The American poet Michael Marsh, founder of the Prague International Book Festival: eager to introduce Arab culture .. And "lazy" Arab officials

The American poet Michael Marsh and his wife, Felesta Petrenkova, were able to establish one of the most important literary festivals in the world, the Prague International Book Festival, which closes this year its twenty-eighth session and has hosted many famous writers. The festival was hosted by Adonis, Saadi Youssef, Baha Tahir and many others.

During the festival, he discovered that ambbadadors had no interest in culture. They see it as a virtue, live in the margin. The current US ambbadador to Prague is a businessman. Arab ambbadadors attended the entertainment, not the interaction. The only one who wanted his country to be present at the festival through his book and his creators is the Egyptian ambbadador.

Marsh has several books. Including the disappearance. Juba. When I danced. Just promise. Backward. The fly flew away.

Between this festival and his poetic career, we conducted this dialogue:

Michael Marsh, American poet, founder of the Prague International Book Festival

How much your interest and dedication to the Prague Festival has affected your poetic project?

– It was a kind of privilege. Organize the Prague International Book Festival. It has its advantages and disadvantages but has given me the opportunity to live and to be as close to myself as possible, we are eager to attend poetry. The festival creates a literary interaction. There is a mutual respect between the hair and the festival. It's a better job than being a Hanutia.

The festival would not have happened without my wife, Falasta. I would not live without his help. Hair is a kind of life as well as a festival. Me and Falasta share everything, the question of the language of Czech society. You must hear what the other says.

For me, a gift from heaven was a breath of life

■ What about the material support of the festival?

– The festival is supported by the city of Prague, the Ministry of Culture and Foreign Affairs and some sponsors. We had no censors. The Prague Festival is one of the top 30 literary festivals in the world. Compared even with film and theater festivals. Although it is a literary festival. Hosts the most famous and famous personalities in the world of literature. The chemistry between the book is an important factor in the success of the festival

What impression did Arab culture have on the festival?

– I made a big impression. Previously, there was no impression. I hope we will continue to invite Arab writers. Ambbadador of Egypt to Prague. We were asked to bring an Egyptian writer to a university in Prague, the Arabic translation department or them. We want to have students who train and interpret Arabic. We will also welcome a number of writers. It is important and necessary to host an Arabic book. To show materially the Arab culture.

From the Czech point of view. Slowly, the West began to adopt an anti-Arab attitude. Where the Islamic concept dominates the Western vision of the Arabs. They do not differ at all. In all continents and in America, all those who think of themselves do not hesitate to learn the other culture. They think only about propaganda. Michael thinks so. He once told me that he would receive a book from the Arab world. He said no, but it is important for public culture. Since then, we have had important books from the Arab world. There were embbadies frustrated by this act. Specifically, the Israeli Embbady.

The Egyptian ambbadador is very different from him. Because he wanted to spread the culture of his country. The other Arab ambbadadors in Prague. The subject was like a club where they meet. They were lazy and showed no interest. They were interested in their personal professional future and did not care to spread the culture of their people.

The philosophy of speed that the media cares about. Invented illusion of the expansion of the world. The world was expanding. But the truth is that everything shrinks. Things fall and fall apart. Countries become anti-Western. Because they feel threatened and threatened. By all forces on the ground. Such as economic forces. The militarization of the world. And the world will bow down. They should simplify things and point the finger directly to the prosecution knowing that for some terrorists, the subject gets a good material performance. After the fall of the Berlin Wall, the world became a telescope.

Why did you and Falasta choose to organize a book festival rather than a book, is it a sort of human-to-human rapprochement, a source of creativity?

– It's a festival of ideas, With regard to book fairs, it's a commercial event, controlled by publishers and bookmakers to sell and win from the world. ;money.

Sometimes this is consistent with the idea of ​​literary publishing or literary event. But there is always a commercial intervention between seminars and the book when the main idea is to sell books, publishers have a long hand. They control who comes and who does not come. This is the dictatorship of the world of books. They come with known writers. The idea is to find the best authors of the festival, whether their works are published or not. So sometimes we have the credit of making a famous book inviting the show. It also creates a good space for the book and a better freedom. I have a long experience in book fairs. I chose to be in the creative clbad. We want the public to be creative. When he refused an interview in a newspaper, Milan Condéra (French writer and novelist, several times nominated for the Nobel Prize for Literature) said that I did not want to be a barrier between writing and reading.

Including Arthur Miller and Harold Pinter. And Joseph and God made Abraham and Adonis and Baha Tahir, almost all the Nobel laureates. We have a large list of books that I can not list.

We have welcomed 18 writers from the Arab world to date. We started to make new spaces in the Czech Republic because previously they only received the Nobel laureates to talk about the prize. As a result, they began thinking about giving the Nobel Prize to media professionals and television stars. As well as the French price Goncourt. They started thinking in a weak way. Just because the price is known for its reputation and media glamor.

It is here that the Falasta intervenes: we created this new space to focus more on the texts.

The festival was a phone for literature. Before that, Czech writers did not even speak to each other.

Czech television had no internet connection. In 1990, it was the first Internet connection to the Czech Republic through the Prague Literary Festival.

■ How are participating authors selected?

– This is not the traditional way of forming a committee to choose a book, and so on. But the choice is made after a careful reading of Mona and Falasta by writers appointed by faithful and devoted to literature and writing

As a poet, did you worship the festival poets or all the creators? I was invited to create this festival in Prague to invite writers, not just poets. The idea is to bring the world to Prague because Prague was closed. And indeed we called many big names.

Translation of the poet – Muhammad Metwally