Latest news with #literary
Arab News
24-05-2025
- Arab News
Where We Are Going Today: ‘Marfa coffee' in Alhobar
If you are searching for a new spot in historic northern Alkhobar to enjoy high-quality coffee while immersing yourself in the local literary and arts scene, look no further than Marfa. Marfa serves up expertly crafted coffees and a variety of freshly prepared pastries and snacks. Yes, they have matcha, too. But your order comes with more than just a drink or a bite — you will get a taste of Alkhobar itself. Tucked away in a quieter part of the city, history buffs will appreciate that the cafe directly overlooks the former site of the beloved Al-Shula Mall, which famously burned down years ago. That storied plot of land is now the view from the cafe's windows. Founded by Saudi entrepreneur Khaled Almsaad, Marfa is quite literally breathing new life into the neighborhood. Almsaad launched his cultural initiative, Tanafs — which roughly translates to 'breath' — during the COVID-19 lockdown. The platform, now based upstairs from the cafe, is dedicated to bridging community and culture. It offers a range of creative activities and guided walking tours (when the weather is pleasant), all designed to encourage residents to explore their city on foot and enrich Alkhobar's cultural fabric. The upstairs space features a large communal table and regularly hosts vibrant events — from literary gatherings to workshops and community meetups. All attendees, of course, enjoy Marfa's signature drinks and snacks. When the weather is cool, the cafe spills out onto the sidewalk with plenty of outdoor seating. But the real charm lies inside. The intimate interior feels more like a cozy home and it is just as welcoming. Check out @marfa_sa on Instagram for more details.
The Guardian
06-05-2025
- Entertainment
- The Guardian
Is Dua Lipa the best literary interviewer?
D ua Lipa is, obviously, good at a lot of things. She sings, she dances, she writes dozens of songs, and she co-designed a collection with Donatella Versace. But if someone told you that she'd recently come out on top in a Mortal Kombat-style contest as the best literary interviewer, you'd probably think they'd taken her song Hallucinate a bit too literally. Nevertheless, that's what's happened, in a YouTube video that has garnered more than a million views in a matter of weeks. And the case it makes is … surprisingly convincing. 'I was researching a video essay about the quality of literary interviews in different venues,' says writer Blake Lefray, who put the video together for his fledgling channel. He came across Lipa's interview with Hernan Diaz, author of the Pulitzer prize-winning Trust, and was 'pretty blown away'. Though he had seen Diaz interviewed several times by journalists and TV hosts, Lipa's interview was 'easily the best', he says. 'At first, I thought crowning Dua Lipa the best current interviewer of novelists would be a ridiculous bit of clickbait – but the more I watched her interviews, the more I realised that, for me personally, she's the best one doing it right now. She asks smart questions dipped in empathy and curiosity.' This sounds like hyperbole, but after you watch a couple of interviews, it's quickly noticeable that something feels different from the usual round of PR-prepared soundbites. In the Diaz interview, Lipa asks if one of his characters is based on an investigative journalist whose exposé of John D Rockefeller helped to break up the Standard Oil Trust – and Diaz, who's never heard of the journalist before, seems astonished. A chat with Nobel laureate Olga Tokarczuk includes a lengthy digression on the importance of William Blake as an anti-establishment figure in communist Poland. A conversation with Lincoln in the Bardo author George Saunders segues into a discussion about the importance of being non-judgmental during first drafts, and includes a (slightly star-struck) Saunders asking Lipa how it felt to perform at Glastonbury. skip past newsletter promotion Sign up to Bookmarks Discover new books and learn more about your favourite authors with our expert reviews, interviews and news stories. Literary delights delivered direct to you Privacy Notice: Newsletters may contain info about charities, online ads, and content funded by outside parties. For more information see our Privacy Policy. We use Google reCaptcha to protect our website and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply. after newsletter promotion All of this isn't exactly standard for broadcasted author interviews. On late-night shows, questions are typically fluff – Jimmy Fallon's first question is usually some variation on 'How does it feel to have written such a bestselling book?', while Seth Meyers spent a chunk of his own interview with Diaz asking about the pen he uses to write longhand. Lorraine Kelly and Angela Rippon are a bit better at probing questions, but their segments are so short that there's barely time to hit more than the key points, let alone get into a meandering discussion about destiny, empathy or marriage equality under rightwing governments. Podcasts and book festivals are, of course, much better – and possibly a fairer comparison, but as Lefray notes, they are a lot less consistent than Lipa: occasionally awkward, sometimes excruciating, and far too fond of using the qualifier 'sort of'. So how is she doing it? Firstly, Lipa seems to read a lot: in a keynote speech on the power of reading at the 2022 Booker prize, she mentions learning about the Albanian spirit of resistance through the work of author Ismail Kadare as a teenager. Her interviews are part of the book club she runs through her lifestyle website Service95, and while a cynic might suggest they're a way to build a personal brand while pocketing a bit of affiliate-link cash (Reese Witherspoon, Dakota Fanning, Natalie Portman and Fallon himself are just a few of the celebrities to have their own clubs along with, of course, Oprah), she started her first book club with some close friends back in 2019. She was posting recommendations on Instagram long before Service95, and her own bookshelf, tantalisingly visible in most of her interviews, is stuffed with an impressively esoteric mix of books, from Katy Hessel's The Story of Art Without Men to Joe Coscarelli's Rap Capital. Maybe, as someone who's given hundreds of interviews in her time, she also understands what makes a good interview: the questions artists love and hate, the sorts of things they wish they were asked, and the things that make them open up. It's unclear if she alone writes the questions – her reps didn't respond to a request for comment – but she clearly knows the material: she's always familiar with side characters and subplots, and never seems caught off guard by an unplanned author aside. Beyond all of that, perhaps Dua Lipa is a good interviewer because she reads the books the way authors hope they'll be read: diving into their characters and worlds for the sheer joy of the experience. It's obvious she reads thoughtfully and deeply, bringing her to an understanding of each work that naturally leads her to want to know more. Listen to enough of her interviews, and her enthusiasm is so infectious that it's difficult not to want to read more, or read more broadly, or just read better . All of that, and she also wrote Houdini. Time to step it up, Fallon.
