Ahdaf Soueif
This biography of a living person needs additional citations for verification. (January 2011) |
Ahdaf Soueif | |
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أهداف سويف | |
Born | Cairo, Egypt | 23 March 1950
Notable work | The Map of Love (1999) |
Spouse(s) | Ian Hamilton |
Children | 2 |
Relatives | Laila Soueif (sister) |
Website | www |
Ahdaf Soueif (أهداف سويف) (born 23 March 1950) is an Egyptian novelist and political and cultural commentator.
Early life[]
Soueif was born in Cairo, where she lives, and was educated in Egypt and England. She studied for a PhD in linguistics at the University of Lancaster.[1] Her sister is the human and women's rights activist and mathematician Laila Soueif.[2]
Career[]
Her debut novel, In the Eye of the Sun (1993), set in Egypt and England, recounts the maturing of Asya, a beautiful Egyptian who, by her own admission, "feels more comfortable with art than with life." Soueif's second novel, The Map of Love (1999), was shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize,[3] has been translated into 21 languages and sold more than a million copies.[4] She has also published two works of short stories, Aisha (1983) and Sandpiper (1996) – a selection from which was combined in the collection I Think Of You in 2007, and Stories Of Ourselves in 2010.
Soueif writes primarily in English,[1] but her Arabic-speaking readers say they can hear the Arabic through the English.[5] She translated Mourid Barghouti's I Saw Ramallah (with a foreword by Edward Said) from Arabic into English.
Along with her readings of Egyptian history and politics, Soueif also writes about Palestinians in her fiction and non-fiction. A shorter version of "Under the Gun: A Palestinian Journey" was originally published in The Guardian and then printed in full in Soueif's recent collection of essays, Mezzaterra: Fragments from the Common Ground (2004) and she wrote the introduction to the NYRB's reprint of Jean Genet's Prisoner of Love.[citation needed]
In 2008 she initiated the first Palestine Festival of Literature,[6] of which she is the Founding Chair.[7]
Soueif is also a cultural and political commentator for the Guardian newspaper and she has been reporting on the Egyptian revolution.[8] In January 2012 she published Cairo: My City, Our Revolution – a personal account of the first year of the Egyptian revolution. She initially supported the overthrow of democracy and its replacement with the government of Abdel Fattah el-Sisi.[9] Her sister Laila Soueif, and Laila's children, Alaa Abd El-Fatah and Mona Seif, are also activists.[10]
She was married to Ian Hamilton,[11] with whom she had two sons: and Ismail Richard Hamilton.[12]
She was appointed a Trustee of the British Museum in 2012 and re-appointed for a further 4 years in 2016.[13] However she resigned in 2019 complaining about BP's sponsorship, the reluctance to re-hire workers transferred to Carillion and lack of engagement with repatriating artworks[14]
In June 2013, Soueif and numerous other celebrities appeared in a video showing support for Chelsea Manning.[15][16]
Political views[]
In December 2019, along with 42 other leading cultural figures, Soueif signed a letter endorsing the Labour Party under Jeremy Corbyn's leadership in the 2019 general election. The letter stated that "Labour's election manifesto under Jeremy Corbyn's leadership offers a transformative plan that prioritises the needs of people and the planet over private profit and the vested interests of a few."[17][18]
In 2020 Soueif was arrested for demanding the release of political prisoners during the COVID-19 pandemic in Egypt.[19]
Bibliography[]
Library resources about Ahdaf Soueif |
By Ahdaf Soueif |
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- Aisha, London: Bloomsbury, 1983.
- In the Eye of the Sun, NY: Random House, 1992.
- Sandpiper, London: Bloomsbury, 1996.
- The Map of Love, London: Bloomsbury, 1999.
- trans. of I Saw Ramallah by Mourid Barghouti. NY: Anchor Books, 2003.
- Mezzaterra: Fragments from the Common Ground, NY: Anchor Books, 2004.
- I Think of You, London: Bloomsbury: 2007
- Cairo: My City, Our Revolution, Bloomsbury, 2012
Literary awards[]
In a review of Egyptian novelists, Harper's Magazine included Soueif in a shortlist of "the country's most talented writers."[20] She has also been the recipient of several literary awards:
- 1996: Cairo International Book Fair: Best Collection of Short Stories (Sandpiper)
- 1999: Nominated: the Booker Prize ("The Map of Love")
- 2010: Inaugural Mahmoud Darwish Award[21]
- 2011: Cavafy Award
- 2011: Named in The Guardian′s Books Power 100[22]
Literary criticism[]
Marta Cariello: "Bodies Across: Ahdaf Soueif, Fadia Faqir, Diana Abu Jaber" in Al Maleh, Layla (ed.), Arab Voices in Diaspora. Critical Perspectives on Anglophone Arab Literature. Amsterdam/New York, NY, 2009, Hb: ISBN 978-90-420-2718-3
References[]
- ^ Jump up to: a b "Ahdaf Soueif" in Contemporary Authors Online. Gale. 11 November 2003.
