BOOK LAUNCH
حين يكتمل القمر
When the Moon Becomes Full
At Agafay Books, we publish books that are real and speak about Moroccan reality, so that every child and young adult can find themselves in what they read
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Our new books are arriving.
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Our Editorial Committee
At Agafay Books, every manuscript is read by people who have spent their lives in service of literature, education, and the arts.
Our editorial committee brings together three individuals with distinct backgrounds: literary education, pedagogy, and cultural creation. They are united by a single conviction: that Moroccan readers, at every age, deserve books that are literarily worthy, culturally honest, and genuinely meaningful.
For us, publishing is not a commercial act. It is a responsibility.
Abdelali Lakhdar
Born in Casablanca, Abdelali Lakhdar studied Mathematics at the École Normale Supérieure in Rabat and Financial Mathematics at the Dresden University of Technology, then taught mathematics at secondary and higher levels in both Morocco and Germany. Moving between these two educational cultures gave him a rare comparative eye for pedagogy, curriculum design, and the role cultural context plays in how children receive and interpret stories. As a father himself, he takes real pleasure in writing for children, and he brings this dual sensibility, Moroccan and German, analytical and culturally attuned, to every manuscript, always asking whether a book speaks meaningfully to children from different backgrounds and traditions.
Khadija El Hanai
Born in Marrakech, Khadija El Hanai completed a Diploma of Advanced Studies at the Université de Caen Normandie, specialising in the semiotics of comic theatre, then spent nearly four decades teaching French in Moroccan public schools and at the Institut Français, while running school theatre workshops for young people from 1985 to 2023. Her work in theatre and film earned her awards for best direction, best educational film, and best theatrical work, including a celebrated adaptation of Molière, as well as recognition for a documentary at Cadi Ayyad University. Alongside teaching, she has translated, adapted, and written dramatic texts of her own. As a mother, and fluent in both Arabic and French, she brings this lifelong immersion in language and performance to every manuscript she reads, always attentive to what makes a story culturally alive.
Nathalie Bonfils
Born and raised in Paris, Nathalie Bonfils later settled in the Haute-Savoie region near Chamonix, where she immersed herself in mountain culture and created a mobile pottery and modelling workshop, bringing creative expression into schools and retirement homes. During this time she also worked as a press correspondent for Le Dauphiné Libéré and took part in the cultural life of Saint-Gervais-les-Bains, including its Mont-Blanc International Humor Festival. For the past twelve years she has lived in the countryside near Marrakech, where she works as an energy therapist and writes stories for children and adults, drawing constant inspiration from nature. As an author and a grandmother, she is moved by the way a story can awaken something in the child who reads it, and it is this question, above all, that she carries into every manuscript she evaluates.