São Paulo – This year’s edition of the Paraty International Literary Festival (Flip) will feature the Syrian poet Aboud Saeed, 33. The author of the book “The smartest guy on Facebook,” Saeed will take part in a literary panel with journalist Patrícia Campos Mello, of the Folha de S. Paulo daily, who authored news stories and interviews about the conflict in the Arab country and is currently writing the book Lua de mel em Kobani (Honeymoon in Kobani), about a refugee couple in the city. Saeed’s book will be issued in Portuguese by publishing company Editora 34 at Flip, which will run from June 29th to July 3rd in the seaside city in the state of Rio de Janeiro.
The curator of Flip’s 14th edition, Paulo Werneck, told ANBA that having Saeed attend is a way of portraying the reality of people amid the conflict. “I became interested in inviting him because the war in Syria and its repercussions are the biggest drama of our time in the world. We, Brazilians, are connected with Syria; we are influenced by their culture, by way of the immigrants who came from that country. I believe there was a pressing need to address this matter at Flip,” he said. “Welcoming a Syrian writer and discussing the country’s reality is a way of expressing our affection and solidarity for their people, for their youth,” Werneck said.
Saeed was born in Manbij, in the Aleppo province, where he lived with his family until the city was shelled in 2012. He then moved to the city of Aleppo. Now, he lives as a refugee in Berlin, Germany. His poems were published on Facebook since the conflict broke out between president Bashar Al Assad’s forces and the armed opposition, in 2011. “I write whatever comes into my head / on the emptiness / which made me a phantom poet” is one of the poems off Saeed’s book, which is being translated from Arabic into Portuguese by Pedro Martins Criado.
According to Werneck, the literary panel featuring the Syrian author and Patrícia will discuss the Syrian conflict “through the eyes of regular people,” who struggle to survive and get on with their lives amid the war.
Other attractions
This year, Flip will honor the Brazilian poet Ana Cristina Cesar (1952-1983), who wrote so-called poesia marginal (marginal poetry). During the 1970s, leading figures from this literary current would sell their near-handcrafted books at literary events and in the streets. Their work departed from the rules and trends of academia and dealt with violence in the big cities, among other topics. The winner of the 2015 Nobel Prize for Literature, the Belarusian journalist Svetlana Aleksiévitch has also confirmed her attendance. She will be launching the book “War’s Unwomanly Face,” about the participation of soviet women in World War 2 (1939-1945).
*Translated by Gabriel Pomerancblum
