One Friday night in the spring at El Sawy Culturewheel center in the Zamalek neighborhood of Cairo, a small crowd gathered around Amira Hassan El Desoki, jostling for her attention.
The Culturewheel, a former garbage dump turned cultural hub, was holding its first writer's festival. Some of the featured writers were still teenagers. A crowd of eager young people from across Egypt were waiting for authors like El Desoki to sign their books and speak about their work.
