As Mona Kareem writes in her introduction to this interview with Egyptian writer Ahmed Naji for The Millions, he has been many types of writer already: “an anonymous blogger, a cultural journalist, […]
By Tugrul Mende This month, Ahmed Naji’s Rotten Evidence: Reading and Writing in an Egyptian Prison was published in Katharine Halls’ English translation. The book chronicles Naji’s two years in prison, which […]
This panel aims to address the question of how resistance and trauma are conceived and practiced in prison literature in North Africa in the years leading to and following the […]
“Narrating the Middle East” is an exciting virtual Arab literary festival taking place on Tuesday, May 17 and Wednesday May 18, 2022.
“I have found that obedience and conformity in the United States are not strictly enforced or heavily guarded by armed soldiers or prisons, instead they present as a whisper, a sound vibration that crashes into your consciousness where they transform into ants that proceed to slowly and gradually eat away at your insides until they ultimately deform you after which they proceed to build you back up and mold you into what the system determines what you should become.”
Egyptian writer Ahmed Naji will be in conversation with Rasha Hilwi about his new book حرز مكمكم, just out from Dar Khan Aljanub.
This panel will feature a discussion with Egyptian writer Ahmed Naji about his time spent in a Cairene prison for violating public decency laws in his second novel, Using Life. […]
“Around a century later, in Cairo, during the obscenity trial of my novel Using Life, the assistant attorney for the prosecution challenged my defense attorney and the respected literary figures we had called as witnesses to read a section of my novel out loud.”
“I thought these are crazy days. I have been in prison for a long time, and I have no idea what’s going on. Maybe they’re fabricating a case against Nagib Mahfouz or his ghost.”
