Yacoub El Sharouny
Yacoub El Sharouni is a veteran author of children’s books and researcher in the field of Arabic children’s literature. He has served several times on the judging panel of the Children’s Literature Prize managed by the Egyptian National Section of IBBY (EBBY) and was a member of the jury of the Jordanian State Award for Excellence in Children’s Literature in 1999. In 1968, he was appointed the Director General of the General Organisation of Culture Palaces of the Egyptian Ministry of Culture before traveling to France for a 10-month period to study cultural work in the field of children’s literature. From 1984 to 1991, he was the Head of the National Centre of Child Culture in addition to occupying several posts related to the field of Arabic children’s literature and Child Culture. He was appointed several times as a Consultant to the Egyptian Ministry of Culture in the field of Child Culture.
He has received numerous awards, including the Award of the Supreme Council for Arts and Literature – Egypt for his play Heroes of Our Country (1960), the New Horizons Award of the Bologna Book Fair for The Best Egyptian Folk Stories (2002) and the Egyptian National Section of IBBY Award for Best Author for his book The Secret of the Queen of Kings (2007). He has written and published 400 books as well as several studies on Arabic children’s literature. He has supervised several theses and dissertation projects in the field of children’s literature.