The American University in Cairo Press

The American University in Cairo Press (AUCP, AUC Press) is the leading English-language publisher in the Middle East.

The largest translator of Arabic literature in the world, AUC Press has a reputation for carefully selecting and translating the best writing being produced in the language today. They are the publisher of the Nobel prize winning Egyptian novelist, Naguib Mahfouz.

History

The American University in Cairo Press was founded in 1960. It is an independent publisher with close ties to the American University in Cairo (AUC). Its offices are in the heart of the Egyptian capital, overlooking the historic downtown landmark, Tahrir Square.

Its first publications in 1961 were K.A.C. Creswell’s ''A Bibliography of the Architecture, Arts and Crafts of Islam'', (AUC Press, 1961), Otto F.A. Meinardus’s ''Monks and Monasteries of the Egyptian Deserts'' (AUC Press, 1961), Edward B. Savage's ''The Rose and the Vine: A Study of the Evolution of the Tristan and Isolt Tale in Drama'' (AUC Press, 1961), and George Scanlon’s ''A Muslim Manual of War'' (AUC Press, 1961).

Mission

Considered "the leading English-language publishing house in the Middle East", its goals and purposes reflect and support the mission of the AUC in education, research, and cultural exchange, through professional publishing programs and international bookselling services.

Originally an academic publisher, AUC Press now publishes Arabic fiction translated into English. In 2016, AUC Press launched a new fiction imprint called Hoopoe.

Publishing programs

Today the AUC Press publishes books in twelve broad categories:

* Arabic Language Learning
* Archaeology and Ancient Egypt
* Art & Architecture
* Business, Economics, and Environmental Studies
* Coptic and Islamic Studies
* Egypt Guidebooks
* Fiction in Translation
* History
* Literary Criticism
* Middle East Studies
* Middle East Travel
* Naguib Mahfouz

It publishes annually up to 50 wide-ranging academic texts and general interest books for distribution worldwide. It also maintains a backlist of more than 600 high-quality scholarly, literary, and general interest publications. Through its own bookstores and other retailers in Egypt, along with its distributors abroad, namely Ingram Content Group and Bloomsbury Publishing, the AUC Press sells its books in every major book market around the world and through major online retailers, including Amazon. The AUC Press also sells e-books and licenses foreign editions of its publications in many languages.

Fiction in Translation

In 1978 the AUC Press translated and published a novel, Naguib Mahfouz's Miramar―his first to be translated into English―thereby launching its new Arabic Fiction in Translation program. Today it is a leader in the translation, distribution, and promotion of the best in modern Arabic fiction, bringing over 145 Arabic fiction titles by more than 65 authors from 12 countries, to English-speaking readers, including works of the late Nobel laureate Naguib Mahfouz and internationally acclaimed author Alaa Al Aswany.

Naguib Mahfouz

In December 1985, three years before Naguib Mahfouz won the Nobel Prize for Literature, the AUC Press signed a comprehensive publishing agreement with the Egyptian writer, thus becoming his primary English-language publisher as well as his worldwide agent for all translation rights, publishing all of his novels in English and licensing numerous editions in other languages. His most translated novel, Midaq Alley, has appeared in more than 30 foreign editions in 15 languages.

Since it first introduced Mahfouz's novels in English, the AUC Press has published 43 volumes of his writing, including a collection of his ''Life’s Wisdom'', an anthology of his thought and philosophy, Heart of the Night (2011) and Love in the Rain (2011). The AUC Press has also licensed some 600 foreign-language editions of Mahfouz's works in 40 languages.

The Naguib Mahfouz Medal for Literature

As a tribute to the acclaimed Egyptian writer and the rich literary heritage of the region, in 1996 the AUC Press established the Naguib Mahfouz Medal for Literature

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