BEIRUT 39

`Beirut39` is a Hay Festival project which aims to select and celebrate 39 of the best young Arab writers as a centrepiece of the Beirut World Capital festivities in April 2010. Following the successful launch of `Bogota 39`, which identified many of the most interesting upcoming Latin American talents, including Wendy Guerra, Junot Diaz (Pulitzer Prize), Santiago Roncagliolo and Juan Gabriel Vasquez (short-listed for the IFFP), "Beirut 39" will bring to worldwide attention the best work from the Arab world. The judges will select from more than 300 submissions and the writers` names will be unveiled in September 2009. The book will be published in English and in Arabic editions throughout the world by Bloomsbury.