The “House of Imagination” Cultural Center in Toronto, in cooperation with the Department of Arab Studies at York University, the “Nawat Al-Dora Center” and the “Al-Khatib” Forum, organized the first session of the Toronto International Forum for the Art of Diaries. It is the first forum concerned with the art of diaries in the world, founded by Tunisian researcher and novelist Kamal Riahi, who has specialized in this field for years: criticism, research, teaching, and creativity.
A large number of international, Arab and diaspora writers participated in the forum. The forum’s activities are divided into seminars at York University and the “House of Imagination” headquarters in TorontoAmong the most important participants in this forum from Canada are the novelist Margaret Atwood, the writer Alberto Manguel, and the novelist Susan Swan, and from France the international theorist of autobiography and diaries, Philippe Lejeune.
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More than 60 Arab writers from Canada, the Arab world and the diaspora also participated in the activities of this forum.
The beginning: a group writing workshop
The forum began last July by running a writing workshop moderated by the writer Kamal Al-Riahi, with the participation of a large number of Arab writers and artists in Canada in joint diaries for a month. This experience resulted in 31 creative texts in the art of diaries, each text in the voice of an Arab writer, male or female, from somewhere in Canada, expressing the humanitarian, cultural, and political concerns of expatriates.
The participants in this work were distributed in the fields of cinema, novels, poetry, short stories, fine art and journalism, and they are in the order of the days of the month and the days of the diaries they wrote: Al-Muhannad Al-Nasser, Michael Prince, Mai Al-Tilmisani, Yasser Abdel Latif, Tawfiq Al-Shabi, Rania Saad, Basma Al-Takrouri, Raghda Mikati, Maytham Salman, Samir Samir Al-Mazghani, Muhammad Zaki, Abdel Rahman Matar, Asin Shalhoub, Amal Idris Haroun, Falah Rahim, Hossam Al-Barqawi, Younis Attari, Abdullah Al-Khatib, Issam Khalifa, Mary Jalil, Walid Al-Khashab, Muhammad Haroun, Al-Hafiz Al-Zabour, Khaled Zaqi, Amir Hassanein, Abeer Dagher Asber, Ali Ashour, Jabbar Al-Janabi, Abdul Hakim Al-Qadiri, Najat Al-Rifai Sasani.
A number of these diaries will be read on November 22, 2025, under the title “31 Houses and a Blue Window,” edited by Kamal Al-Riahi.
The forum opened on October 18, 2025, in the “Allen Gardens” space, with the official opening of the “House of Imagination” cultural center in Toronto. Artistic Director Kamal Al-Riahi and Executive Director Nadia Al-Masry gave an overview of the forum’s program and the activities of the House of Imagination throughout the year. They discussed the reason for choosing the art of diaries and how this art can expand to become a special cultural project and an annual forum for it.
The forum’s program includes presenting literary testimonies from diary writers, critical lectures, a presentation of documentaries, an exhibition of international and Arab diaries, and introducing the pioneers of this art and its media.
Diaries and Memoirs in Western Culture at York University
This symposium was held at York University and the Department of Arab Studies, where it hosted the great Canadian writer Margaret Atwood on the occasion of the publication of her memoirs, and was interviewed by critic Kamal Al-Riahi, founder of the forum, and Walid Al-Khashab, professor of Arab studies at York University.
Canadian writer Susan Swan also gave testimony about her newly published memoirs and linked them to the art of diaries, and Canadian writer Alberto Manguel, author of the book “Reading Diaries,” lectured about the art of diaries and its value in global culture.
Al-Khashab presented a lecture entitled “For an Arab Theory of Diaries,” while Al-Riahi presented a lecture entitled “The Art of Diaries and Writing Distinctive Experiences.”
The symposium concluded with the presentation of the first international theorist of the art of the diary, the Frenchman Philippe Lejeune, and a documentary presentation about his research career in cooperation with the “Association for Biography,” which he founded in France in honor of his research into diaries. Al-Riahi had written a book of dialogue with Lejeune in 2009 under the title “This is How Philippe Lejeune Spoke.”
