Affaf Tobbala (born July 12, 1941) is an Egyptian television documentary director and producer and an author, primarily of children's literature. Tobbala has been nominated for and received a number of literary awards in Egypt and abroad. Her 2006 book, Sika and Mokka, received the 2007 Suzan Mubarak Prize for Children's Literature and was included on the 2010 International Board on Books for Young People (IBBY) List of Honor.
Tobbala was born in Cairo on July 12, 1941, to a middle-class family. She married in 1960 after finishing her secondary education at a French missionary school. Tobbala has two children, born in 1962 and 1964. She received a Bachelor of Arts degree in French literature (1965) and a Master of Arts degree (1987) and PhD (1996) in mass communications from Cairo University.
Tobbala worked in Egyptian television as a director, screenwriter and producer from 1966 to 2001, specialising in documentaries. She also held a number of managerial positions in the areas of planning and programming. Since 1987, Tobbala has taught courses in television and documentary production to undergraduate students and young broadcasting professionals in several schools (including Cairo University).
She began writing books for children in 2005, at age 64. Tobbala collaborated with watercolor painter Adly Rezkallah on her first book, The Silver Fish, which received a mention in the Bologna Children's Book Fair Ragazzi Award's New Horizons category and Egypt's Suzan Mubarak Prize.
She has published 13 more books for children and a short-story collection, collaborating with a number of artists using different styles and techniques. Writing for different age groups, Tobbala has received national, regional and international awards. Several of her books have been translated from Arabic into English, Turkish and Korean.
The Silver Fish was mentioned in the New Horizons category of the 2006 Bologna Book Fair for Children's Literature Ragazzi Awards, [2] and received Egypt's Award for Children's Literature (then the Suzan Mubarak Prize) that year. Sika and Mokka received the 2007 Suzan Mubarak Prize, and was included in the 2010 IBBY List of Honor. [3] Dom ... Tata ... Dom was shortlisted for the 2009 Etisalat Award for Arabic Children's Literature. [4] Old Papers was one of 10 books in the Anna Lindh Foundation's 2010 Honor List for Children's Books in the Arab World. [5]
The House and the Palm Tree received the 2011 Sheikh Zayed Award for Children's Literature in the Arab World. [6] It was the January 2012 book of the month of the Arab Book Forum Readers' Club. [7] [8] The Eye received the 2011 Anna Lindh Foundation's Arab Children's Literature Award. [9] Oud Al Sanabel received the 2013 Etisalat Award for Arab Children's Literature, [1] and was nominated by the Egyptian Board on Books for Young People (EBBY) for the 2016 Hans Christian Andersen Award. [10]
The Hans Christian Andersen Awards are two literary awards given by the International Board on Books for Young People (IBBY), recognising one living author and one living illustrator for their "lasting contribution to children's literature". The writing award was first given in 1956, the illustration award in 1966. The former is sometimes called the "Nobel Prize for children's literature".
Al-Ahram, founded on 5 August 1876, is the most widely circulating Egyptian daily newspaper, and the second oldest after Al-Waqa'i' al-Misriyya. It is majority owned by the Egyptian government, and is considered a newspaper of record for Egypt.
Suzanne Saleh Mubarak is the widow of Egyptian former president Hosni Mubarak and was the First Lady of Egypt during her husband's presidential tenure from 14 October 1981 to 11 February 2011. She has served as Goodwill Ambassador of the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization, and founded the Cairo Child Museum in collaboration with the British Museum.
Ibtisam Barakat is a Palestinian-American bilingual author, poet, artist, translator, and educator. She was born in Beit Hanina-East Jerusalem. Barakat received her bachelor's degree from Bir Zeit University, near Ramallah in the West Bank. In 1986, she moved to New York City, where she interned with The Nation magazine. She went on to earn a master's degree in journalism and another master's degree in human development and family studies from the University of Missouri.
Ahmed Gamal El-din Moussa was the Minister of Education and Higher Education in Egypt, during 2011. Prior to his appointment following a cabinet reshuffle led by PM Ahmed Shafik, he was the Minister of Education. Professor Moussa is the founder and Present Managing Partner of the Arab Law Firm, founded in 2007. Professor Moussa lectures in the faculty of law of Mansoura University.
The Sheikh Zayed Book Award is a literary award begun in the UAE. It is presented yearly to "Arab writers, intellectuals, publishers as well as young talent whose writings and translations of humanities have scholarly and objectively enriched Arab cultural, literary and social life." The first award was in 2007. The total value of the prizes is DH 7,000,000 making it one of the richest literary awards in the world.
