Egyptian Writer-Translator Ibtihal Salem Dies, 66

Egyptian short-story writer, novelist, and translator Ibtihal Salem died early Saturday at the age of 66:

Salem was born in Giza and study psychology at Ain Shams University. After that, she worked in theatre and radio, and her first collection of stories, The Seagull, was published in 1989. Her first novel, Blue Windows, appeared in 2000.

Books that followed included two books for children, as well as A Small Box in the Heart (2004), The Sky Doesn’t Rain Lovers (2008), and the short-story collection An Ordinary Day (2009).

Blue Windows won a “Literature of War” Prize.

Salem’s work has been translated into German, English, and Italian, and an English-language collection, Children of the Waters (2002), was translated by Marilyn Booth and published by the University of Texas Press.

She also translated several works from French into Arabic, with a focus on folk tales and stories and poems for children.

More:

Egypt’s Turbulent Waters in Ibtihal Salem’s Experimental Writings

Ibtihal Salem’s page on Arab World Books