Palace Walk

Naguib Mahfouz was born in 1911 in the crowded Cairo district of Gamaliya. He wrote nearly 40 novel-length works, plus hundreds of short stories and numerous cinema plots and scenarios. He was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1988. He died in Cairo on August 30, 2006 at the age of 94.





William M. Hutchins, a professor in the Philosophy and Religion Department at Appalachian State University, has translated the works of many Arab writers, including Tawfiq al-Hakim, Fadhil al-Azzawi, Ibrahim al-Koni, and Mohammed Khudayyir. He was awarded the 2013 Saif Ghobash Banipal Prize for Arabic Literary Translation for his translation of A Land without Jasmine by Wajdi al-Ahdal.





Olive E. Kenny studied Arabic in Cairo and taught English there for many years. Her translation credits include Naguib Mahfouz’s Palace of Desire and Wedding Song, and War in the Land of Egypt by Yusuf al-Qaid.