Werner Mark Linz, longtime director of the American University in Cairo Press and founder of Continuum, died in London on Saturday of cancer, according to Arabic Literature in English. He left the press in January 2012 and had been director since 1995. He had earlier been director at AUC from 1983 to 1986. He also held executive positions at McGraw-Hill and Seabury Press.
Under Linz, the press grew to become the largest English-language publisher in the Middle East. Its authors include Alaa Al Aswany and Nobel-winner Naguib Mahfouz. The press has been Mahfouz's primary English-language publisher and worldwide agent for translation rights.
In an interview with Arab News a year ago, months after the fall of President Hosni Mubarak, Linz said, "This revolution time has been very close to us, physically because we are 20 meters from Tahrir Square, and because we have been vandalized and inspired at the same time. This is, of course, an exciting time for publishing, and we have published a lot of books about Egypt and the Middle East on politics, economics and social issues over the last 20 years. We are in a post-revolution period, which is interesting from an editorial point of view, but miserable from a sales point of view. However, international sales in Europe, America and Asia are up because of a higher interest."
