Category Archives: News

My first children’s play was finally performed at the MUST Opera house by The International School of Choueifat 6 of October. After eight months of writing and editing the script, teaching 2nd and 4th graders how to act, and generally falling in love with everything to do with The Magic Clock, I’m very proud toContinueContinue reading “Finally, The Magic Clock”

I was pleasantly surprised one afternoon when an old friend called me and asked if I would like to give a story telling workshop to two groups of children at Zee Festival, a weekend long creativity festival hosted by Nile University. That weekend, I held two workshops for children, one for children aged 6-9, andContinueContinue reading “Story Telling Workshops at Zee Festival Nile University”

This March, the Egyptian Board of Books for Youth (EBBY), which I am a board member of, released its very first newsletter! Take the time to read it and notice where my fiction award is mentioned as well. View the newsletter here.

When I agreed to read the first piece I’d written for Rowayat Gemeza, I hadn’t expected just what would happen. Gemeza is the children’s magazine of Rowayat, a brilliant Egyptian journal of literature published annually. I’d written a piece about the Arab wise fool Goha, titled: Mirror, Mirror on the wall, Who is the funniest of them all?ContinueContinue reading “Story Telling at Rowayat Issue 3 launch”

In late 2014, Rowayat hosted a Literary Festival around the launch of their magazine, and I was privileged enough to be invited to give a talk on Children’s Literature. Basically, I reviewed trends and the development in Egyptian children’s literature. Feel free to listen to it as a podcast, here!  

Beverley Naido (second from right) at BISC with EBBY Board Members Balsam Saad (first on left) and Dina Elabd (second from left) If you don’t know her already, Beverley Naidoo is an award winning South African children’s author whose work has become a favorite with children in South Africa and worldwide. An elderly woman, sheContinueContinue reading “EBBY talk with Beverly Naidoo”

My article on EBBY’s first seminar since the January 2011 Revolution was published on the famous blog arablit.org. Click here to read my opinion on the children’s literature industry in Egypt.  

My story won the Rowayat Second Student Fiction Competition. Read it, published in Issue 2 of Rowayat: “The Palm’s Poem” “Everything about the tone is deliberate and highly controlled: it’s very nicely composed, and it reads with the clarity and force of parable without ever sounding didactic- the highest compliment I can give to writing of thisContinueContinue reading “Winning the Rowayat Student Fiction Award!”

I had the good luck and privilege to interview Abdel Tawab Youssef “the godfather of children’s literature in Egypt and the Arab world”. The five part interview is available on Youtube, attached. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ArO-DBL-heY The four other segments of the interview are also available on Youtube.