On February 8, for the first time since the award was established, the American University in Cairo Press announced a shortlist for the Naguib Mahfouz Medal for Literature. The six shortlisted titles were chosen from 270 novels submitted from across the Arab world and diaspora. The shortlisted novels are: Ahmed Taibaoui’s The Disappearance of Mr. Nobody, Amal Radwan’s In The Dust Cities, Algarby Omran’s The Fort of al-Zidi, Maha Hassan’s The Neighborhood of Wonder, Mohammad Aly Ibrahim’s The Stone in Khallaf’s House, and Omar Taher’s Kohl and Cardamom.