Maisoon Saqer

AUTHORS

A multifaceted Emirati creative force—poet, painter, and novelist—Maysoon Saqr writes with a visual artist’s attention to texture and a historian’s dedication to the archive. Her work serves as a cultural bridge between the Gulf and Cairo, often exploring the deep, unspoken histories of places. She was awarded the prestigious Sheikh Zayed Book Award for Literature (2022) for Cafe Riche: Eye on Egypt, a monumental work that blends documentation with narrative to chronicle Egypt’s modern history through its most famous literary café. Her writing is characterized by its lyrical density and its preservation of fading cultural memories.

Café Riche: An Eye on Egypt

This book presents a unique narrative of Cairo’s journey with architectural modernization over a full century, highlighting the roles that cafés have played in the city’s modern history. The book focuses on “Café Riche” as a focal point in the city center, tracing its history from its founding by its Greek owner, Michel Politis, to its current management by the Abdel-Malak family, who preserve it as a cultural heritage. The book reveals the café’s role as an incubator for ideas and a platform for dialogue linked to major turning points in Egypt’s history, making it a prominent cultural landmark where the private and public spheres intersect. This work won the Sheikh Zayed Book Award for Literature in 2022.

FEATURED BOOKS

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