By Mursi Saad El-Din During the Cairo International Book Fair it sometimes might appear that the attention of the entire city is fixated on books. The event receives massive press and television coverage and has become a fixture of the cultural scene, not just nationally, but throughout the region. I always admire achievement, and the arrival of 2003 book fair provides an appropriate occasion on which to mention one. There are, of course, quite a few, but I feel one in particular is deserving of greater recognition. I do not think any one will contradict me when I single out AUC Press for such an honour. It is my love for Egypt that has driven me to this conclusion, for I do not think there is any publishing house that has served the cause of my country like AUC Press. But AUC Press is not simply a publisher. It is an institution concerned with, in the words of the introduction to the 2003 catalogue, publishing "a wide range of scholarly monographs, reference works, and general books on ancient and modern Egypt and the Middle East, as well as Arabic Literature in English translation". In other words it is a channel by which Egypt is presented to English speakers. Indeed, not only to English speaking readers but, as in the case of Naguib Mahfouz, to readers of 28 languages. At the helm of AUC Press is Mark Linz, a publisher who has worked with McGraw Hill, Herder and Herder and Seabury Press. He has served as a consultant to Conlinium International Publishing Group, and as the director of a Princeton based educational publishing group. This varied experience has been put to use at AUC Press. The development of the press since Linz took over, from 1984 to 1986 and then again since 1996, is impressive. It was in 1984 that he started the job of reorganising AUC Press "to reflect and support the mission of the AUC education, research and cultural exchange through professional publishing, printing and book- selling services". Since then the Press has expanded enormously. In 1985 20 books were published; 2002 saw the publication of 50 books. There are many projects that owe their success to Linz, not least the publication of the 20-volume complete Mahfouz Library in a boxed set. But Naguib Mahfouz is not the only Egyptian writer, translated and published by the press. So far 60 titles have been published by writers such as Taha Hussein, Youssef Idris, Bahaa Taher, Yehia Taher Abdullah, Tewfik El- Hakim, Sonallah Ibrahim, as well as less-established authors, winners of the Naguib Mahfouz Medal for Literature, established in 1996. Attention has also been given to developing the technical side of the press. Heidelberg offset machines and Docutec printing equipment has been installed, along with digital prepress and colour separation equipment, making the press self sufficient. Agreements have been concluded with other institutions, such as the Colombia University Press, and AUC Press offices have opened in America and Britain. This has greatly helped in the promotion and distribution of AUC books, with well over 100,000 volumes being distributed in Egypt and abroad. Books published fall in many categories, including ancient Egypt, architecture and the arts, biography, autobiography, gender and women's studies, guides and maps, history, coffee table books, language and literature, modern Arabic writing, politics and social studies and religious studies. The year 2003 will witness the publication of, among others, Hidden Treasures of the Egyptian Museum, a companion to the previously published The Treasures of the Egyptian Museum. Palestine and Egypt, The Monuments of Egypt and Nubia, The Glory of Cairo, Coptic Life in Egypt, as well as a number of translated novels, including Rama and the Dragon by Edwar El-Kharrat, Leaves of Narcissus by Somaya Ramadan and The Last Chapter by Leila Abuzeid, are also on the 2003 list, along with Under the Naked Sky, a collection of short stories from the Arab world translated by Denys Johnson- Davies, will also appear.
