Egypt's Iman Mersal Wins SZBA for Literature

Egyptian author and poetess Iman Mersal won the Sheikh Zayed Book Award (SZBA), Literature category on Thursday for her book "Fee Athar Enayat Al-Zayyat (In the Footsteps of Enayat Al Zayyat).

Released in 2019, the book is a journey into the world's of a departed writer who committed suicide in her mid-twenties.

Mersal follows her passion and inner voices to get closer to Al Zayyat's tragic life that drove her to commit suicide.

She attempts to touch upon every tie related to the young departed author including her friends, relatives, old notes, and old file in her workplace.

Mersal also sets several conversations with the late actress Nadia Lutfi who considered Al Zayyat as her sister, they shared everything together.

Moreover, the author highlights various women's issues through overviewing Al Zayyat's failed marriage and fights with her ex-husband for the porce.

The idea of a totally forgotten person, the family's feelings of guilt and pain after losing a member of suicide, and the world of mental disorders treatment are included in the book.

The book gained huge success and received various positive feedback.