The 24th edition of the Casablanca International Publishing and Book Fair, to be held on February 8-18, said the ministry of Culture and Communication. More than 300 national and international writers, poets and researchers are expected to attend the annual event. In addition to the Moroccan writers and the delegation of Egypt, guest of honor, Palestinians Ghayath Al Madhoun (poet), Ibrahim Nasrallah (novelist), Abderrahmane Bsissou (literary critic), Mohamed Diab Abu Saleh (researcher) Najeh Bekirate (head of the manuscripts division at Al-Aqsa Mosque) and Khalil Tafekji (from of Orient House in Al-Quds) are also invited to the Casablanca's fair. Omani poet Hassan El Matrouchi, London resident Iraqi poet Fawzi Karim, Algerian novelist Kamel Daoud and fellow poet Bouzid Harzallah, Lebanese novelist Ali Nassar and Aissa Makhlouf (poet and literary critic) will take part of the same event. Mauritanian researcher Si Ahmed Ouled al-Amir and the Jordanian writer Racha al-Khatib are invited as well. Syria will be represented by Nouri al-Jarrah, poet and director of the Arab Center for Geographic Literature - Exploration of Horizons, literary critic Khaldoun Chemâa, novelist Moufid Najm, visual artist Âssim Bacha and novelist Tayssir Khalaf. In addition, Egyptian translators Salah Hilal and Amina Masri, film critic Amir al-Omari and writer Walid Alaa Eddine are expected to attend. The SIEL will also welcome Tuareg poet Mohamadine Khawad (Niger), laureate of the Argana-2017 International Poetry Prize, Senegalese Amadou Lamine Sall and Chinese translator Cheng Cheng. From France, this edition welcomes the jurist Michel Rousset, the novelist Gilbert Sinoué, the poet Julien Balaine and the researcher at the National Center for Scientific Research (CNRS) in Paris, Catherine Taine-Sheikh. The event is to be attended also by poets and translators from Italy, Germany, Spain, Mexico, Colombia and Chile.
