Middle East/North African Lit discussion

Hello everyone, I am Tunisian and I recently came accross this group which I found very interesting, as I was researching contemporary oriental authors.
However, as I looked into the bookshelf under "Tunisia" I was very surprised that very few tunisian books/authors were listed in there... some of the authors listed are not even tunisian? so I am wondering, are the tunisian authors too unknown to be in goodreads database? What can I do to change this? Thank you.

Afef, if you are talking about adding books to the bookshelf in this group, I suggest you contact one of the moderators as I think they are probably the only ones who can add books to the bookshelf.

Hello Afef! Great idea to list Tunisian authors for us. I'm quite sure that you can add books and create threads as long as you're a member of this group. If I recall correctly, I believe that I was able to do so with no priblem.

Welcome Afef!
Have you tried adding books to the Tunisian bookshelf here?
Thank You!

Afef, I would love see a list of Tunisian authors so I can find books to read by them. Your posting made me wonder what was out there and with searching I've found very little. I am only able to read translations from Arabic or French (I could maybe decipher a bit of French but not much). So PLEASE, help us!

These are a few websites I found but haven't discovered the authors:

Tunisian Literature (in English): https://tunisianlit.wordpress.com/
Banipal 39: Modern Tunisian Literature [with a lot of non-Tunisian authors listed]: https://tunisianlit.wordpress.com/
And I searched Arab Lit (in English) and found a number of discussions: https://arablit.org/

Wikipedia has nothing.

Thanks!

There is a Tunisian literary prize called The Golden Comar Prize. This site has quite a few suggestions of the books translated into English:
https://tunisianlit.wordpress.com/201...

I read this string for the first time this morning. And I am new here myself too :-)

I looked into the authors listed for the prize and tried to find their books advertised on the internet. Couldn't find book covers or blurbs for the books anywhere. Afef, can you possibly try to find some more information, please? How many were translated into English, etc?

I found this website as well. Bookcovers and blurbs, but the books are not in English, sadly.
http://www.tunisia-live.net/2015/08/1...

And this Facebook page on Tunisian books in English, but sadly not very active, it seems.

https://www.facebook.com/Tunisia-Book...

A few more books in English with book covers written by Mohamed Bacha
https://www.booksinc.net/search/site/...

Tamara wrote: "Afef, if you are talking about adding books to the bookshelf in this group, I suggest you contact one of the moderators as I think they are probably the only ones who can add books to the bookshelf."

Hey Tamara, thanks for your answar :)
You are right, it seems only moderators can add books to the bookshelf .

Yes, just mention any books on our Book Recommendations thread and we will add them to the bookshelf for you! This is necessary because in the past there were some members who added spam to the bookshelf or disorganized it. Thank you!

Hey all,
Thanks for your interest, I am glad to see so many reactions to my post. Many of the pages you shared lists contemporary authors and that is no surprise for me that they wouldnt figure on goodreads or anywhere else because they are sadly relatively unknown (even in Tunis...)
However, I was surprised that even the big names of our classic litterature are not listed anywhere...
I would love to suggest classic litterature names first, and then contemporary authors but I have no idea how much material is available in englich (most likely very few) as most of the books will be written in arabic, french or tunisian dialect.
Also I have no idea how to do this, should I make threads in here?

Margitte wrote: "And this Facebook page on Tunisian books in English, but sadly not very active, it seems.

Hey Margitte,
Since you were looking for pages on facebook, here are the two main active reading groups in Tunis on Fb:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/oalpv...
https://www.facebook.com/groups/on.a....
These are not groups which talk about tunisian literature but mostly people talking/making suggestions about what they are reading at the moment.
There are also some who have literary blogs, pages, youtube channels.. but once again, you would need to understand either tunisian or french here are a couple exemples if you wanna check them out:
https://www.facebook.com/Skabooks/
https://www.facebook.com/Myveryownboo...

Hi Afef,
Go to Melanie's message #12 and click on the link Book Recommendations Thread. In the comment box, list the books you want added to the bookshelf (you might first need to check the books are available in English). After you've listed the books, request that they be added to the bookshelf. And that should take care of it.

Afef wrote: "Hey Margitte,
Since you were looking for pages on facebook, here are the two main active ..."

Ahhhh, thanks, Afef. Much appreciated.

Thanks Tamara!

Melanie wrote: "Thanks Tamara!"

You're welcome. I'm glad to help.