SCC open doors for participants in Naguib Mahfouz Award competition

CAIRO – 18 October 2017: The Supreme Council of Culture (SCC) opened the doors on Wednesday for literary contributions from Egypt and the Arab world to compete for the Naguib Mahfouz Award.

The “Novel in Egypt and the Arab World” competition will grant one winner a financial prize worth LE 50,000 ($2,830) based on his/her best novels that were published from 2016-2017, according to a statement released by the Ministry of Culture.

Applicants should not be older than 45 years of age, must submit their novels for this competition for the first time, and must present four copies of the novel to meet the participation requirements.

Submissions for the competition will end mid-November. Applicants are requested to submit all the required documents at the headquarters of the Supreme Council of Culture found at the Cairo Opera House.

Author of 34 novels, over 350 short stories, five plays and dozens of movie scripts, iconic legendary writer and winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature Naguib Mahfouz, was by all means the most disciplined writer ever. He wrote for one hour daily throughout his 70-year career, smoked three cigarettes per day, and walked by the Nile every morning.

He met weekly with the new generation of writers, artists and readers through an informal seminar, a habit he developed in the 1950s.

Mahfouz was honored by the government, as he received the Egyptian State Prize twice for his writings. Promoting great collections of Arabic narratives locally and internationally, Mahfouz received honors countless times, including an honorary doctorate from the American University in Cairo in 1995. He was also chosen as an honorary member of the American Academy of Arts and Institute of Arts.

Following his death, Mahfouz’s works further resonated in the Egyptian literary scene, where the AUC press has become his main English language publisher and agent of all translation rights. The agreement was signed with Mahfouz prior to his death, and there are around 600 editions in 40 languages for his works displayed at the AUC Press.