The Marrakech English Book Festival contributes to promoting cultural tourism and positioning the Ocher city as an essential cultural destination, said the president of this cultural event, Yassine Adnan.
This major cultural event has become a bridge of communication between Moroccan writers and their Anglo-Saxon counterparts, thus promoting dialogue between Arab and international literature and contributing to enrich the literary cultural scene, noted Mr. Adnan in an interview at MAP, on the occasion of the 2nd edition of the Marrakech English Book Festival, scheduled for January 17 to 19.
Yassine Adnan, renowned poet and novelist, also stressed that this festival aims to achieve interaction between writers and intellectuals from different continents, by encouraging cultural exchanges, by strengthening mutual understanding between different cultures through English literature, and to enable writers from different countries to interact with local and international audiences.
“By welcoming authors writing in English, coming from different continents, the festival also contributes to the international influence of Morocco in general and of the city of Marrakech in particular,” he added, indicating that the event will this year highlight honor Moroccan writers in the diaspora.
In this context, Yassine Adnan stressed that the Festival Association has entered into a partnership with the Council of the Moroccan Community Abroad (CCME), with the aim of encouraging Moroccan writers from the diaspora to meet of their counterparts from their country of origin, with the prospect that such meetings will lead to the conclusion of partnerships between the two parties and also encourage publishing houses in Morocco to publish books in English, or even translated books.
He noted, in this regard, that the festival will highlight the challenges facing the dissemination in Morocco of books written in English, whether they are published locally or imported, particularly in light of the emergence of Moroccan authors. speaking in English and finding it difficult to publish their works.
Regarding the new programming of the 2nd edition of the festival, Mr. Adnan noted that the organizers have decided to devote a large part of the activities to the promotion of Moroccan poetry written in English, as well as to the exhibition of foreign books dealing with the civilization of Morocco in general, and the millennial history of Marrakech in particular, in addition to organizing conferences, signing sessions, creative workshops and activities intended for children, which will take place mainly at the Dar El Museum Bacha and other places associated with the festival.
In this context, Yassine Adnan announced that this edition will be marked by the presentation of a new national book prize, namely “the Costa Goldex Prize” for Moroccan works in the English language, which will be awarded this year to the writer Oum Hani Alaoui for her novel “The House on Butterfly Street”.
And note that visitors to the festival will have the opportunity to discover recent literary works written in English, whether novels or non-fiction books, which will strengthen interest in English literature among of the Moroccan and international public, through the organization of workshops and educational debates, aiming to address various literary subjects, notably writing, publishing and the challenges of literature in the contemporary world.
And to conclude that the Marrakech English Book Festival accompanies profound societal changes in its openness to the English language, which has become present in force alongside Arabic, Amazigh and French, within the mosaic linguistics of the country.
