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Raouf Mousaad Basta (20 March 1937 – 18 October 2025)
was an Egyptian playwright, journalist and novelist, born in 1937 in Sudan to Coptic parents from Egypt. He studied journalism in Cairo and joined a left-wing organisation. He was imprisoned for several years, after which he left Egypt to study theatre direction in Poland at Theatre Laboratory of Jerzy Grotowski. In 1982 he rediscovered Cairo, where he founded the Shouhdy publishing house, and later settled in Amsterdam.
After several plays, and a book about the Aswan High Dam written with Sonallah Ibrahim and Kamal al-Qalash at the end of the 1960s, Mousaad Basta returned to the literary scene 30 years later with his acclaimed autobiographical novel Baydhat al-Na’amah (The Ostrich Egg), which was translated and published in French, Spanish, Italian, Dutch and Swedish editions as part of the Mémoires de la Méditerranée publishing project. Excerpts from the novel were published in Banipal 30 (2007), translated by Piers Amodia.
Contributor's Issues
The Cinderellas of Muscat by Huda Hamed (Banipal Books, 2025)
The Tent Generations
Things I Left Behind by Shada Mustafa, translated by Nancy Roberts
Shadow of the Sun by Taleb Alrefai
Birds of Nabaa, A Mauritanian Tale by Abdallah Uld Mohamadi Bah
The Stone Serpent, Barates of Palmyra’s Elegy for Regina his Beloved by Nouri Al-Jarrah
Mansi A Rare Man in His Own Way by Tayeb Saleh (Banipal Books, 2020)
Tayeb Salih
Goat Mountain by Habib Selmi
Habib Selmi, author of Goat Mountain and 3 times shortlisted for the IPAF
The Mariner by Taleb Alrefai (Banipal Books, 2020)
Taleb Alrefai, author of Shadow of the Sun and The Mariner
Fadhil Al-Azzawi's Beautiful Creatures by Fadhil al-Azzawi (Banipal Books, 2021)
Fadhil al-Azzawi
Poems of Alexandria and New York by Ahmed Morsi (Banipal Books, 2021)
Saïd Khatibi
Amjad Nasser (1955–2019)
Digital Banipal the full archive
Ahmed Morsi, author of Poems of Alexandria and New York
Sarajevo Firewood
The Madness of Despair
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Link to poems by Mosab Abu Toha, published in Banipal 71 (Summer 2021), available to read online
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Link to poem by Liana Badr published in Banipal 74, now available as an online selection
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GRIFFIN PRIZE SHORTLIST 2023
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Banipal's first audiobook* * *
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Banipal Book Club
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