arab British Centre are proud to present a very special evening exploring new trends in genre writing in contemporary Arabic fiction. Talal Abu Shawish is a Gaza-based author best known for his literary realism who recently turned to science fiction in his contribution to Palestine + 100 (Comma, 2019). Eman Abdelrahim is an Egyptian TV scriptwriter and author of the short story collection Rooms (Kotob Khan), which won the 2015 Sawiris Cultural Prize. Her story ‘Two Sisters’ featured in Comma’s The Book of Cairo and brought vampire gothic to Cairo for possibly the first time.

They will be in conversation with Comma editor Ra Page.

Copies of both books will be on sale on the night and the authors are happy to sign.

Please note: The Arab British Centre is a listed building and as such is not completely accessible. Contact for details.

Disclaimer: Please be aware, due to difficulties with obtaining a UK visa, and getting out of Gaza, Talal may need to appear via Skype or video recording.

***

About the authors

Eman Abdelrahim began writing on literary blogs. In 2012 she wrote the script for the Egyptian animated series People from the Dragon’s Eye. This story comes from her first collection, published in 2013. In 2015 she won a Sawiris Cultural Prize for the book.

Talal Abu Shawish is Assistant Director of the Boys Preparatory School for Refugees in Gaza. He has published three short story collections – The Rest are Not For Sale, The Assassination of a Painting (2010) and Goodbye, Dear Prophets (2011) – as well as four novels including Seasons of Love and Blood (2014) and Urban House (2018). His work has won multiple awards. Shawish is a member of the Palestinian Writers Union.