The first day of the First Feminist and Independent Publishing Conference 2026 concluded with a session titled “Experiences and Testimonies in Independent Publishing,” featuring writer and academic Dr. Mai Telmissany, poet and founder of Al-Ketaba Al-Okhra magazine Hesham Keshta, writer and founder of Amkena magazine Alaa Khaled, and moderated by writer and translator Montaser El-Qaffash.
The session explored diverse experiences in independent publishing through different personal and cultural journeys, discussing the relationship between writing and publishing, as well as the role of independent initiatives in creating alternative spaces for expression and creativity.
Dr. Mai Telmissany reflected on her early experience with Dar Sharqiyat, expressing appreciation for its late founder Hosny Soliman and the publishing house’s role in supporting her literary career. She described Dar Sharqiyat as “an implicit pact of success between the writer, the audience, and the critics.” She also spoke about her later experiences with several publishing houses, including Al-Masriyah Al-Lebnaniyah, Dawen, and El-Shorouk, and the transformations she witnessed over the years.
Hesham Keshta focused on the importance of creating independent platforms that provide writers with space to grow and express themselves, stressing the need to build supportive environments for creativity. He stated: “Every good idea finds its way, but its creator must defend it by creating a space that can embrace and sustain it.”
Meanwhile, Alaa Khaled spoke about the aspiration to create new forms of writing and support experimental and genre-based texts. He explained that Amkena magazine emerged as a project blending literature with social anthropology through narratives rooted in places and lived experiences, adding: “We dreamed of new forms of writing and supported qualitative texts.”
The session reflected the role that the conference, organized by Elles Publishing House, seeks to establish as a platform for exchanging experiences and opening discussions around independent publishing and its transformations.
