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The Ministry of Culture issued Issue No. (182) for January 2023 of “Doha Cultural” magazine. The issue included two files, the first concerned with the great Iraqi Arab poet Badr Shaker Al-Sayyab, and a passage from the introduction of the late Egyptian poet Hassan Tawfiq for the book Selected Poems of Modern International Poetry, and the second file celebrates the experience of the Qatari novelist Faisal Al-Ansari, the winner of the Katara Prize for Arabic Fiction, through a comprehensive dialogue about his experience, creativity, and his views on culture and narrative.

Mr. Khaled Al-Awda Al-Fadhli, the Editor-in-Chief, started the issue with a speech on “The World Cup and the Immortal Cultural Heritage”, in which he referred to the association of the 2022 World Cup activities hosted by Doha with culture and civilization and the dissemination of the Arab-Islamic identity, which had a wide resonance in promoting identity and openness to the other, and exporting the cultural and civilizational product, and conveying the image of creativity and civilization through what has been embodied on the land of Qatar.

The issue included two files, the first concerned was about the great Iraqi Arab poet Badr Shaker Al-Sayyab (1926-1964) through contributions initiated by the poet and the novelist Issa al-Sheikh Hassan, with a speech about Al-Sayyab’s presence in the 25^th edition of the Gulf Cup hosted by the city of Basra last January, in addition to a clip from the introduction of the late Egyptian poet Hassan Tawfiq to the book Selected Poems of Modern International Poetry, translated by Badr Shaker Al-Sayyab, whose second edition was published in 2012 within “Doha Book” series, in which he reviewed Al-Sayyab’s great poetic presentation.

The file also included an article by the Qatari poet Mubarak bin Saif Al Thani, entitled: The Journey of Poetry with Badr Shaker Al-Sayyab, published in the fifth issue of Doha Magazine, in 1976, in which he reviewed features of Al-Sayyab’s social life, and the sources of his culture, style and poeticism… starting from the village of the poet “Jekur”, which he immortalized in his poetry.

The second file celebrates the experience of the Qatari novelist Faisal Al-Ansari, the winner of Katara Prize for Arabic Fiction, through a comprehensive dialogue about his experience, creativity, and views on culture and narrative. The title of the novel is “The Fires of Toubkal”, Realities of History in the Service of Imagination, by the writer Nashwa Ahmed, along with selected passages from the recently published novel “The Fires of Toubkal” by the author.

The “Issues” section included an article by writer and novelist Jokha Al-Harthi on “The Novel, Document or Fiction?” on the replacement of traditional political authority by societal censorship, this censorship became more severe for the writer.

The novelist and researcher Ammar Ali Hassan wrote about: “Shadow Intellectuals, a vision from the angle of the sociology of knowledge.” The storyteller Mohammad Mohammad Mustagab wrote: “On Al-Maghout, Zorba the Arab prose – a face full of confusion and hope.”

Meanwhile, the writer Pierre Louis Cass recalled, in the article “Pele Walks on the Moon,” translated by Aziz Al-Samadi, the charming beauty of the skills of the most famous football player.

The music section included a dialogue on African music, arts, and cultural identity, conducted by writer and translator Abdel-Jabbar Abdallah with Professor Pascal Yau-Young.

The great critic Sabri Hafez wrote about the Chinese literature and the variables of the novel and theatre.

In the chapter on vision, Dr. Khaled Azab wrote about the nature of Islamic art, a visual communication of a civilization based on the concept of acquaintance, and the novelist Wajdi al-Ahdal wondered in the same chapter, what is human literature, between the arcs of excessive growth of the mind and the private space of the soul?

As for Tashkeel, critic Mohamed Adham Al-Sayed wrote about: Strange monsters that promenade on the beaches and feed on the wind, in the experience of the Dutch artist Theo Bansen.

In the section of readings, the critic Imad Abdel Latif wrote four stories on the sidelines of the novel Moby Dick, and the critic and academic Dr. Ahmed Al-Sadiq Ahmed wrote readings entitled: From the Light of Thought, Biography and Narration.

The writer Sherine Maher shed light in the cinema section on the movie “Ticket to Heaven, entitled: From the End of the World to Celebration of Life, and the issue concluded with the storyteller, translator and academic Khalifa Hazaa, who wrote about: Grotesques … The Literature of the Strange.