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Mai Refky Mai Refky Untitled, oil on canvas, 70 cms x 70 cms, 2002 Now just 30 years old, Mai Refky has been exhibiting her paintings in numerous galleries and group exhibitions in her homeland of Egypt since 1998 when she was awarded her BA in Fine Arts from Helwan University. Until 2000 she studied Islamic art and architecture at the American University in Cairo. She has exhibited in two international exhibitions on Contemporary Egyptian Art, in Beirut and Toledo, Spain, and has received a number of awards for her work, including 1st prize in painting from the Association of Art Lovers in 2002, and the same year, the Ministry of Culture’s grant for artists. Her first solo exhibition takes place 5 –19 April at the Gezira Arts Centre in Cairo. Composition in blue, oil on canvas, 120 cms x 140 cms, 2002 Front cover: Kilim, oil on canvas, 100 cms x 70 cms, 2003 Grandmother, oil on canvas, 60 cms x 160 cms, 2005
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PUBLISHER / EDITOR Margaret Obank ASSISTANT EDITOR Samuel Shimon COVER ARTIST Mai Refky CONTRIBUTING EDITORS Khaled Mattawa Saadi Youssef Anton Shammas Peter Clark Fadhil al-Azzawi Sinan Antoon Paul Starkey Issa J Boullata Mona Zaki CONSULTING EDITORS Naguib Mahfouz Etel Adnan Roger Allen Mohammed Bennis Gamal el-Ghitani Marilyn Hacker Erdmute Heller Herbert Mason Yasir Suleiman Susannah Tarbush Sargon Boulus Saif al-Rahbi COPY EDITING Eleanor Kilroy, Kat Stapley LAYOUT Banipal Publishing BANIPAL PO Box 22300 LONDON W13 8ZQ, UK Tel: +44 (0)20 8568 9747 Fax: +44 (0)20 8568 8509 editorial email: editor@banipal.co.uk subscriptions: subscribe@banipal.co.uk website: www.banipal.co.uk PRINTED BY Short Run Press Ltd Bittern Road, Sowton Ind. Est. EXETER EX2 7LW ISSN: 1461-5363 Photographs not accredited have been donated, photographers unknown © All material: Banipal, authors, translators and artists. All rights reserved. Banipal takes its name from Ashurbanipal, last great king of Assyria and patron of the arts, whose outstanding achievement was to assemble in Nineveh, from all over his empire, the first systematically organised library in the ancient Middle East. The thousands of clay tablets of Sumerian, Babylonian and Assyrian writings included the famous Mesopotamian epics of the Creation, the Flood, and Gilgamesh, many folk tales, fables, proverbs, prayers and omen texts. Source: Encyclopaedia Britannica CONTENTS No 25, Spring 2006 2 EDITORIAL Mohammad al-Maghut (1934-2006) 3 Ibrahim al-Koni The Visitor Excerpt from the novel Al-Bahth An al-Makan al-Da'i [The Seven Veils of Seth] 11 Hartmut Fähndrich Profile The Desert – our Life LITERARY INFLUENCES 013 Khaled Mattawa The Relation of my Influences 21 FEATURE ON NEWWRITING IN EGYPT 22 Marie-Thérèse Abdel-Messih Debunking the Heroic Self 24 Hamdy Abowgliel Excerpts from Thieves in Retirement 34 Iman Mersal Poems 40 Alaa al-Aswany Two short stories 49 Mansoura Ez-Eldin Excerpt from Maryam’s Maze 60 Ibrahim Farghali A short story 63 Independent Egyptian publisher wins International Award 64 Fatima Naoot Two Poems 67 Montasser El-Qaffash Excerpt from the novel To See Now 74 Zahra Yusri A Poem It’s Night 76 Nagat Ali Two Poems 78 Ahmed Alaidy Excerpt from Being Abbas el Abd 96 Emad Abu Saleh Two poems 90 Haytham al-Wardany Two short stories 87 Rana al-Tonsi Poems from A Rose for the Last Days 98 Safaa Ennagar A short story Amoeba 102 Tamer Fathy Three Poems 104 Ashraf Abdelshafy Two short stories 108 Emad Fouad A Poem 109 Yasser Abd el-Hafez Excerpt from On the Occasion of Life 117 Sawiris Fiction Prizes for Egyptian Literature A TRAVELLING TALE 118 Waiel Ashry Going to Williamsburg 123 Mohammed Mustagab A story The Hired Killer and a true account Ola the Hit Man with introduction by Mona Zaki INTERVIEW WITH AN EDITOR 132 Jane Spender, editor PEN Internaitonal BOOK REVIEWS 136 Peter Clark Memories in Translation by Denys Johnson-Davies 138 Sophie Richter-Devroe Die Reise des Granadiniers by Rabee Jaber 140 Tarek al-Ariss Gate of the Sun Elias Khoury 144 Stephen Watts Here and There: a Selection of Poems by Basim Furat 146 Mona Zaki I Loved You for your Voice by Sélim Nassib 148 Chawki Bazih Cabaret Su’ad by Mohammed Suwaid 150 Lulu Norman Le Diamantaire by Yasmine Khlat 151 Margaret Obank Yasser Arafat Looked at Me and Smiled Yussef Bazzi 153 Selection of Books Received EVENTS 154 London: British Council and Arabic-English Translation 156 Berlin: The Iraqi Equation 158 Cairo: Celebrating 1000 translations into Arabic 160 CONTRIBUTORS ANDTRANSLATORS Subscribe t oday! Tu r n t o page 1 5 9 Banipal is distributed in the UK and the rest of Europe by Central Books (see www.centralbooks.com) Subscribe direct or online at www.inpressbooks.co.uk BANIPAL NO 25, SPRING 2006 1

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Mai Refky

Mai Refky

Untitled, oil on canvas, 70 cms x 70 cms, 2002

Now just 30 years old, Mai Refky has been exhibiting her paintings in numerous galleries and group exhibitions in her homeland of Egypt since 1998 when she was awarded her BA in Fine Arts from Helwan University. Until 2000 she studied Islamic art and architecture at the American University in Cairo. She has exhibited in two international exhibitions on Contemporary Egyptian Art, in Beirut and Toledo, Spain, and has received a number of awards for her work, including 1st prize in painting from the Association of Art Lovers in 2002, and the same year, the Ministry of Culture’s grant for artists. Her first solo exhibition takes place 5 –19 April at the Gezira Arts Centre in Cairo.

Composition in blue, oil on canvas, 120 cms x 140 cms, 2002 Front cover: Kilim, oil on canvas, 100 cms x 70 cms, 2003

Grandmother, oil on canvas, 60 cms x 160 cms, 2005

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