Why Did Egyptian Poet Iman Mersal Commit Suicide?
At first, readers of InAt first, readers of In the Footsteps of Enayat Al-Zayyat, a book by Egyptian poet, translator and academic Iman Mersal, may take it as a straightforward biography. But as the book unfolds, it reveals its multiple layers, asking questions about the notion of archiving, womens writing, and mental illness. the Footsteps of Enayat Al-Zayyat, a book by Egyptian poet, translator and academic Iman Mersal, may take it as a straightforward biography. But as the book unfolds, it reveals its multiple layers, asking questions about the notion of archiving, womens writing, and mental illness. Al-Zayyat committed suicide in 1963 after battling depression and struggling to get her first  and only  novel, Love and Silence, published. That did eventually happen, but only four years after her death. Egyptian writers Iman Mersal, Ezzat El-Kamhawi, Mohammed El-Mansi Qandil and poet Ahmed El-Shahawi have been longlisted for the annual Sheikh @ZayedBookAward.https://t.co/8Q7yKpYqQq pic.twitter.com/eBi0pkm310  CairoScene (@CairoScene) December 1, 2020  I started with a very simple question about Love and Silence, Mersal, who first read Al-Zayyats book in 1993, tells Arab News. This was the simple question behind my book. But when you dig in behind any individual story, you find so many things that are worthy of reading, including the story of a young woman writing in the late 1950s/ early 1960s, for example, of a woman standing in the face of the law during the same era, mental illness, and so many other things, she adds. As she worked on Al-Zayyats story, Mersals aim was not to bring an unknown writer into the canon of Arabic literature, but rather to read the past through one individual, Enayat Al-Zayyat, to whom I felt attached after reading her novel and fragments of her own story.  Sheikh Zayed Book Award 2021: Egyptian novelist Iman Mersal and Tunisian writer Mizouni Bannani among winners https://t.co/mO0a9g5PbH via @TheNationalNews  Zaki Nusseibeh (@Zakinus) April 23, 2021  The book was my way of revisiting the 1950s and 1960s to know Enayats story but to also revisit the question of individuality during Gamal Abdel Nassers era, as well as during the 1990s when I was a young woman and writer living in Cairo, exactly like Enayat, Mersal explains. Published by Al Kotob Khan in 2019, Mersals book recently won the literature category of the Sheikh Zayed Book Award. Writing in itself is a gift. But for a writer to be recognized and well read, its very beautiful, Mersal says of the award. Yes, the award might give you more readership and attention and Im happy and honored for sure, she adds. But its also great just to be able to keep working.  This article has been adapted from its original source.