Human Ingenuity: Writing Characters to Remember

Award-winning Egyptian author Ashraf Elashmawy in conversation with translator Peter Daniel

The Egyptian author, winner of the 2026 Sheikh Zayed Book Award in the Literature category, creates vivid characters who meet the challenges of a world undergoing social upheaval with ingenuity and perseverance. The cast of Births at the Zoo (Arabic original published by Al Dar Al Masriah Al Lubnaniah, 2024)—a triptych of socially satirical novellas—includes an idealistic veterinarian and his fiancée, who see political manipulation and social decay behind the inflated spectacle surrounding the birth of lion cubs at Giza Zoo.

In The Lady of Zamalek (English translation by Peter Daniel, Hoopoe, 2021), five narrators come together to tell a gripping saga of modern Egypt, spanning the monarchy, the 1952 revolution, and the eras of Nasser, Sadat and the early Mubarak years. In The House of the Coptic Woman (English translation by Peter Daniel, Hoopoe, 2023), too, the protagonists themselves drive the story forward.

In conversation with the award-winning author and his English translator, Peter Daniel, the discussion will explore the creation of these vivid characters, the tradition of Arabic realism, new narrative techniques and the documentary perspective that informs this compelling body of literary work.

An event organised by Litprom / Frankfurter Buchmesse and the Sheikh Zayed Book Award, featuring:

• Ashraf Elashmawy, author and 2026 Sheikh Zayed Book Award Laureate in Literature
• Peter Daniel, translator of two of Ashraf Elashmawy’s works into English (Hoopoe / AUC Press)

Moderator: Cornelia Wegerhoff, cultural journalist