Alaa Al Aswany


Alaa Al Aswany
Occupation writer
Language Arabic
Nationality  Egypt
Ethnicity Egyptian
Citizenship  Egypt

Alaa al-Aswany (Arabic: علاء الأسواني‎, IPA: [ʕæˈlæːʔ elɑsˈwɑːni]) (born 1957) is an Egyptian writer, and a founding member of the political movement Kefaya.

Contents

Biography

Alaa Al Aswany studied to be a dentist, first in Egypt, and then later Chicago.[1] He earned his Masters Degree in dentistry from the University of Illinois at Chicago where he spent 17 years of his life. Al-Aswany has contributed numerous articles to Egyptian newspapers on literature, politics, and social issues. His second novel, The Yacoubian Building, an ironic depiction of modern Egyptian society, has been widely read in Egypt and throughout the Middle East. It has been translated into English, Spanish, Italian, Danish, Finnish, French, German, Norwegian, Polish, Greek and Dutch. It was adapted into a film (2006) and a television series (2007) of the same name.

Aswany’s name has also been included in the list of the 500 Most Influential Muslims in the World, [2] issued by the Royal Islamic Strategic Studies Center in Amman, Jordan. He was number one in The FP Top 100 Global Thinkers list 2011.

Chicago, a novel set in the city in which the author was educated, was published in January 2007.

Al-Aswany participated in the Blue Metropolis literary festival in Montreal, June 2008 and April 2010, and was featured in interviews with the CBC programme Writers and Company.

Bibliography (in Arabic)

English translations

Notes

  1. ^ McCarthy, Rory (2006-02-27). "Dentist by day, top novelist by night". The Guardian (London). http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2006/feb/27/fiction.egypt. 
  2. ^ The Royal Islamic Strategic Studies Centre. "The 500 Most Influential Muslims" (PDF). The Royal Islamic Strategic Studies Centre. http://www.rissc.jo/docs/0A-FullVersion-LowRes.pdf. Retrieved 2011-01-03. 

References and external links