Cairo’s Kotob Khan Bookstore does far more than merely sell books: it serves as a community center, a gathering place — and now it’s a publisher as well.
Ahdaf Soueif on Cairo’s Post-Revolution Literary Scene
Ahdaf Soueif spoke with The Daily Beast about life in Cairo since the uprising as well as its impact on the city’s writers and bookstores.
Foreign-language Bookstore in Cairo Hurt By Lack of Tourists
Cairo’s Lehnert & Landrock, a 65-year-old German bookstore and art gallery near Tahrir Square, may be forced to close as a result of the fall off in tourists to Egypt.
Will the Arab Spring Transform Arabic Publishing?
It is clear Egyptian and other Arab publishers are beginning to exercise their new freedoms. Many hope their example will inspire a transformation of Arabic publishing
Arab Hero: New Cairo Comics Publisher Inspired by the Arab Spring
Arab Hero, a new comic book start-up based in Cairo aims to create Arabic comic books featuring Arab heroes, written by Arab writers, and illustrated by Arab artists.
Bloomsbury Qatar Editor Ahmed Alaidy Speaks from Tahrir Sq. Cairo
By Edward Nawotka We reached Egyptian novelist Ahmed Alaidy shortly after midnight while he was standing amid the hundreds of thousands of protesters in Tahrir Sq. in the center of Cairo. Alaidy, who works as an editor with Bloomsbury Qatar in Doha had come back to Egypt, initially to attend the now shuttered Cairo International Book Fair. “I could have …
Report from Cairo: Mid-East’s Biggest Book Fair Cancelled, 600+ Publishers Affected, Significant Sales Lost
By Oliva Snaije The 43rd Cairo International Book Fair (CIBF) has been, of course, cancelled. The CIBF was due to open January 29 and continue through February 8, with China as the guest of honor. The cancellation of the CIBF will hit the bottom line of Middle East publishers, many of whom depend on book fairs to sell the majority …
Undiscovered Art: Comics and Graphic Novels Emerge in the Middle East
By Chip Rossetti • The market for comic books and graphic novels in the Middle East is small, but growing. In this, the first part of a two-part series, we report on a recent conference in Cairo for comic book artists writing in Arabic, and look at Samandal, a popular bilingual comics magazine published in Beirut. • Next Tuesday we …
Are There Still Topics Too Taboo for Fiction?
By Edward Nawotka Today’s lead story by Chip Rossetti discusses the popularity of Essam Youssef’s heroin-fueled novel 1/4 Gram, which is set in the world Cairo’s high society. Some of the popularity of the novel is that it portrays a world — a taboo world — little seen by readers in the Arab world. The same could be said for …
Kotobarabia’s Arabic E-Books Extend Borders
By Chip Rossetti CAIRO: Most of the difficulties faced by Arabic-language book publishing stem from two basic problems: government censorship and very limited distribution. But with e-books, Ramy Habeeb, founder of the Egypt-based publisher Kotobarabia, has managed to bypass both seemingly intractable problems. As the first e-publisher devoted exclusively to Arabic-language titles, www.kotobarabia.com now offers over 8500 books in 31 …