A quarter of a decade after his death, the literary genuis Ihsan Abdel Quddos's contibutions to Egyptian cultural life continue. Angy Essam highlights the vitality of the Ihsan Abdel Quddos prize and the role it plays in cultural life. The renowned Egyptian writer, novelist, and journalist, Ihsan Abdel Quddos, was born on January 1, 1919 to a literary family. His mother was the distinguished journalist and founder of Rose El- Youssef magazine and his father was the actor and author Mohamed Abdelkudos. He graduated from the faculty of law in 1942 only to realise that he would never be a successful lawyer and he quit the profession early. Abdul Kudos started a new career, writing film scripts, short stories, and novels. A few years later, he became a distinguished journalist in Al-Akhbar newspaper. He then worked in the Al-Ahram newspaper, eventually becoming its editor-in-chief. A courageous personality, he did not stop short of criticising what he disliked in the regime and important personalities of his time. For this he was jailed no less than three times. Most of Abdel Kudos's novels have been adapted for films. These made a resounding impact on his readers and his fans called him "the Priest of the Temple of Love" and a "woman's novelist." Love affairs, a bias towards women and their problems, and support for women's rights and their role in society were the central themes of his literary work. He regarded women as symbols of sacrifice in Egyptian society. He wrote more than 60 novels and collections of short stories, 49 of which were adapted for films. His works have been translated into several foreign languages including English, French, German, Ukrainian, and Chinese. He also co-founded the Egyptian Story Club. Abdel Quddous received his first award for writing the novel "My blood, my Tears, my Smiles" in 1973. He received a Best Screenplay award for the adaptation for the screen of his novel, "The Bullet is Still in My Pocket" in 1975. He was also honoured with an Order of Merit, First Class. His last award, an Order of the Republic, First Class, came in 1990 after his death. Abdel Kudos, who enriched Egyptian and Arab literature in general with his novels and short stories also enriched Arabic drama with his scripts and novels that have been adapted for films. And this enrichment continues even after his death through the great literary treasure of novels, short stories, film scenarios and articles he left us. Most important, however, is the prize that bears his name and is dedicated to helping young writers move forward with their literary work, whatever the form, novels, short stories or literary criticism. This year the Ihsan Abdel Kudos cultural salon announced the names of the winners of the Ihsan Abdel Kudos literary prize in three categories-- novels, short stories and literary criticism. The Ihsan Abdel kudos salon didn't set specfic conditions for applying to the contest. Unlike other literary contests there was no age limit or specific experience level demanded. Creativity has no limits, this is the prize committee's slogan. It was what Ihsan Abdel Kudos believed in. The only condition is that the writer's work should not have previously entered any other competition and it should not have been published before. All the publishing rights after winning the prize are owned only by the Ihsan Abdulkudos literary salon. The prize committee headed by the writer Fouad Kandeel chose the winning literary works from 21 novels, 98 short stories and 32 articles of literary criticism. In the novel section the young writer Ali Sayed won the first prize with his novel, "The half closed door". The second prize went to Sameh El Ghabas and his novel, "The Colour of Silence." In the short stories, Ahmed El Malawany with his short story, "The Complete Crime," and Mohamed Amin with "Pray" shared first prize. Hossam Farouk, the author of "Three Minus One" and Ghada Elabsy with "I swear with My Heart and His Sadness" came second. Third was, "Life" by Mohamed Abdel Kreem and "Here is the President" by Amr Magdy. Ahmed Yehia and Ahmed Abdel Azim came first in the literary criticism section with their article, "The real question and the eloquence of art" about the Nobel Prize writer Naguib Mahfouz's style of narration. A critical article about the use of birds and animals in contemporary novels by Ahmed Shehata came second and the third prize went to a critique by Khaled Elbohy of the novel, "The exiles of God." Hossam Farouk, a talented young writer who began his literary career only three years ago has created a totally new literary line in that short period of time. He is also the founder of two short story workshops, "Harmony of Senses" and "Let's play writing." He is also the founder of Hekaya publishing house which aims to help young writers publish their work at a minimal cost. In his short literary career, he has won three prizes in addition to the Ihsan Abdulkudos prize. 2012 his short story, "Novella," was ranked number three in the Abdelmonem El Sawy contest for short stories. In 2014 "Astonishment Features" was ranked number five in the contest of the youth committee of the Egyptian Writers Union and "Beautiful Ladies Don't Wake Up Early" was ranked number six in the Akhbar El-Youm competition for short stories. "Three Minus One," a short story as recounted by Hossam Farouk, is about a psychological status. '' Three represents three women, one is a man. What will happen if the man is removed from from a woman's life? "In other words what is the effect of his absence from her life; to what extent will this kind of deprivation affect her,'' said Farouk. He added that he tried in this story to show the different kinds of troubles women suffer from daily through presenting three women as examples, Nahed, Ghada and Nashwa and a man Baher. Baher is a common factor in the lives of the three women. Each one of them represents a different social category. Nahed, 40, comes from a destitute family. Her father owns a bean cart. She works in the morning as a government employee and in the evening in the office of a famous lawyer named El-Touni. Baher works in his office also as lawyer. Baher sympathises with Nahed a great deal because she is 40 and single. He treats her with a great deal of amiability and she falls in love with him. Ghada, a middle class girl, live in an Egyptian village. She has inherited a piece of land from her mother, but her uncles refuse to give her the land because this would violate the family's traditions that prevent their giving any land to women. Ghada asks Baher as a lawyer to help get her inheritance from her uncles and she finds herself gradually becoming emotional about Baher. Nashwa is an aristocratic lady and the wife of the famous lawyer El-Touni. After a passionate attachment to her husband, however, she becomes gradually bored with him and finds in Baher the spirit she needs. "Baher is amiable, kind and tender with all of them. He sympathises with Ghada. Ghada and Nashwa represent the aristocracy he wishes always to be part of. In the end he admits that the three women know that he is lying, but they love his lies. He doesn't know whether he loves them all or not. What he is sure of is that he is the one they miss in their life and they are the three he misses in his life'' said Farouk. In this story Farouk tackles the need of women for men, the space women occupy in men's lives and the relation between them in general from a truly sensitive and emotional perspective. Ghada El Absy a young creative writer who has published two collections of short stories, the first named "Angelica" and the second, "The Children of Nymphs" won the central literary contest of the Ministry of Culture. El Absy depends a great deal on periphrasis in her stories. Unlike most young writers nowadays, who use the colloquial language, El Absy uses classical Arabic in her stories mostly. "I adore our expressive classical Arabic language and am very proud of it. That's why I depend on it in most of my stories, but sometimes I use the colloquial language in the dialogue, '' said El Absy. El Absy begins her story, "I Swear with My Heart and His Sadness" with a weird scene of a 40-year-old woman dancing over the corpse of a 50-year-old man. '' The woman is asking herself a lot of questions. Is he really dead? Is she alive or is she even more dead than he is?'' said El Absy. The reader discovers, from the conversation the woman has with herself, many secrets about her and her dead husband and the nature of their relationship. In the end it turns out that she is wrong and the man is still alive. El Absy succeeds in conveying to the reader, through the woman talking to herself, a great many contradictions in her life related to love, pain, hatred and regret.
