Rowayat: Issue 1

by Hedy Habra, Muhammad Aladdin, Youssef Rakha

Rowayat, or Stories, in colloquial Arabic, is the first English Language Literary Journal in Egypt. We are innovative, ground breaking and cultural leaders with an aim to push contemporary Egyptian literature on to center stage.
Rowayat is a 150-170 page biannual journal, designed in size B5 (257mmx182mm), showcasing submissions from established, award winning writers, as well as emerging writers. Our vision is to create a space, where unequivocal English literary work by Egyptian writers is brought under the spotlight.
Rowayat is the vehicle that catapults the writers of this generation to center stage, allowing them to freely express themselves. Rowayat is a constant reminder that we have a voice, a voice worthy of being heard. Rowayat not only welcomes Egyptian writers and foreign residents, but also Egyptians living abroad. This journal will feature and highlight original works of fiction, enabling future Egyptian writers to read, reminisce, comprehend and get a glimpse of what it is like to live and write in Egypt today. Rowayat is the bennu (an ancient Egyptian deity linked with the sun, creation and rebirth) of our current day Egypt.

104 pages, Perfect Paperback

Published January 25, 2014

About the author

Hedy Habra was born in Egypt, and is of Lebanese origin. She has authored four poetry collections, most recently, Or Did You Ever See The Other Side? (Press 53 2023). The Taste of the Earth won the Silver Nautilus Award and honorable mention for the Eric Hoffer Award, and was finalist for the Best Book Award. Her ekphrastic collection, Under Brushstrokes, was finalist for the USA Best Book Award and the International Book Award, and her first collection, Tea in Heliopolis, won the USA Best Book Award and was finalist for the International Book Award. Her story collection, Flying Carpets, won the Arab American National Book Award’s Honorable Mention and was finalist for the Eric Hoffer Award.
Her book of literary criticism, Mundos alternos y artísticos en Vargas Llosa focuses on the visual in the narrative of the Peruvian Nobel Laureate. A recipient of the Nazim Hikmet Poetry Award, she was a twenty-one-time nominee for the Pushcart Prize and Best of the Net. Habra has a BA in Pharmacy. She also has an MA and MFA in English and an MA and Ph.D. in Spanish. She is fluent in five languages and her work appears in The Bitter Oleander, Blue Fifth Review, California Quarterly, Cider Press Review, Cimarron Review, The Cortland Review, Cutthroat, Diode, The Ekphrastic Review, Gargoyle, Indelible, The MacGuffin, MockingHeart Review, Nimrod, Pirene's Fountain, Poet Lore, Slant, Tiferet, World Literature Today and Verse Daily. Habra is also an artist who has a passion for art. She has taught Spanish at Western Michigan University and Kalamazoo College. Her website is hedyhabra.com