Since 1996 the AUC Press has presented the annual Naguib Mahfouz Medal for Literature, a major award supporting contemporary Arabic literature in translation.
The award is a cash prize of US$5,000, and the translation and publication of the winning novel throughout the English-speaking world, and is presented annually on 11 December, the birthday of Nobel laureate Naguib Mahfouz, by the president of the American University in Cairo in the presence of the Egyptian minister of culture and many other prominent leaders of Egypt’s cultural life.
The American University in Cairo Press is the primary English-language publisher of Naguib Mahfouz and has published or licensed some 600 foreign-language editions of the Nobel laureate’s works in 40 languages.
Nobel laureate Naguib Mahfouz welcomed the award by saying: “The announcement of this award honoring writers and literature is the most pleasurable event on my birthday. I hope that this prize will also help to discover new talents in Arabic literature and introduce them to readers around the world.”
Previous Winners of the Naguib Mahfouz Medal for Literature
The 27 winners of the Naguib Mahfouz Medal for Literature since its inauguration include 13 Egyptians (2 posthumously), 3 Palestinians, 3 Algerians, 2 Lebanese, 1 Moroccan, 2 Syrians, 1 Iraqi, 1 Sudanese, and 1 Saudi Arabian:
2022: Fatma Qandil, Empty Cages
2020 (awarded in March 2021): Ahmed Taibaoui, The Disappearance of Mr. Nobody
2018: Omaima Al-Khamis, The Book Smuggler
2017: Huzama Habayeb, Velvet
2016: Adel Esmat, Tales of Yusuf Tadrus
2015: Hassan Daoud, No Road to Paradise
2014: Hammour Ziada, The Longing of the Dervish
2013: Khaled Khalifa, No Knives in the Kitchens of This City
2012: Ezzat El Kamhawi, House of the Wolf
2011: The Revolutionary Literary Creativity of the Egyptian People
2010: Miral al-Tahawy, Brooklyn Heights
2009: Khalil Sweileh, Writing Love
2008: Hamdi Abu Golayyel, A Dog with No Tail
2007: Amina Zaydan, Red Wine
2006: Sahar Khalifeh, The Image, the Icon, and the Covenant
2005: Yusuf Abu Rayya, Wedding Night
2004: Alia Mamdouh, The Loved Ones
2003: Khairy Shalaby, The Lodging House
2002: Bensalem Himmich, The Polymath
2001: Somaya Ramadan, Leaves of Narcissus
2000: Hoda Barakat, The Tiller of Waters
1999: Edwar al-Kharrat, Rama and the Dragon
1998: Ahlam Mosteghanemi, Memory in the Flesh
1997: Mourid Barghouti, I Saw Ramallah; and Yusuf Idris, City of Love and Ashes
1996: Ibrahim Abdel Meguid, The Other Place; and Latifa al-Zayyat, The Open Door
About Naguib Mahfouz (1911–2006)
Naguib Mahfouz was born on 11 December 1911, in the old Gamaliya quarter of Cairo. He began writing in primary school, when he was a fan of detective, historical, and adventure novels. In secondary school, he moved on to the innovators of Arabic fiction—Taha Hussein, Muhammed Husayn Haykal, Ibrahim al-Mazini—who served him as models for the short story.
Mahfouz received the Egyptian State Prize twice for his writings. In 1988 he was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature. The Swedish Academy of Letters, in its citation for the prize, noted that Mahfouz “through works rich in nuance—now clear-sightedly realistic, now evocatively ambiguous—has formed an Arabic narrative art that applies to all mankind.”
He published 35 novels, over 350 short stories, 26 movie scripts, hundreds of op-ed columns for Egyptian newspapers, and seven plays over a 70-year career, from the 1930s until 2004.
In 2011, the AUC Press celebrated the centenary of the Egyptian Nobel laureate’s birth.
Since 1996 the AUC Press has presented the annual Naguib Mahfouz Medal for Literature, a major award in support of contemporary Arabic literature in translation.
