Egypt to hold cultural event abroad for it's late Nobel writer

The Egyptian Culture Ministry will hold cultural weeks abroad for Egyptian Nobel prize winner for literature Naguib Mahfouz, who died on Aug. 30, the official MENA news agency reported Sunday.

The first cultural week was expected to start in Spain in cooperation with Spanish Culture Ministry this week, MENA quoted Anwar Ibrahim, the Egyptian Culture Ministry's Under Secretary for Foreign Relations, as saying.

The cultural event, which was part of a campaign to spread the profound Egyptian culture abroad, would include forums on Mahfouz's history, his novels and writings as he was considered one of the foremost writers in modern Arabic literature and the first Arab writer to win Nobel prize in literature, said Ibrahim.

Born in Cairo in 1911, Mahfouz began writing when he was 17. His first novel was published in 1939 and ten more were written before the Egyptian Revolution in July 1952.

Mahfouz won the Nobel prize for literature in 1988 and his works have been translated into many foreign languages.

The novelist is best known for his Cairo Trilogy -- Palace Walk, Palace of Desire and Sugar Street -- which described life in the over 1,000-year-old Islamic part of the Egyptian capital.

Source: Xinhua