Ibrahim Nagui speaking on the phone. Banner for Virtual Book Discussion: The Many Lives of Ibrahim Nagui

Virtual Book Discussion: The Many Lives of Ibrahim Nagui

by Public and Community Events

Virtual AUC Press Book Discussion Book Launch memoir Virtual

Tue, Feb 11, 2025

7 PM – 8 PM (GMT+2)

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Join us for a special virtual book discussion of The Many Lives of Ibrahim Nagui: A Journey with my Grandfather, winner of the Sawiris Cultural Award, this multigenerational memoir explores the life of one of the Arab world’s most celebrated romantic poets, famed for al-Atlal ("The Ruins")—later sung by Umm Kulthum—as seen through his granddaughter’s eyes, Dr. Samia Mehrez.

The discussion will feature award-winning author Samia Mehrez, Professor Emerita of Arabic Literature in the Department of Arab and Islamic Civilizations at the American University in Cairo. She will be in conversation with Joy Amina Garnett, an artist and writer whose work explores memory and loss. The discussion will be moderated by Marcia Lynx Qualey, editor of ArabLit, translator, and literary critic.

Date: Tuesday, 11 February 2025
Time: 7pm Cairo (GMT+2) | 5pm London | 12pm New York | 9am Los Angeles
Location: Virtual meeting via Zoom.
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There will be a Q&A session at the end of the discussion, you can send us your questions ahead of time via email: auc.press@aucegypt.edu.

The discussion will be streamed live on the AUC Press Facebook page.

More about The Many Lives of Ibrahim Nagui: A Journey with my Grandfather by Samia Mehrez, translated by Eleanor Ellis (AUC Press, 2025):
Ibrahim Nagui (1898–1953) was one of the Arab world’s most important Romantic poets writing in Arabic during the first half of the twentieth century. A founding member of the Apollo school, he also published widely in the fields of medicine, nutrition, psychology, sociology, and translation. This multigenerational, genre-crossing work of literary nonfiction sheds new light on Nagui through the eyes of his granddaughter, literary scholar Samia Mehrez. Nagui is best known for his poem al-Atlal (“the Ruins”), which was later sung by legendary Egyptian diva Umm Kulthum. Drawing on a series of family archives, including Nagui’s own published and unpublished writings, Mehrez embarks on a journey through multiple languages, generations, and geographies, as she comes to reconcile with the shadow of her grandfather, who died two years before she was born. Mehrez unpacks many of the myths surrounding Nagui and in doing so, reflects on how he impacted her own career as a literary critic.

Speakers

Samia Mehrez's profile photo

Samia Mehrez

Dr.

Award-winning author and Professor emerita of Arabic literature in the Department of Arab and Islamic Civilizations and founder of the Center for Translation Studies at the American University in Cairo (2009–2021). She is the author of Egyptian Writers between History and Fiction (AUC Press, 1994) and Egypt's Culture Wars (2008), and the editor of The Literary Atlas of CairoThe Literary Life of Cairo, and Translating Egypt’s Revolution: The Language of Tahrir (AUC Press, 2010, 2011, 2012).


Joy Amina Garnett's profile photo

Joy Amina Garnett

Artist and writer whose work explores memory and loss.

Joy Amina Garnett is an artist and writer in Los Angeles whose work explores memory and loss. Her forthcoming memoir, The Bee Kingdom, charts her life-long search for her late maternal grandfather Ahmed Zaky Abushady (1892-1955), a central figure of 20th century Egyptian romantic poetry. An advance excerpt of The Bee Kingdom was Longlisted for the 2024 International First Pages Prize for Creative Nonficton. Her chapter on Abushady's archive is included in Cultural Entanglement in the Pre-Independence Arab World: Arts, Thought, and Literature (I.B. Tauris/Bloomsbury, 2020). Garnett's short stories have appeared in numerous journals including Rusted Radishes (American University in Beirut), ellipse: journal of translation (Montreal), Nashville Review (Vanderbilt University), Evergreen Review (New York), and Ping-Pong (Henry Miller Foundation, Big Sur).


Marcia Lynx Qualey's profile photo

Marcia Lynx Qualey

https://www.linkedin.com/in/marcia-lynx-qualey-bb31263b/

Founding editor of ArabLit and ArabLit Quarterly and co-host of the BULAQ podcast. She is the translator of Sonia Nimr's time traveling Thunderbird trilogy and Haya Saleh's YA novel Wild Poppies

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