Our Arab literature has ceased to be isolated islands, but has become closer to each other. Important literary names have emerged in the Arab world, we follow, read, and rejoice in their creativity. These names win high-level literary awards, and courses are held in their names in Egypt and abroad, such as the Abdulrahman Munif and Tayeb Salih sessions. We also take important names outside Egypt that have achieved a significant presence with their novelistic creativity, such as Ibrahim al-Koni in Libya, Wassini al-Araj, Taher Wattar, and Azeddine Jalauji in Algeria, Mohammed Choukri, Mohammed Ennaji, and Mohammed Barada in Morocco, Salah al-Din Boujah, Habib al-Salmi, Fathiya al-Hashemi, and Fatima Ben Mahmoud in Tunisia, Ibrahim Nasrallah, Leila al-Atrash, Jalal Bargas, Subhi Fahmawi, Haya Saleh, and Haza' al-Barari in Jordan, Mohammed al-Gharbi Amran, and Ali al-Muqri in Yemen, Ismail Fahd Ismail, Leila al-Othman, and Talib al-Refai in Kuwait, Ghazi al-Gosaibi, Khaled al-Yousef, Abdulaziz Al-Suqabi, Yousef al-Muheimid, and Abduh Khal in Saudi Arabia, and many others in every Arab country. All this novelistic creativity pours into the stream of contemporary Arab literature to form a constantly flowing river.

For example, the "Arab Horizons" series issued by the General Authority for Palaces of Culture has contributed to bringing some of our Arab creations closer to us in Egypt.

There may have been a period in Egypt where we only knew the voice of our writers, and Arab creators used to blame us for that. I remember a question asked by Tunisian writer Rashid al-Zawadi to our great writer Tawfiq al-Hakim, about his opinion on Tunisian literature. Al-Hakim frankly answered that he knew nothing about this literature, even though Taha Hussein wrote the introduction to the novel "The Dam" by Tunisian writer Mahmoud al-Masadi.

I believe that we now know much more about Arab literature outside Egypt than previous generations knew. Therefore, our Arab literature no longer lives in isolated islands even if each Arab literature is attributed to its country, which is natural and unquestionable.

Conferences, meetings (especially conferences and meetings of the Supreme Council for Culture in novels and poetry, in recent years), cultural weeks held periodically, and other activities have played a significant role in bridging these isolated islands. Also, the exchange of visits and travel, which has become easier than in the sixties and seventies, let alone the most important means now for bridging distances or even abolishing distances, which is the internet. It demolishes these islands and cancels them in the virtual reality, allowing us to know more and more about our Arab literature in every Arab country, and in each wave of its successive waves. We say that there is Arab literature in every Arab country that we communicate with, we know some of its names, and we communicate with them once in the virtual world and once in the natural or real world.