Yasmine Motawy

Position: Senior Instructor II
Department: Department of Rhetoric and Composition
Email: [email protected]

Brief Biography

Yasmine Motawy teaches rhetoric and composition at The American University in Cairo (AUC) and is a scholar, critic, translator, editor, consultant and writing mentor in the field of children’s literature. She has served on regional and international children’s literary award juries, such as the 2021 Bologna Ragazzi Award, the 2016 and 2018 Hans Christian Andersen Award, the 2017 Etisalat Award for Arabic Children’s Literature, the 2019 Arabic selection committee of the UN SDGs Book Club and chaired the 2025 Sawiris Cultural Award. She is co-editor of The Routledge Companion to International Children’s Literature (2018). She was the convenor of the Children’s Literature Symposium supported by HUSSLab at AUC (2018). In 2022, she was awarded the Excellence in Research and Creative Endeavors Award from AUC. Her latest book is Children’s Picture Books and Contemporary Egyptian Society (2025). She is serving on the board of the International Research Society for Children's Literature from 2025 - 2027.

Research Interest

Children’s literature and media
Arab YA and picture books
Civic education and engagement
Nation-building, neoliberalism and socialization in children’s literature and media
Prizing and publishing practices
Book production ecosystems
Life narratives
The creative writing process
Service-learning, publishing
Critical discourse analysis
Teaching writing to children

Keynote Speaker, the Child and the Book Conference, Tilburg (2025)
Lecturer and Keynote Speaker, Antwerp Children’s Literature Summer School (2024)
Lecturer, Antwerp Children’s Literature Summer School (2023)
Postdoctoral Fellow, The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation (2018)
Co-PI, Research Network Fellow, UK Arts and Humanities Research Council (2018)
Co-PI, Translator, US Forestry Services (2013)

Books

Children’s Picture Books and Contemporary Egyptian Society. Cairo, The American University in Cairo Press, 2025.
السكون ما بين الأمواج - دراسة: كتب الأطفال المصورة والمجتمع المصري المعاصر (The Silence Between Waves: A Study of Illustrated Children's Books and Contemporary Egyptian Society). Cairo, Dar El Balsam, 2021.
Stillness between the waves. Egyptian Children’s Picturebooks and Contemporary Egyptian Society. Cairo, Dar El Balsam, 2021. (Arabic).

Encyclopedia

Motawy, Yasmine & Susanne Abou Ghaida. “Educational Concerns in Arabic Picturebooks.” International Encyclopedia of Education (4^th ed), Elsevier. 2023. pp. 678-687.

Co-editor of Book

The Routledge Companion to International Children’s Literature Edited by John Stephens. Associate Editors: Alice Curry, Li Lifang, Yasmine S. Motawy, Celia Abicalil Belmiro, Routledge Literature Companions, 2018. pp. 486.

Critical Book Chapters

“Normal Grief”: Death in Children’s Picturebooks.” Alif 42 (2022): pp. 298-323. (Arabic).
"The wisdom of getting involved: activism in contemporary Egyptian children's literature."Twenty-First Century Literary Cultures and the Child ed. Nathalie op de Beeck, Palgrave, 2020: 41-55.
“Old/ new media for Muslim children in English and Arabic: The forest, the trees and the mushrooms.” The Routledge Companion to International Children’s Literature, Routledge Literature Companions, 2018: 219-227.

Book Reviews

“Review: Children’s Literature and Translation: Texts and Contexts. Eds Jan Van Coillie and Jack McMartin.” IRCL 15.2 (2022): 232-234.
“Review: The Dark Fantastic: Race and the Imagination from Harry Potter to the Hunger Games. Ebony Elizabeth Thomas. IRCL14.2 (2021): 238-240.
“Review: Alison Waller’s Rereading Childhood Books: A Poetics.” IRSCL Reviews, 2020.

Articles in Peer-Reviewed Journals

“Normal Grief”: Death in Children’s Picturebooks.” Alif 42 (2022): pp. 298-323.
“The Way Back Home: Self-Authorship, Home, and Intergenerational Bonds in Arabic YA Novels of Return.” International Research Society for Children’s Literature Journal. 14.3 (2021): 269-282. Edinburgh UP.
McAdam, Julie, Susanne Abou Ghaida, Evelyn Arizpe, Lavinia Hirsu & Yasmine Motawy. “Children’s Literature in Critical Contexts of Displacement: Exploring the Value of Hope.” Education Sciences 10 (12): 2020.
“The Way Back Home: Self-Authorship, Home, and Intergenerational Bonds in Arabic YA Novels of Return.” International Research Society for Children’s Literature Journal. 14.3 (Oct 2021): 269-282. Edinburgh UP. Featured Article
McAdam, Julie, Susanne Abou Ghaida, Evelyn Arizpe, Lavinia Hirsu & Yasmine Motawy. “Children’s Literature in Critical Contexts of Displacement: Exploring the Value of Hope.” Education Sciences 10 (12): 2020: 383.
“Interview with Hadil Ghoneim, an Author from Egypt.” Bookbird: A Journal of International Children's Literature 57.1 (2019): 46-49.
“Crumbling Dots and Flying Boats without Borders: Empowerment in Quentin Blake’s A Sailing Boat in the Sky and Walid Taher’s Al-noqta Al-sawdaa” International Research Society for Children’s Literature Journal 6.1 (2013): 15–27.
“First day of school: the image of the Muslim child in American picturebooks” Alif 31 (2011): 128-51. (Arabic)
“Shaking Up Egyptian Children’s Literature: The Stories of Mohammed Afifi Matar.” International Research Society for Children’s Literature Journal 3.2 (2010): 217-221
“Muhammed Afifi Matar's Childrens' Stories and Poems" Alif 27 (2007): 157-172. (Arabic)

