The American University in Cairo Press has revealed the shortlist for the 2026 Naguib Mahfouz Medal for Literature, one of the most prestigious honors dedicated to contemporary Arabic fiction. The six finalists were narrowed down from a pool of 143 submitted novels representing 23 countries, selected by a panel chaired by Hoda Elsadda, an Egyptian feminist scholar and professor of English and comparative literature at Cairo University, alongside Egyptian novelist and University of Ottawa cinema professor May Telmissany, Sudanese novelist and former medal winner Hammour Ziada, Egyptian journalist Sayed Mahmoud, and British literary translator Raphael Cohen.

Recognized for the Nobel laureate whose novels helped define modern Arabic literature, the medal has been awarded annually by AUC Press since 1996. Its focus is distinctive: rather than honoring already-translated work, it seeks out standout Arabic-language novels still waiting for an English readership. Winning comes with a $5,000 cash prize, but the larger reward is that the novel is translated into English and released under Hoopoe, AUC Press’s fiction imprint, opening the book up to readers far beyond its original market. AUC Press has published or licensed roughly 600 foreign-language editions of Mahfouz’s own work across 40 languages, making it the primary vehicle through which his legacy, and now the legacies of the writers who follow him, travels internationally.

This year’s shortlist spans a wide geographic and thematic range. Saudi writer Abdullah Nasser’s This Is Not a Bullet traces a narrator’s return to a childhood memory and an old court case involving his father, unraveling long-buried family truths. Egyptian author Ahmad Abdulatif’s The Origin of the Species and Ganna Adel’s Longa-Cairo Nuweiba round out Egypt’s strong showing on the list, alongside Talal Faisal’s An Old Egyptian Madness. Iraqi novelist Inaam Kachachi contributes A Swiss Summer, while Palestinian writer Mohamed Jubaiti’s No Mail to Gaza brings a distinctly urgent register to the shortlist’s concerns.

The winner will be announced on December 11, 2026, the anniversary of Mahfouz’s birth, continuing a tradition that has previously honored writers including Fatma Qandil, Ahmed Taibaoui, Omaima Al-Khamis, Huzama Habayeb, and Adel Esmat.

Congratulations to all shortlisted candidates!