Palestinian-American poet Lena Khalaf Tuffaha and the Syrian-American author Shifa Saltagi Safadi are celebrating wins at the US National Book Award.
The annual literary prize recognises the best works published by American authors across several categories, including fiction, non-fiction, poetry, translated literature and young people's literature.
Safadi won the latter category for her novel Kareem Between. It is a coming-of-age story, which follows the journey of a seventh-grade Syrian-American boy and his struggles as he makes his way through school.
Safadi is an author, educator and book reviewer who was born in Syria and emigrated to the US with her parents when she was young. Aside from teaching English at a local school, she reviewed Muslim books on her blog, Muslim Mommy Blog.
She has previously written other middle-grade books about the Arab American experience and stories that delve into the facets of the Muslim experience, including Spell it Like Samar, Heaven at Mama's Feet and Pepperoni, Pitches (and Other Problems).
Khalaf Tuffaha won the poetry category for her collection Something About Living. The collection weaves Palestine's history and the challenges Tuffaha faces living in a world of violence and themes such as diaspora, colonialism and greed as well as the hope and small delights people hold on to survive.
Khalaf Tuffaha is a poet, essayist and translator of Palestinian, Jordanian and Syrian descent. She has written other poetry collections including Water & Salt, which won the 2018 Washington State Book Award for Poetry and Kaan and Her Sisters. Her work often explores the experiences of first-generation Americans and immigrants as well as themes such as cultural identity, borders and language.
Both Safadi and Khalaf Tuffaha received a $10,000 cash prize. Three others received the same prize in other categories: Lin King in translated literature for Yang Shuang-zi’s Taiwan Travelogue; Jason De Leon in non-fiction for Soldiers and Kings: Survival and Hope in the World of Human Smuggling; and Percival Everett, who received the award for fiction for his novel James, a reimagining of Mark Twain’s The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn.
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A fraudulent investment operation where the scammer provides fake reports and generates returns for old investors through money paid by new investors, rather than through ligitimate business activities.
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If you go
The flights
There are direct flights from Dubai to Sofia with FlyDubai (www.flydubai.com) and Wizz Air (www.wizzair.com), from Dh1,164 and Dh822 return including taxes, respectively.
The trip
Plovdiv is 150km from Sofia, with an hourly bus service taking around 2 hours and costing $16 (Dh58). The Rhodopes can be reached from Sofia in between 2-4hours.
The trip was organised by Bulguides (www.bulguides.com), which organises guided trips throughout Bulgaria. Guiding, accommodation, food and transfers from Plovdiv to the mountains and back costs around 170 USD for a four-day, three-night trip.
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The Sky Is Pink
Director: Shonali Bose
Cast: Priyanka Chopra Jonas, Farhan Akhtar, Zaira Wasim, Rohit Saraf
Three stars
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The specs
Engine: 3.8-litre, twin-turbo V8
Transmission: eight-speed automatic
Power: 582bhp
Torque: 730Nm
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2. They can be created when massive stars collapse under their own weight
3. Large black holes can also be formed when smaller ones collide and merge
4. The biggest black holes lurk at the centre of many galaxies, including our own
5. Astronomers believe that when the universe was very young, black holes affected how galaxies formed
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Springsteen: Deliver Me from Nowhere
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Starring: Jeremy Allen White, Odessa Young, Jeremy Strong
Rating: 4/5
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We weren’t supposed to survive but we did.
We weren’t supposed to remember but we did.
We weren’t supposed to write but we did.
We weren’t supposed to fight but we did.
We weren’t supposed to organise but we did.
We weren’t supposed to rap but we did.
We weren’t supposed to find allies but we did.
We weren’t supposed to grow communities but we did.
We weren’t supposed to return but WE ARE.
Amira Sakalla
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Label: Parlophone/Atlantic
Number of tracks: 10
Rating: 3/5