Tharwat Okasha and Suheir al-Qalmawi, figures of the 50th Cairo Book Fair

CAIRO – 12 January 2018: Minister of Culture Enas Abdel Dayem and Secretary-General of the Arab League Ahmed Aboul Gheit attended the closing ceremony and distribution of prizes for the 49th Cairo International Book Fair.

This took place in the presence of officials in the Ministry of Culture, ambassadors of the countries that have participated in the book fair, as well as several media experts and novelists.

During the ceremony, the Ministry of Culture saluted the brave, Egyptian soldiers in the Sinai who face terrorism for the preservation of the country. The audience reacted enthusiastically, shouting “Life for Egypt”.

With regard to next year’s 50th edition, the Arab League have been chosen as the guest of honor for the golden jubilee session, while Tharwat Okasha and Suheir al-Qalmawi have been chosen as the prominent figures.

Abdel Rahman el-Sharkawy was the figure of the book fair for this year, which was held over 15 days from January 27 to February 10.

A documentary film about writer Abdul Rahman al-Sharqawi was screened at the ceremony. Conducted by the cultural production affairs sector, the film presents his life's journey and features his most important works, which participated in creating the literary history of Egypt and the Arab world. The documentary also shows an artistic presentation, combines a selection of his most poetic creations with a collection by Ibrahim Rifai Khaled Abdel-Aziz, Khaled Abd el-Salam, Ahmed Abo Omaira and Lubna Abdel Aziz among others.

Chairman of the Egyptian General Book Organization Haitham el-Hag delivered a speech in which he stressed that the number of visitors to this year's exhibition exceeded four and a half million, while the number of publishers increased by 25 percent in comparison to last year. Books by the late, prominent Egyptian writer Taha Hussein were bestsellers in the book fair, according to an official statement by the Ministry of Culture.

President of the Arab Publishers Union Mohamed Rashad handed over the shield of the Memorial Union to the Minister of Culture. Several prizes were received by writers such as Egyptian author Hala el-Badry, Wagdy el-Komy for his short stories series “Streets of The Sky”, the poet Massoud Shouman for his book “God, I know”, amongst other winners.