18. Guapa, Marco and Living Fernando Pessoa’s Dreamlife in Lisbon

This is a conversation with writer Saleem Haddad, author of the novel Guapa and the director of the short film Marco, now available on YouTube.

We spoke about both Guapa and Marco as well as his contribution to the science fiction anthology Palestine+100. We also spoke about his connection to Fernando Pessoa’s the Book of Disquiet while living in Pessoa’s city, Lisbon. We spoke about identity and its relationship to languages, the circumstances around his move to Lisbon from London, his struggle with his own Queer Arab identity and our complicated relationship to what we call ‘home’. Saleem also asked me about my passion for James Baldwin which I was happy to answer.

Quick disclaimer: our conversation on Marco contains spoilers so I’d urge you all to first watch it on YouTube. It’s around 20 minutes long and I promise you that you’ll enjoy it. Another disclaimer is that the Pessoa essay that Saleem wrote contains mention of suicide so please take your mindset into consideration when reading it, which you definitely also should!


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3 responses to “18. Guapa, Marco and Living Fernando Pessoa’s Dreamlife in Lisbon”

  1. Thank you both for this lovely discussion. Marco is beautifully done and so relavent today. I spoke to Saleem once and told him how Guapa touched me and helped immensely in understanding someone I love. Thank you for your links, I will enjoy some readings in these times of confinement.
    warm regards, Douglas

  2. […] conversación entre Joey Ayoub y Saleem Haddad toca temas interesantísimos, desde James Baldwin a mi libro preferido de 2019, […]

  3. […] also add that Saleem has been on The Fire These Times in May to talk about his movie Marco, his book Guapa and his love for the Portuguese writer […]

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