- ^ Anderson, Scott (4 May 2017). Fractured Lands: How the Arab World Came Apart. Pan Macmillan. p. 48. ISBN 978-1-5098-5272-7. Retrieved 12 November 2017.
- ^ Nash, Geoffrey (2002). "Ahdaf Soueif" in Molino, Michael R. (ed.), Dictionary of Literary Biography, Volume 267: Twenty-First-Century British and Irish Novelists. Gale: pp. 314–321.
- ^ Mahjoub, Jamal (2011), "Selmeyyah" in Guernica Magazine, 15 March 2011.
- ^ Attalah, Lina in Mada Masr[1]
- ^ C.S. (26 April 2011). "The Palestine Festival of Literature – An explosive evening in the territories". The Economist. Retrieved 20 December 2011.
- ^ "The Palestine Festival of Literature Team". The Palestine Festival of Literature. Archived from the original on 7 March 2012. Retrieved 20 December 2011.
- ^ "Afdah Soueif Profile". The Guardian. London. 12 August 2008. Retrieved 20 December 2011.
- ^ Soueif, Ahdaf (1 July 2013). "In Egypt, we thought democracy was enough. It was not". The Guardian. Manchester. Retrieved 29 May 2019.
- ^ Soueif, Ahdaf (13 November 2011). "In Egypt, the stakes have risen". The Guardian. London. Retrieved 20 December 2011.
- ^ Morrison, Blake (29 December 2001). "Ian Hamilton Obituary". The Guardian. London. Retrieved 16 November 2011.
- ^ "Dr Ahdaf Soueif (DLitt) Honorary Graduates". University of Exeter. Retrieved 16 November 2011.
- ^ "Prime Minister Reappoints Three Trustees to the Board of the British Museum". GOV.UK.
- ^ Soueif, Ahdaf (July 15, 2019). "Ahdaf Soueif | On Resigning from the British Museum's Board of Trustees · LRB 15 July 2019". LRB Blog.
- ^ Gavin, Patrick (19 June 2013). "Celeb video 'I am Bradley Manning'". POLITICO.com. Retrieved 8 September 2013.
- ^ iam.bradleymanning.org; Maggie Gyllenhaal; Roger Waters; Oliver Stone; Daniel Ellsberg; Phil Donahue; Michael Ratner; Alice Walker; Tom Morello; Matt Taibbi; Peter Sarsgaard; Angela Davis; Moby; Molly Crabapple; Tim DeChristopher; LT Dan Choi; Bishop George Packard; Russell Brand; Allan Nairn; Chris Hedges; Wallace Shawn; Ahdaf Soueif; et al. (June 18, 2013). "I am Bradley Manning (full HD, 4:40)". YouTube. Retrieved 8 September 2013.
- ^ "Vote for hope and a decent future". The Guardian. 3 December 2019. Retrieved 4 December 2019.
- ^ Proctor, Kate (3 December 2019). "Coogan and Klein lead cultural figures backing Corbyn and Labour". The Guardian. Retrieved 4 December 2019.
- ^ "Coronavirus: Egypt detains novelist Ahdaf Soueif for demanding prisoners' release". Middle East Eye.
- ^ Creswell, Robyn (February 2011). "Undelivered: Egyptian novelists at home and abroad". Harper's. Harper's Foundation. 322 (1, 929): 71–79. Retrieved 30 October 2011.
- ^ "Soueif Wins Mahmoud Darwish Award for Creativity" Archived 2013-08-26 at the Wayback Machine, Mahmoud Darwish Foundation, 13 March 2010.
- ^ Oliver, Christine, "The 2011 Guardian and Observer books power 100 – interactive", The Guardian, 23 September 2011.
External links[]
Wikimedia Commons has media related to Ahdaf Soueif. |
Wikiquote has quotations related to: Ahdaf Soueif |
- Official website
- Biography and critical perspective, British Council.
- Diary of an Egyptian Rebel, The Guardian, 4 February 2011.
- "Cairo, Hers Again", Guernica, February 2012.
- 1950 births
- Living people
- Egyptian novelists
- Egyptian expatriates in England
- Arabic–English translators
- Alumni of Lancaster University
- Fellows of the Royal Society of Literature
- Female writers from Cairo