رانيا عبدالعاطي

Bahraini writer and journalist Osama Al Majed is preparing a book documenting the life and literary career of his mother, poet Hamda Khamis. The project will combine testimonies from contemporaries, critical studies, her own writings, and photographs, while placing her work within the development of modern poetry and cultural life in Bahrain and the Gulf. Khamis was among the founders of Bahrain’s Writers and Authors Family in 1969 and one of only two women among its 16 founding members. The book is framed both as a tribute to his mother and as an archive of a pioneering literary generation, with particular significance amid renewed interest in the history of Gulf women writers.

Imad Rashad Othman’s book “The Executioner Under My Skin” examines perfectionism as a response to deeper fears of failure, inadequacy, rejection and vulnerability rather than simply a desire for achievement. It describes how an internal voice that initially develops as protection can become punitive, linking personal worth to performance and turning success into an ever-rising standard. The book also explores how perfectionism contributes to procrastination, paralysis and self-criticism. Othman combines psychological interpretation with personal narrative, practical exercises and reflective questions, and presents recovery as a gradual process of understanding fear and developing greater self-compassion rather than abandoning ambition. The book’s central message is that ambition and excellence can be separated from fear-based self-punishment.