Beirut 39

The winners of the Beirut 39 competition (to select 39 talented Arab writers under 39) have been announced. But already there is a problem: two of the winners are Arab Israelis (Alaa' Hlehel and Adania Chibli) and since Israel and Lebanon are still technically at war, they are banned from traveling to Beirut. Hlehel told the Egyptian literary magazine Akhbar Al Adab that he is still deliberating whether to break the ban or not. Yet another example of how culturally cut-off Arab Israeli writers, whose publishers and audiences may reside in countries they can't visit.