Simplify the following text for a Grade 9 native English-speaking person.
Original: Naguib Mahfouz ( , NagÄ `` b Maá fÅ `` á `` ) ( December 11 , 1911 â `` August 30 , 2006 ) was an Egyptian novelist who won the 1988 Nobel Prize for Literature and who managed to modernize Arabic literature .
Simplified: Naguib Mahfouz ( , NagÄ `` b Maá fÅ `` á `` ) ( December 11 , 1911 â `` August 30 , 2006 ) was an Egyptian writer who won the 1988 Nobel Prize for Literature .