Network meetings

Meeting #1 – July 2021 in Paris
The first network meeting was held on 8 and 9 July 2021 in Paris just before the literary festival « Maghreb-Orient des livres » (10 and 11 July, Hôtel de ville de Paris). It was initially planned to bring together Arab and European interlocutors and experts associated with the collective reflection initiated by Leila. However, the context of the health crisis did not allow inviting experts based in the Arab-speaking region, so the programme of this first meeting was reoriented. The meeting brought together European experts on « translated Arabic books » and actors involved in the promotion of contemporary literary creation in Arabic in Europe, with the main objective of collectively prefiguring the Leila website, a tool for the « discoverability » of contemporary Arabic literature, intended for European book professionals.

Meeting #2 – September 2022 in Tunis
The second Leila professional meeting was held at the French Institute in Tunis on September 19 and 20, and brought together 34 participants (5 online), including 16 publishers as well as the project partners and experts in Arabic literature. The participants came from 14 different countries (7 European countries, 7 Arabic-speaking countries). The sessions and workshops focused on the state of the art of the Arabic-speaking literary production of the last ten years and its translation in Europe, on the acquisition and translation policies of European publishers, on the mechanisms of transfer of rights and co-publishing. A « beta » version of the website was presented to the publishers present, and the feedback and appreciations will be taken into account for the next stage of development of the site. Leila was presented during the international forum of social sciences Insaniyyat, during round tables dedicated to the circulation of knowledge and translation.