Ahdaf Soueif  is the author of the bestselling The Map of Love (shortlisted for the Booker Prize in 1999 and translated into more than 30 languages). Her account of the Egyptian revolution of 2011, Cairo: a City Transformed, came out in January 2014. Her collection of essays, Mezzaterra (2004), has been influential and her articles for the Guardian in the UK are published in the European and American press.

In 2007 Ms Soueif co-founded the Palestine Festival of Literature which takes place annually in occupied Palestine.

Among other honours, Ms Soueif was awarded the first Mahmoud Darwich Award in 2010 and the European Culture Foundation Princess Margriet Award in 2019.

In 2020, after serving for 7 years, she resigned from the British Museum Board of Trustees.