Arab Cultural Club hosts literary evening on short story horizon

Importance of short stories

 Hani Bakri opened the session by highlighting the significance of short stories in today’s fast-paced world, where readers often seek a brief literary experience. He noted that short stories provide a quick yet impactful form of literature.

Writers’ background

Rana Al Asali is a short story writer and novelist, with published collections including I Search for Him, as well as novels such as In the Light of a Pulse, Haunted by You, Less Isolation, Years of Labor, and Closed. She has received several literary awards. Mohammed Rabie Hammad is a poet, short story writer, and literary researcher, winner of the Sharjah Award for Arab Creativity 2024 for his collection The Last Tree, published by the Sharjah Department of Culture, along with other collections, including Pleasure on a Red Stage.

Writers’ contributions

Rana Al Asali said she developed a literary inclination from childhood, nurturing it

through continuous reading and writing. Her work seeks to depict human and societal life, highlighting struggles and challenges, aiming to raise awareness and sometimes offer solutions. She read her short story Bride and Much Money, which follows a young janitor dreaming he has married a wealthy girl, only to awaken in a shopping centre restroom. The story reflects social differences, the tension between dream and reality, and psychological conflict.

Mohammed Rabie Hammad expressed gratitude to the Sharjah Department of Culture for publishing his collection The Last Tree, noting the opportunity provided to emerging writers. He explained that his writing style seeks poetic intensity, with short stories in particular focusing on concentrated language that conveys the characters’ emotions. He read his story Inability, exploring the mental reflections of a deceased man in his grave, confronting human deception, betrayal, and the stark contrast between expectation and reality.

Critical perspectives

 Dr Omar Abdulaziz commented on the authors’ techniques, noting that Al Asali’s story Diary of a Dead Man uses first-person narration to maintain a procedural distance between author and event, a common practice in dramatic texts that preserves character independence. Regarding Hammad’s The Last Tree, Abdulaziz observed that the collection alternates dreamlike, utopian scenes with nightmarish, disappointing imagery, creating a Kafkaesque reflection on human existence. He highlighted how the titles of the stories and their arrangement emphasize the themes, rhythm, and depth of the collection.