Amid the fascinating historical setting of Mohamed Ali Palace in Manial El-Roda, John Makinson the CEO of the Penguin group and Ibrahim El-Moalem, the CEO of Shorouk group signed the Shorouk-Penguin joint publishing agreement, through which Shorouk maintains the rights to publish Penguin classic titles in Arabic, as well as lead the translation of selected Arabic classics into English.

Dar El-Shorouk is one of the oldest and largest publishing houses in the Arab world. Started in 1968, El-Shorouk published many famous titles some of which were translated  into over forty languages and was awarded the largest number of prizes amongst the Arab publishing houses.

Penguin is one of largest publishers in the world, with over four thousand titles per year and offices in fifteen countries. Penguin classics started in 1946 as a project to bring classical books to the general public;  instead of  being confined to scholars and textbooks. Penguin classics titles grew over the years reaching a total of around 1,200 classic titles.

Makinson  spoke  of  how the project is intended to present opportunities for two-way translations, offering around twenty titles per year, both in Arabic and English under the new partnership. However, there will also  be “in translation” books, offering the English reader bigger access to Arabic classics.  According to El-Moalem, the total size of  the  Arabic translations totals more than twenty thousand titles altogether, rendering the translation of the 1,200 Penguin titles a rather significant contribution over the long term.

During her congratulatory speech, Radwa Ashour  made a plea for balance between translating to and from Arabic, between literature and other disciplines, as well as between the more commercial and the literary quality of the works. She warned against bias towards a certain type of literature which fosters an orientalist view of the Arab world.

Gamal El-Ghitani referred to the pride he felt when his book, El-Zeini Barakat, was proposed to Penguin by Edward Said, and when published; he could see his own name next to the logo of the famous penguin.

Bahaa Taher, and  Ahdaf Soueif also gave brief talks, congratulating Shorouk on the huge project and sharing their memories of Penguin classics.