Lesley
Lababidi is the author of Cairo's Street Stories: Exploring the City's
Statues, Squares, Bridges, Gardens, and Sidewalk Caf's (AUC Press,
2008), Cairo: The Practical Guide (AUC Press,15th edition, 2012),
Cairo: The Family Guide (AUC Press, 4th Edition, 2010), Silent No More
Special Needs People in Egypt (AUC Press, 2002), Paddle Your Own Canoe
An American Woman's Passage Into Nigeria (Spectrum Books, 1997), and
Bahgory Legacy (Obelisque Publications, 2013). Her articles are found
in: Obelisque Magazine, Persimmon Tree Magazine, Horus, Turath, Valerie
Magazine, ARCE newsletter and various other Egyptian publications.
Lababidi’s new book, a 2018 release, A Field Guide to Street Names
of Central Cairo, was written jointly with renowned translator of
Arabic, Dr. Humphrey Davies. The Field Guide has been critically
acclaimed for its engagement with the streets of Cairo as ‘a palimpsest
of (Cairo’s) history’. The Guide is a truly admirable feat, listing more
than 500 current and 300 former street names ‘with an explanation of
what each name commemorates and when it was first recorded, followed by
the same for its predecessors’. It possesses universal appeal: citizens
of Egypt, long-term residents, visitors, in short all those who are
fascinated by ‘this most multi-layered of cities’ will find their
curiosity satisfied by this Field Guide.