The Arabist

The Arabist

By Issandr El Amrani and friends.

Merit wins publisher's prize

Congratulations to Mohammed Hashem, owner of the Merit publishing house, for winning the Association of American Publishers' Jeri Laber International Freedom to Publish Award.

Merit is now the leading independent publisher of fiction in Egypt, bringing much new talent to the scene as well as translation of English works to Arabic. Recent hits includen Taht Khatt Al Faqr (Below the poverty line), Ahmed Al Aidi's An Takoun Abbas Al Abd (Being Abbad Al Abd), Amru Afia's The Edge of Seduction, Hussein Abdel Alim's Puzzle, Sherif Younis Al Zahf Al Muqaddas (The Sacred Mob), as well as the first Arabic translation of Chuch Palahniuk's Fight Club.

Update: Meanwhile, the government arrests five Islamist publishers who were printing material against the upcoming renewal of the emergency law.