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Lebanese German writer Pierre Jarawan made a stunning debut with his compelling novel The Storyteller. Hailed as "a love letter to Lebanon," it became an international bestseller and earned him the title Literature Star of the Year. His latest novel, Song for the Missing, is also set in Lebanon. Haunting and poetic, moving through different decades, it explores the lasting trauma from the country's 15-year civil war. Jarawan spoke to Eleanor Wachtel onstage at the Vancouver Writers Fest.

Lebanese filmmaker Nadine Labaki made history last year when she became the first female Arab director to win a major prize in competition at Cannes. Labaki talks to Eleanor Wachtel about her powerful new film, working with a cast of young nonprofessional actors, and the importance of telling Lebanese stories from a woman's perspective.

This week, Eleanor Wachtel speaks with the Lebanese novelist and playwright Hanan al-Shaykh. From Beirut Blues and Only in London, now she turns to her mother's life in her memoir, The Locust and the Bird. Al-Shaykh is known for exploring women's lives and sexuality in her surprising and controversial fiction. But she goes even further in The Locust and the Bird. Her mother, who had been forced to marry Hanan's father when she was just fourteen. She later left the family for her lover when…

This week on Writers & Company, a conversation with Lebanese writer Ilyās Khūrī (Elias Khoury). His latest novel, Gate of the Sun, is an evocative picture of the Palestinians' loss of their homeland. Includes a clip of Canadian actor Elias Zarou reading from the epigraph of Gate of the Sun, in translation.