São Paulo – The Brazilian-born, Lebanon-based writer Roberto Khatlab will attend the 1st Global Meeting and Exhibition of Expatriate Brazilian Writers, due September 20 at the Brazilian Embassy in London, United Kingdom. Approximately 40 writers from regions rancing ranging from Europe to the United States will be in attendance, and Khatlab will be the sole representative of the Middle East.
Khatlab has released 17 books, in Portuguese, Arabic, French, English and Spanish editions. Most his books address Arab immigration to Brazil and Brazilian immigration to the Arab countries. He also tackles the history, religion and culture of the Middle East. “This is my contribution for preserving the heritage of Brazil-Middle East relations,” he told ANBA by email.
The meeting is organized by the professor and researcher Else Vieira, with backing from the Queen Mary University of London, the Federal University of Juiz de Fora, the Education Ministry’s Foundation for Improvement of Higher Education Students (Capes), Associazione Culturale Internazionale Mandala and Fundação Focus Brasil.
Apart from Khatlab, the meeting will feature Brazilian writers living in the United States, Japan, United Kingdom, Belgium, the French Guyana, Norway, Switzerland, Germany, Netherlands, Italy and Canada. Some of them are Valdívia Beauchamp, from the US, Silvia Dreys, from Norway, Ricardo Stemberg, from Canada, Nelsi Emília Torres-Stocker, from Switzerland, Ivna Maluly, from Belgium and Ângelo Ishi, from Japan.
They will discuss a bevy of topics, mostly pertaining to the work of Brazilian expatriate writers and their current conditions. Subject matters will include the new paradigms of Brazilian literature, the visibility of the modern phenomenon of expatriate writers, the media’s role in this process, the intersection between poetic creation and literary research, literature and other mediums and arts, emigration, and memoir literature, among others.
Khatlab will discuss literature and research on emigration and immigration. The writer is a native of the city of Maringá and naturalized Lebanese. Presently, he is also the director of the Centre for Latin American Studies and Cultures (Cecal) at Université Saint-Esprit de Kaslik (USEK), in Lebanon. The meeting will take place from 9:00 am to 10:00 pm.
*Translated by Gabriel Pomerancblum
