DABF25 Publishing Talk | Adania Shibli and Tamara Sampey-Jawad, Fitzcarraldo Editions

Hosted by Dr. Selina Guinness, this highly anticipated conversation with Tamara Sampey-Jawad and special guest, Adania Shibli will reflect on the work of Fitzcarraldo Editions — a staple at Dublin Art Book Fair — and the importance of literary translation as a contact zone for human complexity. Adania Shibli’s book Minor Detail will frame the focus of the talk, and in keeping with the DABF theme, Flock, Shibli will also present selected works by Palestinian artists who have continued to create, and counter subjection in spite of living under the consistent and systematic destruction of life in Palestine.

In Adania Shibli’s astonishing novel, Minor Detail, a Palestinian woman decides to revisit the site of a war crime committed by an Israeli battalion in 1949, only to find the occupation has rendered her maps useless. The villages have been bulldozed; few roads offer a safe route out. Translated by Elisabeth Jaquette, Minor Detail is the story of military surveillance, violent dispossession, territorial fragmentation — and the impossibility of narrating under the conditions of genocide.

This event is part of the DABF Publishing Talks Series which is supported by the Creative Europe Desk Ireland. The Creative Europe programme supports a diverse literature and publishing sector across Europe, funding writers, translators, publishers, and the distributors of European works of Literature.

Adania Shibli, internationally renowned playwright, novelist and essayist, was born in Palestine in 1974. Throughout her work, Shibli tracks the complexities of the literary forms, language, and colonial violence, and offers a poignant exploration of the act of narration. Her first two novels, translated from Arabic were Touch (2003, tr. Paula Haydar, 2010) and We are All Equally Far from Love (2005, tr. Paul Starkey, 2012). Minor Detail (2017; tr. Elizabeth Jaquette, 2020) was shortlisted for the National Book Award for Translated Literature (2020) and longlisted for the International Booker Prize in 2021, positioning her as a significant figure in contemporary Palestinian literature.

Tamara Sampey-Jawad is the associate publisher of Fitzcarraldo Editions. She has commissioned and edited fiction and non-fiction in English and in translation for a number of years, including books by Adania Shibli, Guadalupe Nettel, Olga Tokarczuk, Jeremy Cooper and Marianne Brooker.

Fitzcarraldo Editions is an independent publisher specialising in contemporary fiction and long-form essays. Founded in 2014, it focuses on ambitious, imaginative and innovative writing, both in translation and in the English language. The series, designed by Ray O’Meara, are published as paperback originals with French flaps, using a custom serif typeface (called Fitzcarraldo). Fitzcarraldo Editions publishes, among other authors, the 2015, 2018, 2022 and 2023 Nobel Prize in Literature laureates Svetlana Alexievich, Olga Tokarczuk, Annie Ernaux and Jon Fosse.

Event location Information: This event will take place on the first floor accessible via lift and stairs. Seating will be theatre style. For further accessibility information please contact Learning + Public Engagement Curator Órla Goodwin.

Dublin Art Book Fair (4–14 December 2025) is a centre for contemporary artist books offering a wide selection of artist publications and titles from creative, small and independent publishers, both Irish or international, to browse or buy. In conjunction with the Fair, DABF presents an event programme of book launches, publishers talks, and workshops offering ways to engage and gain insight into contemporary independent and arts publishing.

DABF25 is proudly sponsored by Henry J Lyons and supported by Dublin UNESCO City of Literature and RTÉ Supporting The Arts.