About - Ahdaf Soueif Site

Information

Ahdaf Soueif is the author of the bestselling The Map of Love which was shortlisted
for the Booker Prize for Fiction in 1999.
Ms Soueif is also a political and cultural commentator.
A collection of her essays, Mezzaterra: Fragments from the Common Ground,
was published in 2004.
Her translation (from Arabic into English) of Mourid Barghouti's I Saw Ramallah
also came out in 2004.
She lives with her children in London and Cairo.

Bahrain_1

2008, at the Shaikh Ebrahim
Bin Mohammed Al-Khalifa Centre, Bahrain

PUBLICATIONS:

2007: I Think of You, (stories from "Aisha" and "Sandpiper"), Bloomsbury: London
2004: Mezzaterra: Fragments from the Common Ground, (Essays), Bloomsbury: London
1999: The Map of Love, (a novel), Bloomsbury, London
1996: Zinat al-Hayh wa Qisas Ukhra, (short stories), Dar al-Hilal, Cairo
1996: Sandpiper, (short stories), Bloomsbury: London
1992: In the Eye of the Sun, (a novel), Bloomsbury: London
1983: Aisha, (short stories), Jonathan Cape: London (reissued by Bloomsbury in 2000)

JOURNALISM and MEDIA:

Soueif writes in both English and Arabic and has written various essays and reviews published in: Akhbar al-Adab, al-Arabi, Cosmopolitan, Granta, al-Hilal, al-Katibah, The London Magazine, The London Review of Books, New Society, Nisf al-Dunya, The Observer, Sabah al-Kheir, The Sunday Telegraph, Times Literary Supplement, Washington Post and others..

She has made many programmes for Arab, American and British TV and Radio Stations.

Ahdaf_BH6s

2008, at the Shaikh Ebrahim
Bin Mohammed Al-Khalifa Centre, Bahrain

TRANSLATION:

2000: I Saw Ramallah, a memoir by Mourid al-Barghouti, AUC Press, Cairo, Random House,
New York and Bloomsbury, UK.
1998: In Deepest Night, a play for al-Warsha Theatre Group perfomed at the Kennedy Centre,
Washington DC.

BOARDS and MEMBERSHIPS:

Founder and Chair: Engaged Events (UK) PALFEST
Patron: Palestine Solidarity Campaign (UK)
Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature (UK)
Member: Board of the Caine Prize for African Literature
Member: Amnesty International (UK)
Member: Committee for the Advancement of Arab-British Understanding (UK)
Member: Egyptian Writers' Union (EGYPT)
Member: Egyptian-British Society (UK)

Booker

2003, Soueif chairs the judges' of the
Orange Prize for Women's Fiction

AWARDS and FELLOWSHIPS:

Winner of the first Mahmoud Darwish award, 2010.
Honorary DLitt (Exeter University) 2008.
Honorary DLitt (London Metropolitan University) 2004.
Honorary DLitt (Lancaster University) 2004
Lannan Foundation (USA) 2002.
Bogliasco Foundation (Italy) 2002.

EDUCATION:

UNIVERSITY:
PhD Linguistics, University of Lancaster, 1978
MA English Literature, The American University in Cairo, 1973
BA English Literature, Cairo University, 1971.

SCHOOLS:
Educated at schools in Cairo and London

Booker Prize Nominees