Media, festivals and events

Aladin und Ali Baba: Geschichten aus 1001 Nacht (ARTE, 2023). A documentary written and directed by Thomas Staehler, produced by loopfilm (Munich) for ARTE and first broadcast in Germany on 20 May 2023 and in France the next day, as Les Contes des 1001 nuits. It took Horta to Versailles to retrace Hanna Diyab’s visit to the court of Louis XIV. English title: Aladdin and Ali Baba: Stories from the 1001 Nights (52 minutes).

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1. 10 August 2026Deutschlandfunk, Fragen an 1001 Nacht: “Ein urzeitliches Schwindelgefühl – Wieso lässt uns 1001 Nacht nicht los?”, Horta in conversation with Julia Tieke (39 minutes)
2. 10 September 2024The Reader and the Writer (Shari Dragovich and Rhea Forney), “Arabian Nights, Part 1,” reading The Annotated Arabian Nights
3. 6 December 2022New Books Network, Writ Large: “On ‘1001 Nights’,” Horta interviewed by Zachary Davis
4. 9 December 2018Monocle Radio, The Monocle Weekly: Horta and Yasmine Seale on the backstory of “Aladdin,” with Georgina Godwin
5. 24 November 2018Dubai Eye 103.8, author interview on Aladdin

1. 11 May 2022Gulf News: “Of spectacles, magic and stories untold – The Arabian Nights”
2. 1 December 2021ArabLit: “Storytellers of the 1001 Nights: A Conversation with Paulo Horta,” Tugrul Mende
3. 9 June 2019ANBA (Brazil-Arab News Agency): “The original ‘Aladdin’ came from Aleppo, Syria,” interview by Thais Sousa
4. 27 May 2019ArabLit: “Forthcoming: Translation of Memoir by ‘Aladdin’-teller Hanna Diyab”
5. 24 May 2019The New Yorker: Anthony Lane, “Wish List” (review of Disney’s Aladdin)
6. 23 May 2019Time: “Was Aladdin Based on a Real Person? Here’s Why Scholars Are Starting to Think So,” Olivia B. Waxman (also on Yahoo and AOL) · Source
7. 23 May 2019New York Post: “Experts believe Aladdin may actually be based on a real person,” Chris Perez
8. 25 April 2019All About History: “Scheherazade and Shahryar”
9. 2 November 2018The Guardian: “How Aladdin’s story was forged in Aleppo and Versailles,” Richard Lea
10. 15 December 2017North Shore News: “Marvellous Thieves adds a new chapter to Arabian Nights”
11. 14 September 2017Ajam Media Collective: “Who ‘wrote’ Aladdin? The Forgotten Syrian Storyteller,” Arafat A. Razzaque
12. 14 February 2017The National: “Arabic Treasures: The enduring legacy of One Thousand and One Nights,” Ben East

1. 28 October 2026Words Without Borders Gala, New York: literary host
2. 6 June 2025JLF Valladolid: “Historias interminables. Cuentos populares y folclore,” with Namita Gokhale
3. 28 June 2024NYU Madrid, El Taller: translation workshop and reading
4. 13 June 2024JLF Madrid and Valladolid (13–16 June): “The Annotated Arabian Nights: Tales from 1001 Nights” and “Lost in AI: Gains in Translation?” (in Spanish)
5. 10 June 2024Casa Árabe, Madrid: “Revisitando las mil y una noches” (in Spanish)
6. 1 August 2020JLF Brave New World (online): “Aladdin and Other Marvellous Tales,” with Sanjoy K. Roy
7. 6 November 2019Confluence: Words on Water, Mandurah, Western Australia, with Sanjoy K. Roy
8. 3 November 2019JLF Adelaide
9. 1 March 2019Emirates Airline Festival of Literature, Dubai: “Aladdin”
10. 10 June 2018JLF at the British Library, London: “One Thousand and One Nights,” Horta and Marina Warner in conversation with John Zubrzycki
11. 9 March 2018Emirates Airline Festival of Literature, Dubai: “The Arabian Nights Quest,” with Robert Irwin; “Publishing in Translation” (7 March); school visit, GEMS New Millennium School (6 March)
12. 7 October 2017Serpentine Galleries Marathon, City Hall, London: “From Aleppo to Paris: The Origins of ‘Aladdin’”
13. 17 September 2017JLF Boulder, Colorado: “Marvellous Thieves: Authors of the Arabian Nights” and “Words Are All We Have”
14. 23 January 2017Jaipur Literature Festival, Diggi Palace: “Lost in Translation” and “One Thousand and One Nights and The Conference of the Birds”

1. 17 October 2024Librería Áncora, Málaga: book launch, Las mil y una noches (in Spanish)
2. 1 February 2023Fnac Triangle, Barcelona: the Spanish edition, Las mil y una noches. Edición anotada, with Marga Castells
3. 14 April 2022The Art Circle, Abu Dhabi, hosted by Barbara Farah-Mathonet, Galleria Mall, Al Maryah Island: “Aladdin in Versailles”
4. 20 January 2022New York Public Library: “Reading the Arabian Nights,” Yasmine Seale, Horta and S. A. Chakraborty in conversation with Elias Muhanna
5. 27 November 2018Caravanserail bookshop, London: Aladdin, with Yasmine Seale
6. 30 November 2017Dallas Institute of Humanities and Culture: Marvellous Thieves
7. 7 November 2017American University in Cairo: Marvellous Thieves
8. 19 June 2017Mid-Manhattan Library, New York Public Library: Marvellous Thieves
9. 23 March 2017Harvard Coop, Cambridge, Massachusetts: Marvellous Thieves
10. 21 March 2017Columbia University, Maison Française, introduced by T. Austin Graham: Marvellous Thieves
11. 16 February 2017SOAS, University of London: Marvellous Thieves

1. 8 January 2018The Penguin Digest: an excerpt from Marvellous Thieves
2. 25 August 2017The Wire: “A Syrian Storyteller in Versailles”
3. 13 August 2017Mumbai Mirror: “Anglo-Indian Nights”