Naguib Mahfouz
In 1984 Linz became director of the American University in Cairo Press, first for two years, and then from 1995 until 2011. On returning to Cairo in 1995 he collaborated with Naguib Mahfouz to establish the Naguib Mahfouz Medal for Literature, an annual literary prize for a work of fiction in Arabic, with the guarantee of translation and publication in English for the winner. Among his authors at the AUC Press were Naguib Mahfouz, the first Arabic writer to win the Nobel Prize in Literature, Ahmed Zewail, who won the Nobel Prize in Chemistry, archaeologist Zahi Hawass and Pope Shenouda III, head of the Coptic Church.