In little more than ten years, Dar Merit (founded in 1998) has produced at least two bestsellers: the first edition of The Yacoubian Building by Egypt’s most famous dentist Ala’ al Aswany, and the experimental Being Abbas El Abd by the young blogger and graphic designer Alaidy Ahmad. Dar Merit’s founder is the chaotic and hyperactive journalist and writer Mohammed Hashem, author of Mala’eb Maftouha [Playgrounds Open], published in 2004. With a past in the opposition movement to Mubarak, Dar Merit has become the real talent scout in Egypt. He has published several debut novels by different authors, focusing on young and sophisticated literature, a strategy that earned him—among other accolades—four Sawiris Awards, the Jeri Laber International Freedom to Publish Award from the Association of American Publishers International Freedom to Publish (IFTP) Committee—the most powerful association of U.S. publishers—and this year the Hermann Kesten Award, the annual premium of the PEN Center in Germany, for commitment to freedom of expression.
On Kasr el Nil Street, a short walk from Tahrir Square, stands the headquarters of the publishing house. It was established in an apartment but is now the new Mecca of Egyptian literature. “When I founded this publishing house in 1998,” the publisher said in an interview with Qantara.de, “I decided that I had to accomplish something important. Or I would have committed suicide.” A die-hard opposition figure, Hashem was politically active in the ’70s during the regime of Sadat. At that time, Hashem was allegedly arrested on charges of “communism, and of plotting to overthrow the regime and insulting the president,” Hashem said. During the most tumultuous days of the January 25 revolt, the headquarters of his publishing house seemed transformed into a camp by the revolutionaries, given the proximity to Tahrir Square and the custom in vogue for intellectuals and activists to meet in his office. The office also served as a center for donations of any kind—blankets, food, money, tobacco. “Apart from the businessmen and writers, we received donations from the Jesuit monks and even a former police general, whose only request was not to mention his name,” Hashem said.
The resignation of Mubarak, on February 11, did not put an end to the hectic political activities of Hashem, one of the main promoters of the extravagant idea of holding this year’s edition of the Cairo International Book Fair (after its cancellation in January) in Tahrir Square. Hashem said in another interview that he is not worried by the financial meltdown and its effect on small publishers in the months during and after the revolution. Instead, he speaks of an unpredictable renaissance in cultural and intellectual life in Egypt, to continue into the near future.
A good part of the writers of avant-garde classical literature said that today in Egypt it is easier to be in the literature industry, even if it is more difficult to get paid for it. Perhaps Dar Merit is to be thanked.