Posted in: Yemen Observer
Written By: Raghda Gamal
Article Date: Feb 28, 2009
A critical reading of Yemeni author Najla al-Omari's new collection of short stories was held at the al-Afif Cultural Foundation, in cooperation with the Islamic Board of Literature on Tuesday February 24th.
Dr. Hatem al-Saker, who shared the stage with al-Omari, praised her work and expressed his thanks to the al-Afif Cultural Foundation for hosting the event, and sponsoring female Yemeni authors.
He discussed one of the collection's stories, titled "Is the Heroine Virtuous?" which tells the story of a writer consulting his wife about what he should do with the heroine in his novel. In al-Saker's opinion, this story is one of the most important stories of the collection, due to its expression of the reality that any writer faces when writing a story or novel.
He added that unfortunately, in the Arab world when critics discuss female writers and their work, they constantly look for similarities between the heroine of the story and the writer herself. A number of female authors complain about this kind of provoked reading, which is described by the author Nadiah al-Kokabany as spying.
Al-Saker also discussed the endings of a number of stories, which he felt were overloaded with poetry. Yet in the end, he believes this collection to be a winner, especially for the lower classes in Yemen, because it reflects ambitious visions and maturity.
Al-Omari then began to read selected stories from her collection, which contained fourteen short stories. She said that she was inspired to write by scenes in life. This is why most of al-Omari’ stories go through the state of things as they are, in a smooth style.
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