At this year's Frankfurt International Book Fair, Sherif Bakr, general manager of Cairo-based Al Arabi Publishing and Distributing, spoke candidly about why Arabic literature continues to struggle for visibility among major international publishers. Much of the problem, he said, comes down to a basic lack of awareness: "They don't know what to expect. They don't know what we have."
Speaking at a panel discussion in Frankfurt, Bakr described how publishers from the Middle East often feel overlooked by their international counterparts, even when they actively try to build relationships. "They would feel publishers don't reply to us, don't think of us as important," he said. Beyond this visibility gap, Egyptian publishers also face very real logistical hurdles, including costly contractual obligations to ship free copies abroad and complicated international banking fees; Bakr recalled a case where a modest $100 advance ended up costing $40 in transfer fees alone.
Still, efforts to close this gap are gaining ground. The Arab Voices platform, launched in July with EU funding, now showcases 200 contemporary titles from 22 Arab countries spanning multiple genres, including the award-winning novel by Palestinian author Bassem Khandaqji and fiction by Egyptian writer Adel Esmat. Related initiatives, such as the Leila project and the Abu Dhabi Arabic Language Centre's "From Kalima to the World" programme, are also working to promote Arabic literature internationally through curated catalogues and translation partnerships.