Arabic to English Book Translations

Mohamed ElMahdy. “Semiotics: The Other Dimension of Letters and Words.” in Khatt: Egypt’s Calligraphic Landscape. Photography by Noha Zayed, edited by Basma Hamdy. London: Saqi Books, 2018: 119-121.
Amal Farah. Very Very... Definitely Definitely... Never Ever. Illustrated by Mohamed Taha, Shagara Publishing, Cairo, 2017.
Amal Farah. A Girl’s Diary. Illustrated by Magdy ElKafrawy, Shagara Publishing, Cairo, 2017.
Amal Farah. I want to be a turtle. Illustrated by Osama Abu Al Ola, Shagara Publishing, Cairo, 2017.
Amal Farah. The Monster. illustrated by Walid Taher. Cairo: Shagara Publishing, 2017.
Amal Farah. I Want to Cry. illustrated by Walid Taher. Cairo: Shagara Publishing, 2017.
Al-Romaihi, Muneera Saad. Khayal Manal Doha: Bloomsbury Publishing, 2015.
Feminist and Islamic Perspectives: New Horizons of Knowledge and Reform. Ed. Omaima Abou-Bakr. Cairo: The Women and Memory Forum, 2013.
Tobbala, Afaf. The Eye. Cairo: Nahdet Misr, 2012.
Tobbala, Afaf. Trak …Tata…Trak. Cairo: Nahdet Misr, 2010.
Hawass, Zahi. The Builders of the Pyramids. Cairo: Nahdet Misr, 2009.
Farah, Amal. I am a Human. Cairo: Nahdet Misr, 2008.
Farah, Amal. Water and the Wise. Cairo: Nahdet Misr, 2008.
Rezk Allah, Adly. The Beautiful City. Cairo: Nahdet Misr, 2008.
Shafik, Samira. The Sun and the Moon. Cairo: Nahdet Misr, 2008.
Soweilam, Ahmad. The Prince and the Thieves. Cairo: Nahdet Misr, 2008.

English to Arabic Book Translation

Emily MacKenzie. Wanted: Ralfy Rabbit, Book Burglar! Doha: Bloomsbury Publishing, 2015.
Dominique Navarro. Egypt’s Prehistoric Fauna. Cairo: AUC P, 2013.
Dominique Navarro. Wildlife of Ancient Egypt. Cairo: AUC P, 2013.
Dominique Navarro. Flora and Fauna of Egypt. Cairo: AUC P, 2013.
Dominique Navarro. Birds of the Nile Valley. Cairo: AUC P, 2013.
HRH Prince Charles of Wales. Harmony. Cairo: Nahdet Misr, 2012.

Journalism

“Literary prizes...reflections and questions.” Akhbar El Adab. issue 1169. Pages 6-7. 4 Aug 2024.
“Interview—Leila Aboulela, Writing Sudan.” The Markaz Review. 29 May, 2023 .
“What Comes After The Wave? Trends in Arabic Picture Books (2017-2022).” Issue titled ‘Voices from the World of Arab Children’s Books’ IBBYLink Issue 64 (2023): 5-10.
“IBBY project in the spotlight: #EstoTbn’s Children’s Jury in Chile.” Iedereenleest 24 Oct 2023.
“IBBY project in the spotlight: 'Once Upon a Time' in the United Arab Emirates” Iedereenleest 15 Feb 2023.
"And what of work, Sanaa? The one where Sanaa retires," (Doris Jones and Aliaa Hamed, Eds.), Rhetoric Today (2022) Department of Rhetoric and Composition, AUC.
“IBBY project in the spotlight: 'Literary Games' in Cyprus.” Iedereenleest 14 Dec 2022.
“IBBY project in the spotlight: 'Read with Me' in Iran.”Iedereenleest 20 Nov 2022.
“Princes, Pandemics, and Politics: Yasmine Motawy talks to Bestselling Author of ‘The Mamluk Trilogy’.” Arablit.org 28 April 2020.
“Adolescence, Food, and Illustrating Family History: A Talk About ‘Teta and Babcia’.” Arablit.org 10 Feb 2020.
“Looking for Solutions to the Challenges of Arabic Children’s Literature” Arablit.org. 30 Jan 2020.
“Walid Taher: ‘When I Write, I Consider Everyone a Child’” Arablit.org. 14 Jan 2020, Web.

CORE Seminar 1010 and RHET 1010: On Friendship
CORE Seminar 1010 and RHET 1010: Imagined Worlds: Utopias and Dystopias
CORE Seminar 1010 and RHET 1010: Heroes and Demons
CORE Seminar 1010 and RHET 1010: Imagining Exile
CORE Seminar 1010 and RHET 1010: A Beautiful Mind: 21st Century Learning
RHET 1020: Research Writing
RHET 3140: Writing for Children
ARIC 1099: Children's Literature and Representation
ECLT 123: Creativity and the Imagination
RHET 3310: Discourse and Power