At once a fiendishly devious mystery, a beguiling love story, and a brilliant symposium on the power of art, My Name Is Red is a transporting tale set amid the splendor and religious intrigue of sixteenth-century Istanbul, from one of the most prominent contemporary Turkish writers.

The Sultan has commissioned a cadre of the most acclaimed artists in the land to create a great book celebrating the glories of his realm. Their task: to illuminate the work in the European style. But because figurative art can be deemed an affront to Islam, this commission is a dangerous proposition...

The Mediterranean is the meeting point of three continents--Asia, Africa, and Europe--as well as three major monotheistic religions--Islam, Judaism, and Christianity. Focusing on global networks and cultural exchanges, Mediterranean Passages collects writings from across 3,000 years to provide a pan-Mediterranean perspective of the cultural, political, and economic relations that crisscross the region, linking people and places from antiquity to the present.

From Homer's hymn to Apollo to the writing of French-Algerian philosopher Jacques Derrida, from the contemporary...

The festival chapbook includes an essay on Mahmoud Darwish's poetry by Fady Joudah, original translations of Turkish poets, Nazim Hikmet, Gulten Akin and Birhan Keskin and poems by the winners of the Fifth Nazim Hikmet Poetry Competition.