Writing Egypt: History, Culture, and Literature

The American University in Cairo Press, founded in 1960, celebrates its 50th anniversary in 2010. In half a century, the Press has grown from producing one or two books a year in the 1960s to its position today as the leading English-language publisher of the Middle East, with an annual publication program of up to 100 new books, and a backlist catalog offering of over 1,000 publications. To celebrate 50 years of excellence in publishing, Aleya Serour has drawn together extracts from some of the milestones among the fertile and diverse output of the AUC Press over five decades. Here is history, from Kent Weeks on ancient Thebes to Galal Amin on modern Egyptian society; culture, from Bernard O'Kane on early Mamluk decorative arts to Azza Fahmy on jewelry for spirit appeasement; and the best of Arabic literature in translation, from Taha Hussein and Naguib Mahfouz to Alaa Al Aswany and Ahmed Alaidy. . . . And much more, giving a rounded picture of the cultural contribution of one of the major players in Middle East publishing.