This event, organised by the Marrakech English Book Festival Association with the support of the British Council, the Council of the Moroccan Community Abroad, the Dar El Bacha Museum, the Dar Bellarj Foundation, the British Academy, and the École Supérieure des Arts Visuels in Marrakech, provides a space for Moroccan and foreign writers to share experiences and discuss their literary works.
Chaired by the Moroccan poet Yassine Adnan, this event seeks to promote dialogue between Arabic and international literature, contribute to enriching the literary cultural scene, and provide an opportunity for literature and visual arts enthusiasts to discover Moroccan and international English-speaking literary voices.
In a speech on the occasion, Mr. Adnan emphasised that this event is a space for rapprochement between Moroccan writers and their Anglo-Saxon counterparts, highlighting that this festival will become an unmissable annual event on the local and national cultural scene.
He noted that this edition is also distinguished by the presentation of a new national book prize, the Costa Goldex Prize for Moroccan books written in English, as well as another prize aimed at encouraging writing among students and young people.
For his part, the festival’s secretary general and one of the partners in organising this event, Alan Keohane, said that the goal behind this event is to establish an international platform that highlights writings in English by Moroccan authors, especially since "this language has become more popular, particularly among the younger generations".
Mr. Keohane added, in a statement to the Maghreb Arabe Presse agency, that given the lack of events organised in the language of Shakespeare, the organisers decided to launch this festival to encourage reading in English and provide a space for authors, especially young people wishing to write in English.
The festival features Moroccan authors who write directly in English, and foreign English-speaking authors who have intellectual or literary works inspired by Marrakech, Morocco, or the Arab world, including the Moroccan writer residing in America Laila Lalami, whose novel "The Moor’s Account" was shortlisted for the prestigious international Pulitzer Prize, the British authors Fiona Valpy, author of "The Storyteller of Casablanca", Amira Bennison, author of "The Almoravid and Almohad Empires", and Jane Johnson, author of "The Sultan’s Wife", alongside the Indian writer Panit Bhandal, the Iranian writer Mardokht Amini, and the Moroccan novelist Fouad Laroui.
The programme of this event, which continues until 19 January, includes a number of different activities, including intellectual and literary seminars, lectures, book signing parties, creative workshops, and activities aimed at children, hosted by the Dar El Bacha Museum and the festival’s parallel spaces.
