Arts and Culture

June 25, 2009

AN OCCASSIONAL BOOK REVIEW: THE ELEGANCE OF THE HEDGEHOG

THE ELEGANCE OF THE HEDGEHOG by Muriel Barbery According to 12-year old Paloma, Renee Michel, her building’s middle-aged concierge, is like the hedgehog: “a deceptively indolent little creature, fiercely solitary –and terribly elegant.” Paloma and Renee are the protagonists of this little hedgehog of a book, with its simple tale of an autodidactic concierge and Continue reading

Arts and Culture, Books, Publishing

Books, reviews
June 19, 2009

A Recipe From the Night Counter: Foul Medamos

In The Night Counter, Laila goes to the Arabic grocery in Detroit and decides for the first time in her marriage not to buy the ingredients to make her Egyptian husband foul. Whether you write it out from Arabic as “foul” or “fool,” I’ll grant you that it doesn’t sound very appetizing in English. But Continue reading

Arts and Culture, Author, Books, Food, Middle East, recipes

Middle East, recipes
June 16, 2009

The Night Counter: A Starred Review in Kirkus

The Night Counter received a starred reveiw in Kirkus Reviews this week. It leaves a tired writer so joyful she is wordless. A link to the original can be found at: http://www.aliayunis.com/press.html (It also inspired Chris Costello, the person who designed this website, and I to update the Events page on the website.) But if Continue reading

Arts and Culture, Author, Books, Middle East, Publishing

Arab Americans, Author, Books, Middle East
June 4, 2009

Making Movies in Abu Dhabi

This spring my students have won several awards for their films—-national awards, not international, but we haven’t tried that yet. It’s my first year teaching them, and it’s the first year they make short narrative films and documentaries that are not tour guides to the UAE. The results, good and bad, have been a surprise Continue reading

Abu Dhabi, Arabs, Arts and Culture, Film, Middle East
May 30, 2009

The Best View Of The Ski Slope In Dubai is at…

Dubai has now become the international destination for indoor wonders, but the Atlantis, Palm Jumeriah, the Burj Dubai (tallest building in the world), the seven star Burj Al-Arab, and all the other more recent developments don’t seem to come as close to the excitement that people seem to have at seeing modern Dubai’s first wonder, Continue reading

Arabs, Arts and Culture, Dubai, Food, Lebanon, Middle East
May 27, 2009

From Publisher’s Weekly…The Night Counter’s First Review

“In this captivating debut, Yunis takes readers on a magic carpet ride….[A] sometimes serious, sometimes funny, but always touching tale of a Middle Eastern family putting down deep roots on U.S. soil.” —Publishers Weekly Continue reading

Arabs, Arts and Culture, Author, Books, Lebanon, Middle East, Publishing
May 23, 2009

Who Says We Ain’t Got No Culture Here?

When I decided to move to Abu Dhabi, one of the frequent comments I got was how could I move to such a cultural wasteland. This from my friends and acquaintances in L.A., which may seem ironic to some of you who have the same perception of L.A. However, just as L.A. is a lot Continue reading

Abu Dhabi, Arabs, Arts and Culture, Middle East

About Alia

Alia Yunis is a writer, journalist and filmmaker. She is currently producing and directing “The Golden Harvest,” a feature length documentary about how olive oil has shaped the Mediterranean culture, cuisine and history for 6,000 years, through war and peace. Her debut novel, The Night Counter (Random House) has been critically acclaimed by the Washington Post, Entertainment Weekly, and several other publications. It was also chosen as a top summer read by the Chicago Tribune and Boston Phoenix. The Boston Globe has called it “wonderfully imaginative…poignant, hilarious.” Alia was born in Chicago and grew up in the U.S., Greece, and the Middle East. She has worked as a filmmaker and journalist in several cities, especially Los Angeles. Her fiction has appeared in several anthologies, including The Robert Olen Butler Best Short Stories collection, and her non-fiction work includes articles for The Los Angeles Times, Saveur, SportsTravel Magazine, and Aramco World. She currently teaches film at Zayed University in Abu Dhabi.