August marks Women in Translation Month, dedicated to recognizing the significant contributions of women authors. AUC Press is joining this global celebration by showcasing 15 exceptional works by women, many of which have also been translated by women.
Featured books
AUC Press is proud to recognize the work of all our female authors in translation, with a particular focus on Azza Fahmy, whose memoir was published in English earlier this year; Sarah Enany, who played a crucial role in bringing Fahmy’s work to a broader audience and who also serves as the chair of the panel of judges for the 2024 Naguib Mahfouz Medal for Literature; and Radwa Ashour, whose brilliant work in translation, Granada, is set to be published later this year. Their contributions are highlighted in 2024, underscoring the impact of women in translation.
Spotlight on Azza Fahmy, Sarah Enany, and Radwa Ashour
Azza Fahmy was born in 1944 and raised in Sohag, Upper Egypt. She graduated in interior design from the Faculty of Fine Arts in Egypt, became the first female apprentice to several of the best jewelers in Cairo, and studied jewelry craft at the City of London Polytechnic. She now makes and markets her jewelry internationally with multiple stores, in Egypt, London, Jordan, and Dubai. She is the author of Enchanted Jewelry of Egypt: Traditional Art and Craft (AUC Press, 2007), The Traditional Jewelry of Egypt (AUC Press, 2015), and My Life in Jewelry: A Memoir (AUC Press, 2024)
Sarah Enany is a literary translator and a professor in the English Department of Cairo University. She is a recipient of the Banipal Prize for Literary Translation for her translation of The Girl with Braided Hair: A Novel (Hoopoe, 2020). Her other notable translations include My Life in Jewelry: A Memoir by Azza Fahmy (AUC Press, 2024) and The Book Smuggler: A Novel by Omaima Al-Khamis (Hoopoe, 2021). Enany has also translated several operas, including the acclaimed sung versions of Les Misérables and Mozart’s The Magic Flute into Egyptian Arabic, and Sayed Higab’s libretto for the opera Miramar into English. Additionally, she has translated Witness to War and Peace: Egypt, the October War, and Beyond; The Book Smuggler; and the Jewish-Muslim trilogy (all AUC Press).
Enany currently serves as the chair of the distinguished panel of judges for the 2024 Naguib Mahfouz Medal for Literature, which honors the best contemporary novels published in Arabic (yet to be translated into English) during 2022 or 2023.
Radwa Ashour (1946–2014) is a highly acclaimed Egyptian writer and scholar. She is the author of more than fifteen works of fiction, memoir, and criticism, including Granada (AUC Press, 2008) and The Woman from Tantoura (Hoopoe, 2019), and was a recipient of the Constantine Cavafy Prize for Literature and the prestigious Owais Prize for Fiction.
Radwa Ashour’s Granada: The Complete Trilogy, translated by Kay Heikkinen, will be available in English for the first time in its entirety. This forthcoming paperback edition, set to be published by Hoopoe later in 2024, will include all three novels—Granada, Maryama, and The Departure.
