The Sawiris Cultural Award in Egypt announced the names of the winners in its 18th session, which went to Shady Louis Boutros for his novel "A Brief History of the Caliph and East Cairo" published by Al-Ain Publishing House, but the writer who has been living in London for years announced his waiver of the award minutes later. .

Since its release in April 2021, the novel has sparked a literary controversy, reinforced by its writer’s engagement with reality and his interaction with readers and followers on communication sites. An eloquent narrative that blends seamlessly with realistic dialogues in colloquial Egyptian.

And as the characters in the novel develop as a result of their interactions with their surroundings - which includes the house, the street, the church, the state, and hospitals - the novel itself also represents a development for its writer, whose fictional characters began with “The Ways of the Lord” (2018), which deals with the complexities of bureaucracy and identity problems for an Egyptian young man by narrating confession sessions. In front of the priest in the church.

In his subsequent work, “On the Greenwich Line” (2019), the writer tells the story of a young immigrant who worked in the British Social Service Institution, only to find himself responsible for the fate of the funeral of a young Syrian immigrant who died in London while he was alone. He divides the world into two halves, and quotes the title of the novel from him.

Waiver of the award

Lewis wrote - on his Facebook page - after the end of the award ceremony that was held at the Cultural Liberation Center of the American University in Cairo, "I am certainly happy with the news and grateful to the award committee for its selection. ".

And the young novelist wrote - in a second post on his page - "a simple clarification before I close the talk on the subject: I submitted 'Dar Al-Ain Publishing' for the Sawiris Award with my knowledge and I did not mind. Dear Professor Wissam Ragab - the director of the award - kindly informed me that I had won the award in advance, according to the system As for me, there are no explanations or justifications for my motives that I need to announce, I will simply give up (I will give up) the award tomorrow, as I (as) said.

The award was established in 2005 and is presented annually by the Sawiris Foundation for Social Development in the fields of novel, short story, criticism, film script, theatrical text and children's literature, with a value of 1.5 million pounds (about 55 thousand dollars).

The ceremony of announcing and handing over the award was held - yesterday evening, Sunday - in the presence of a number of ministers, ambassadors, writers, critics and public figures, including the famous cardiologist Magdi Yaqoub.

The young novelist had previously expressed his opinion on the literary awards on his page on the social networking site Facebook

Doctor and writer Muhammad Abu al-Ghar, a member of the award's board of trustees, said - in the opening speech - that the award "has achieved great success, and has established itself as one of the most important awards presented in Egypt, and it is not only of good financial value, but also has a very great moral value."

He added, "There is no interference in any way in choosing the winners. The arbitration committee alone is responsible for that.. The demand for applications for the award exceeded all expectations in the past years," as he put it.

After finishing his speech, Aboul Ghar announced that a special award this year would be presented to a writer who did not participate in the competition for the prizes, at a value of 150,000 pounds, and it went to the late journalist Mohamed Aboul Gheit for his book "I'm Coming, O Light" and his investigative investigations, which were awarded by the United Nations.

In the other branches of the award, Ahmed Abdel Latif won the prize for the best collection of short stories (the senior writers branch) for his collection “The Kingdom of Mark Zuckerberg and His Fairy Birds” issued by “Al-Mustawasit Publications”.

The prize for the best work in the field of literary criticism and narratives went to Bahaa Jahin for the book “The King and the Owner” jointly with Magdy Gerges for the book “Teacher Ibrahim Johari... An Egyptian Biography from the Eighteenth Century.”

The award for the best book for children under 12 years old was also jointly won by Ahmed Qarni with Nima Zaidan for the book “Why the Crocodile Doesn’t Fly”, and Ashraf Abu Al-Yazid with Yasser Jaisah for the book “My Cat Is Writing a Book”.

The Best Screenplay Award (Senior Writers Branch) was won by Ahmed Al Hawary with Ibrahim Al Batout for the screenplay of “A Feather and a Fish”, while the award for the (Youth Writers Branch) was won by Muhammad Al Samman for the screenplay of “Terrestrials”.

And Ahmed Nabil won the first place in the award for the best theatrical text for the text “Sinbad’s Picnic in the Circles of Baghdad,” while Imad Mutawa came in second place for the text “Calm Music.”

As for the novel award for young writers, it went to Charles Akl for the novel “Red Orange” published by Dar Al Karma, and Ahmed Ibrahim Ismail won the second place for the novel “Abu Jamea” published by Dar Al Hala Publishing.

Muhammad Sorour won the first place for the best collection of short stories in the Young Writers branch for his collection “Three Traps for a One-eyed Wolf”, while Muhammad Al Burami came in second place for his collection “For Lovers, Scoundrels and Bandits” issued by the General Authority for Cultural Palaces.