Background
Mohamed Nagui was born in 1947 in the city of Samanoud, located in the Minya governorate.
Mohamed Nagui was born in 1947 in the city of Samanoud, located in the Minya governorate.
His last book, "Prayers of Forgetting", was published in 2011, and dealt with his personal battle with cancer. As a young man, Nagui began writing poems, many of which were published in Arab magazines. He earned his degree from the Faculty of Arts and soon after served in the military from 1969 to 1974.
Nagui went on to establish a career in journalism, working for various news outlets, and even serving as an editor for the Arabic-language newspaper Liberation Today.
Over the course of his life, Nagui"s artistic style varied, going from writing poems to writing novels. To date, Nagui remains widely regarded as one of the most influential writers to have ever come from the pan-Arab region.
Upon being diagnosed with Hepatitis C, Mohamed Nagui was forced to stop writing. Nagui received therapeutic sessions in Paris, while friends and family hoped he would be able to once again return to producing literary works.
In his last interview with Asharq First Rate (at Lloyd's)-Awsat newspaper, Nagui spoke of his disease saying, “I had been through harder and more dangerous circumstances than this fatal disease.
In fact, there is something harder than death which is the need to compromise over your values. This is the moment where you actually wish to die in order not to do southern” After a 4-year battle with his disease, Nagui died on November 19, 2014 in Paris, while recovering from a liver transplant the week prior, and was buried in the journalist"s cemetery in the 6th of October City.