Anakana Schofield

Iraqi cultural books article

Here’s a link to an article I wrote about Iraqi cultural books…

http://www.canada.com/vancouversun/news/weekendreview/story.html?id=a6586cbd-01af-4aa4-84b0-47bcd20ede24

Given that Iraq is so topical, it’s remarkable we hear so little about Iraqi writers or aspects of Iraqi life beyond dictator, war, and occupation. We are becoming increasingly fluent on Iraq only in sectarian language and ideas. Words like Shia, Sunni, Moqtada, IED, roll off our tongues but we know little of Iraq’s rivers, soccer players, musicians, visual artists or food.

For those who protested or opposed the invasion of Iraq, a logical follow up could be to support some ongoing cultural life amidst the mayhem that prevails in Iraq. One way to do this is to actively purchase Iraqi books and thus create more publishing opportunities for Iraqi writers.

Click here for the rest.