Today, on the 101st anniversary of Naguib Mahfouz’s birth, Egyptian author Ezzat El Kamhawi’s novel بيت الديب (House of al-Deeb) won the 2012 medal given in the Mahfouz’s name. El Kamhawi, who was born in Sharqiya and currently lives in Qatar, has published… Read More ›
Syrian novelist Khalil Sweileh’s Writing Love (2008) was the surprise winner of the 2009 Naguib Mahfouz Medal for Literature. The book, trans. Alexa Firat, is out in English as of this summer. In it, Sweileh attempts to say something new… Read More ›
This marks a big shakeup of the awards committee, which is a good thing both for those who stepped down — and can thus focus on other things — and for the award, which who knows, might turn up a different sort of book.
My write-up of the event is in Al Masry Al Youm. To sum up: The big surprise was that the Naguib Mahfouz Medal award went to “the revolutionary creativity of the Egyptian people” rather than to a novelist. Although this didn’t seem… Read More ›
It was December 1996 when the American University in Cairo Press (AUCP) first presented the Naguib Mahfouz Medal for Literature. The first award went to two Egyptians: Latifa al-Zayyat, for her classic The Open Door, and Ibrahim Abdel Meguid, for… Read More ›
Unfortunately, extra production time has not meant a smooth English version of this compelling and complex novel. The translation has too many strangely turned-out sentences, which mimic the Arabic but fail to clearly express the essence of the prose.
I certainly hope this medal—presented last night at the AUC’s downtown campus—doesn’t negatively impact Brooklyn Heights’ chances at the International Prize for Arabic Fiction (IPAF), for which it was shortlisted just three days ago.
Tonight, AUC Press will celebrate the life and writings of Egyptian Nobel laureate Naguib Mahfouz by presenting the annual Naguib Mahfouz Medal for Literature.
I say this as though I’ve read all of the Egyptian lit published (in translation, in 2009), which I haven’t. Nonetheless: Moon over Samarqand, by Mohamed Mansi Qandil. Qandil isn’t exactly an English-language unknown; his Cloudy Day on the West… Read More ›
The award–a silver medal and cash prize–has been presented each year since 1996. The medal’s presented on December 11, Mahfouz’s birthday. Tonight, it’s to be delivered by Prof. Rasheed el-Enany. NOTE: The award went to Syrian writer Khalil Sweileh for… Read More ›