Palestine in the diaries
In its first session, the forum celebrated Palestine in a symposium entitled “Palestine in the Diaries.” The symposium was held last October 25 in the “House of Imagination” space in Toronto, with contributions from Palestinian, Arab, and foreign writers who wrote diaries about Palestine or their travels to it.
They presented testimonies to diary writers, especially those who lived through wars, whether in Gaza, Jerusalem, Bethlehem, or other Palestinian cities, such as Yusri Al-Ghoul, Atef Abu Saif, Basma Al-Takrouri, Osama Al-Issa, Muhail Muhanna, Mufleh Al-Adwan, and Taher Al-Nour.
Muhammad Obaidullah from Jordan gave a lecture on the diaries of Ghassan Kanafani, while Abdul Jalil Al-Arabi gave a lecture on the Palestinian issue in the diaries of the great Portuguese writer Jose Saramago. This symposium was presented by Palestinian researcher Abdullah Al-Khatib and Al-Riahi.
Diaries, danger and personal adversity
The forum will continue with a virtual symposium on “Diaries of Illness and Personal Ordeals.” The Tunisian-Iraqi writer Samar Samir Al-Mazghani will present a lecture on the diaries of the late Egyptian journalist and activist Mohamed Aboul Gheit, entitled “I am coming, O light,” which is the diary that he wrote on his sickbed before his death due to cancer.
The Iraqi writer Shaker Al-Nasiri will give testimony about his diary, “Just Time and It Goes By,” which he wrote during his treatment for cancer, which he is still fighting to this day.
While the Syrian Kurdish writer Jan Dost will provide testimony about his diary “In the Grip of a Nightmare” and his writing during the quarantine period with the Corona virus. The Algerian writer Boumediene Belkabir also provides testimony about his diary, “An Invisible Enemy,” and the Tunisian poet Adel Al-Ma’izi provides his literary testimony about writing diaries during quarantine.
Western diaries and their symbols
In the Western diaries section, the Syrian doctor and translator Zubaida Al-Qadi gave a lecture on Andre Gide’s diaries, and the Moroccan doctor and translator Mahmoud Abdel Ghani also gave a lecture on Andre Gide’s North African diaries, and they both translated the French writer’s diaries.
The Algerian doctor and novelist Lounis Ben Ali also gave a lecture on the diaries of the American writer Susan Santag. Palestinian novelist and poet Ashraf Al-Zaghal gave a lecture entitled “The Art of the Diary between Reality and Imagination” based on Virginia Woolf, David Mitchell and Doris Lessing.
As for the Arab diaries, Algerian Dr. Al-Hadi Boudeeb gave a lecture on the diary of Pharaoh’s newborn.
In the literary testimonials section, the Egyptian writer Mai Al-Tilmisani presented a testimonial about writing her diaries, which were published under the titles “Paradise Has Light” and “Many Ways to Travel,” and the Tunisian writer and poet Adel Al-Mu’izzi also provided a testimonial about his diaries, which he published under the title, “Out of the Window Peeks the Cracks of the Day.” Tunisian visual artist Najat Al-Dhahabi presented a testimony about her experience with diaries in her artistic project “Diary”.
Special tribute to Hassouna Al-Mesbahi
The late Tunisian writer Hassouna Al-Mesbahi is considered one of the most important Arab writers who accumulated works in the art of diaries, as he published more than 5 books in this art, in addition to other books in the literature of travel, biography, and self-imagination.
In appreciation of his great efforts in this field, this course was dedicated to his soul, with a number of lectures presented on his diary books, including Dr. Najwa Amami’s lecture on his diaries, “The Gold Diaries,” and the Algerian professor Adnan Fadil’s lecture on his diaries, “Days in Istanbul.”
Among the objectives of the forum, as stated by its founder, Tunisian researcher Kamal Riahi, is to introduce this art and root it in the Arab world, encourage its practice, approach its achievements, introduce its symbols, research its written and manuscript heritage, and the forms of its use in the rest of the arts. This forum also seeks to provide material and a blog for researchers in this art.
More than 60 Arab and foreign creators, researchers, translators and artists from Canada, Argentina, Portugal, Spain, Iraq, Egypt, Tunisia, Lebanon, Morocco, Algeria, Syria, Jordan, Palestine and Chad are participating in this forum.
The forum will continue until May 2026, before its second session begins in October next year.