This collection of short stories by Egyptian women aims at representing in English translation a cross-section of stories written by two generations of women: Those who began writing in the late fifties and early sixties and are still writing represent the first generation after the pioneers. They are followed by younger women who started publishing short stories either in the seventies but largely in the eighties and early nineties.
The short story became a popular form of writing in Egypt during the fifties and sixties. This is exactly when a group of young women, mostly university graduates in Literature or Journalism started writing short stories. When in the sixties and seventies the short story flourished, “women,” it is on record, “were not far behind men.”
The eighties and nineties witnessed a greater flourishing of short-story writing, (recalling the sixties when a group of young men and women brought new life into Arabic literature in Egypt.) These decades saw not only the establishment of women as short story writers but proved that they have a voice of their own.
This volume attempts to offer as many short stories as would be possible in a handy volume taking into account the need to represent both issues and modes of writing and to stress innovation and development.