Al-Jasrah Cultural Club recently released the 60th issue of its magazine, Al-Jasrah Al-Thaqafiyya, including a series of articles on various local and Arab cultural topics. The issue also commemorates the golden jubilee of the Doha International Book Fair, whose 31st edition was held in January. The Doha International Book Fair, which started in 1972, was the first of its kind in the Gulf Region and the 4th in the Arab World. The most recent edition of the fair focused on the localization of book production culture.
The latest issue of Al-Jasrah magazine puts the spotlight on the successes of the fair, such as the wide-ranging diversity of participating Qatari, Arab, and international publishers, as well as the numerous workshops, lectures, theater performances, and book launching events held at the fair. The issue also focuses on the Ministry of Culture’s initiative to celebrate Qatari intellectual pioneers in the presence of His Excellency Sheikh Abdul Rahman bin Hamad Al Thani, Minister of Culture, through its Mulhimoun program, which is streamed on the Cultural Forum platform.
The issue offers a summary of Al-Jasrah Club’s winter 2022 activities, particularly those held at the Doha International Book Fair. It also reports on the Minister of Culture’s visit to Al-Jasrah Club’s head office at Souq Waqif. During this visit, His Excellency met with club members and affiliated innovators to discuss the club’s cultural activities and projects.
Featured in the issue is an interview by Dr. Hassan Rashid with Dr. Hanan Al-Fayad, Media Consultant for Sheikh Hamad Award for Translation and International Understanding. During the interview, Dr. Al-Fayad emphasized that the award is now a major resource for translation and the history of translation. The interview addressed some of the 2021 winning titles, such as Mohammed bin Mohammed Al-Jufairy’s first novel 1972: A coincidence Better than a Thousand Appointments. The novel offers so many narrative features that reflect the uniqueness of the Qatari novel that it is considered a true literary treasure.
The latest issue of Al-Jasrah includes several articles, including Significant Paintings: Fortresses and Poisonous Gardens by Dr. Noura Mohammed Faraj and Toward Globalization by Siham Jassim. It also includes the last article in Dr. Sabri Hafiz’s series Reminiscing with Dr. Taha Hussein and a republication of an excerpt from Mahmoud Bayram Al-Tounsi’s exile memoirs entitled When Steel Sprouted. The untitled memoirs were originally published in Tunisia by Al-Sardouk newspaper, and the title of the edited republication was added by Al-Jasrah’s editorial team.