Kayfa ta, a publishing initiative founded by Maha Maamoun and Ala Younis in 2012, uses the popular form of how-to manuals (how=kayfa, to=ta) to respond to some of today’s perceived needs, be they the development of skills, tools, thoughts, or sensibilities. Rather than transmitting technical knowledge, these books situate themselves in the space between the technical and the reflective, the everyday and the speculative, the instructional and the intuitive, the factual and the fictional.
Co-publications with Mophradat:
How to Mend: On Motherhood and its Ghosts, 2017
by Egyptian poet Iman Mersal
In this book, Iman Mersal moves through unfamiliar spaces — internal, fluid, and complex. Her voice changes, moving in and out of focus, back and forth in time, and across different physical spaces and cultural spaces. The strokes of the book are fine and interlacing, moving between the lyrical, diaristic, poetic, and academic. They are quite serious and burdened steps towards an inner space that is often neglected and dismissed from mainstream writings on motherhood.
Edited by Mai Abu ElDahab, Maha Maamoun, Ala Younis
Designed by Julie Peeters and Valerie Arif
Published by Kayfa ta and Mophradat
Available in two editions: English and Arabic
How to Know What’s Really Happening, 2016
by Irish writer, curator, and medical historian Francis McKee
In this post-truth era, how does one navigate the endless information available and choose a viable narrative of reality? In How to Know What’s Really Happening, Glasgow-based writer and curator Francis McKee looks at various techniques for determining verity, from those of spy agencies and whistle-blowers to mystics and scientists.
Edited by Mai Abu ElDahab, Maha Maamoun, Ala Younis
Designed by Julie Peeters and Valerie Arif
Published by Kayfa ta, Mophradat, and Sternberg Press
Available in two editions: English and Arabic