Dying within a week of each other, on 21 and 28 June respectively, the critic Farouk Abdel-Qader (b. 1938) and the poet Mohammad Afifi Matar (b. 1935) -- both left-wing dissidents and recipients, among other honours, of the prestigious Sultan Bin Ali Al Owais Cultural Foundation Award -- have left a sizable gap in the literary life of the country. Abdel-Qader's work on the novel, the short story and theatre -- notably on as yet little known, non-Egyptian Arab writers -- played a vital role in the development of contemporary literature. For decades he was among the most influential voices, and his weekly seminar in downtown Cairo drew in established and young writers alike. Matar, who spent many years in Iraq following his staunch opposition to the Camp David Accords and suffered political persecution subsequently in Egypt, is among the earliest proponents of free verse in Egypt, a remarkable talent whose work spans a rich array of styles and approaches and helps define the influential Generation of the Sixties.
