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Egyptian Writer Omar Hazek Prevented from Traveling to Receive Freedom of...
Egyptian poet and novelist Omar Hazek — who was in jail for nearly two years for protesting before being “pardoned” last September — has been prevented from leaving Egypt to receive the 2016 Oxfam...
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The Talk Writer Omar Hazek Would’ve Given if He’d Been Allowed to Receive His...
Earlier this week, Omar Hazek was prevented from leaving Egypt to receive the 2016 Oxfam Novib/PEN Award for Freedom of Expression: What follows is a transcript of the talk he would’ve given, in...
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Yasmine Motawy on the Growing Space for Arabic Literature for Young People,...
Yasmine Motawy, a children’s-literature scholar and part of the newly reborn Egyptian Board on Books for Young People (EBBY) is one of the judges for this year’s Hans Christian Andersen Awards, for...
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Egypt 5 Years Later: 5 Literary Works for January 25
It was five years ago today, on January 25, 2011, when a larger-than-expected Police Day protest took over Cairo’s Tahrir Square, sparking even larger events across Egypt on January 28 and the days...
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‘Using Life’: A Novel Excerpt on Trial in Egypt
The novelist and journalist Ahmed Naji — along with his editor, Tarek al-Taher — is being re-tried for the publication of an excerpt of his Using Life in Akhbar al-Adab, because it allegedly made a...
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Cairo International Book Fair to Open Wednesday, Themed ‘Culture on the...
The 2016 Cairo International Book Fair is set to open on January 27, with the theme of “Culture on the Frontlines”: The fair is scheduled to run through February 10. The CIBF remains a massive event,...
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Egyptian Poet Fatima Naoot Gets Three-year Jail Sentence for ‘Insulting Islam’
Poet Fatima Naoot was sentenced today to three years in prison and a 20,000LE fine, found guilty of “contempt of religion”: Photo from Poetry International. According to Ahram Online, Naoot goes to...
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Popular Egyptian Cartoonist Islam Gawish Arrested and Released
UPDATE: Islam Gawish has been released from custody, as was announced on his Facebook page and by his attorney. According to state-run Ahram Online, no charges have been filed, perhaps due to the...
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El-Sisi: ‘I’m Not Upset With [Cartoonist Islam] Gawish or Anyone’
In a phone interview with the “Cairo Today” show on OrbitTV, Egyptian Pres. Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi said he was “not upset” with cartoonist Islam Gawish, who was arrested on Sunday and released early...
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Sights and Sounds from the 2016 Cairo International Book Fair
Journalist Ursula Lindsey may have had the honor of the peak Cairo Book Fair moment this year. Egyptian publisher Sherif Bakr and Palestinian novelist Raba’i al-Madhoun. Stolen off Bakr’s Facebook. In...
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‘Arabic Booker’-longlisted Mohamed Rabie on the Hope That Clouds Observation
Tomorrow around 7 a.m. GMT, the International Prize for Arabic Fiction (IPAF) — popularly known as the “Arabic Booker” — will announce its six-book shortlist along with the panel of judges. One of the...
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Notes from a Self-translator and Other Translation Talks in Cairo This Spring
This spring’s Center for Translation Studies talks — both at the American University in Cairo’s old and new campuses — feature a number of interesting topics: First at the old campus is a talk by...
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Egyptian Novelist Alaa El-Deeb, 77
Thursday evening, prominent critic, translator, and novelist Alaa al-Deeb, died at the Maadi Military Hospital: According to Ahram Online, President Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi issued a decree that al-Deeb’s...
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Egyptian Appeals Court Sentences Novelist Ahmed Naji to Two Years
In a tremendous blow to Egypt’s novelists, publishers and readers, the Bulaq Criminal Court today sentenced experimental novelist Ahmed Naji to two years in prison for “public indecency” for the...
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Swell of Solidarity with Novelist Ahmed Naji, Sentenced to Two Years for...
Novelist Ahmed Naji isn’t the only Egyptian who’s been jailed on risible charges, but his case — in which he was jailed yesterday for two years for harming public morality — deeply touches the right of...
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Egypt’s Townhouse Gallery Might Be Facing New Censorship Rules
Egypt’s Townhouse Gallery — which is not just a visual-art space, but has hosted talks by groundbreaking writers like Nael Eltoukhy, Mahmoud el Wardany, and Iman Abdel Rehim — was allowed to...
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Egyptian Writers’ and Artists’ Statement Against the Imprisonment of Novelist...
Novelist Ahdaf Soueif has translated this statement, signed by more than 400 artists and writers. She notes that a framing document is coming soon, after which international organizations and...
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Cooking with Naguib Mahfouz
Food writer, translator, and scholar Anny Gaul explores the history of — and makes — sharkasiyya, a dish important in Mahfouz’s Palace Walk: By Anny Gaul In the first volume of Naguib Mahfouz’s Cairo...
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Friday Films: ‘A Nightingale’s Prayer’
It is always a surprising shame that Taha Hussein’s (1889-1973) seminal A Nightingale’s Prayer (1934) isn’t available in English translation: The film and novel are both significant twentieth century...
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Award-winning Egyptian Artist Ganzeer’s First Graphic Novel To Begin...
The Egyptian artist Ganzeer (the pen name of Mohamed Fahmy), co-winner of a Mahmoud Kahil Award for his work on The Apartment in Bab el-Louk, has announced that his first full-length, solo graphic...
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