YA fiction treads carefully in the Arab world

Young adults dominate the Arabic book market, but publishers are acutely sensitive to the slightest challenge to conservative etiquetteThe boom in young adult fiction has left the Arab publishing world playing catch-up, as authors try to compete with Twilight and The Hunger Games without breaking cultural taboos. “There are too many taboos on what to write and how to write it,” says Taghreed Najjar, who has twice been shortlisted for the YA category of the new Etisalat prize for Arabic children’s literature. “It’s easier to sell books for younger children under the guise of educating them or strengthening their moral fibre. People who bought these kind of books were parents and teachers. But YA has to appeal to young adults to sell well, hence the dilemma.” Continue reading... Continue reading at 'The Guardian'

[ The Guardian | 2014-11-21 00:00:00 UTC ]
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