Etisalat Award for Arabic Children’s Literature is an Arabic literary award for children's literature. It was established in 2009 by the Arab Children's Book Publisher’s Forum. It is sponsored by Her Excellency Sheikha Bodour bint Sultan Al Qasimi, President of UAEBBY. Organization of the prize was handed over to UAEBBY in 2010. The award is announced each year during the Sharjah International Book Fair.
Dar AlHadaek is a Lebanese company that publishes and distributes children's books and magazines in the Arab world. It was founded in 1987.
Noura al Noman is a science fiction writer from the United Arab Emirates (UAE).
Mohamed Ramadan is an Egyptian actor, singer, rapper, dancer and producer.
Farhad Hasanzadeh is an Iranian author and poet known for his children's and adolescent literature.
Taghreed Najjar is a Palestinian-Jordanian writer and publisher. She is the writer of over 50 Arabic children and young adults books. Some of her books were translated and published in different languages including English, Swedish, Turkish and French. She is the founder of Al Salwa Publishing House. Over the years, Al Najjar won several literary awards and in 2017 she was shortlisted for the Etisalat Children's Literature Award and the Sheikh Zayed Award. She is a member of the Jordanian Writer's Association.
Sonia Nimr is a Palestinian writer, storyteller, translator, ethnographer and academic. She writes for children and youth in Arabic and English, and relates folk-tales in colloquial Arabic. She is the winner of the 2014 Etisalat Award for Arabic Children's Literature for Best Young Adult Book for her book Extraordinary Journeys to Unknown Places. Nimr is an Associate Professor of Philosophy and Cultural Studies at Birzeit University.
Sanaa Shebbani is a Lebanese children's writer and translator. She wrote one play and has published more than 90 children's books. In 2010, UNESCO, Regional Bureau, Beirut, published her story book for youth Hatta Ankoulouka Ila Alami as she was chosen after attending a workshop as part of the program Beirut, World Book Capital, 2009: Reinforcing the Cultural Diversity in the Storybooks Dedicated to Youth. In 2012, her book What Have You Decided, Malik? won the Sharjah Award for Children's Book. In 2017, her book The Battle of Antara Ibn Shaddad was shortlisted for Etisalat Award for Arabic Children's Literature in the Young Adult's Book category. In 2022, her story book Ziyara Gheir Moutakaa: Gibran Khalil Gibran was considered distinguished for excellence by the International Board on Books for Young People (IBBY) Honour List 2022.
Fatima Sharafeddine is a Lebanese writer, editor, and translator of children's and young adults' books. She holds an M.A. in Educational Theory and Practice (1993) and an M.A. in Modern Arabic literature (1996), both from Ohio State University. More than 120 books of Sharafeddine were published all over the world, and many of them were translated into more than 15 languages including English, Dutch, and Spanish. Sharafeddine has won several awards such as the Etisalat Children's Literature Award in 2017. She was, moreover, nominated for the Astrid Lindgren Memorial Award in 2010, 2011, 2016, and 2020.
Walid Taher is an Egyptian author, designer of children's books, plastic artist, and journalist painter. He was born in Cairo, Egypt in 1969. More than 40 children books were published by Taher including: ‘The Black Spot’ which has won the Etisalat Award in its second edition. His book ‘Seven Souls’ was longlisted for Sheikh Zayed Award – Children and Young People's Literature Section in 2012. ‘The Island of Sailor Barakat’, additionally, was nominated for the Etisalat Award- Best Direction Section in 2019.
Samar Mahfouz Barraj is an author, poet, playwright, songwriter, trainer, and children's literature translator. A number of her books have been nominated and won prestigious awards from all over the world, including Arabic and regional awards.
Maya Fidawi, a Lebanese illustrator for children's books since 2000, graduated from the faculty of Arts from The Lebanese University. Some of her work won several Arab awards.
Rania Hussein Amin is an Egyptian children's book writer and illustrator. She was known from Farhana's book series, which she also illustrates. Her drawings and writings were published in “Nos El Donia” and “Qatar Al Nada” magazine, in addition to which she wrote more than 45 books and designed book drawings by well-known authors, such as “Me and I” by Michel Hanna. Amin was also one of the educational figures in her career, contributing to the education of children with special needs, and through her books and Farhana's character that she designed, she calls for the practices that parents should follow when raising their children.
Jekar Khourchid is a Syrian children's author. He studied Arabic literature at Al-Baath University in Homs. His first story collection "The Jackal and The Lion" won the 2006 Sharjah Award for Arab Creativity in children's literature. Khourchid stopped writing for a while due to his father's illness and death, and then returned to writing in 2012. He has published more than 120 books and nearly 100 books in print. In 2015, Khourchid left Syria and immigrated to the Netherlands.
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