Fatma Qandil is an Egyptian author, poet, playwright, translator, and academic. Born in 1958, she lives in Cairo and teaches in the Department of Arabic at Helwan University. She is also deputy editor of the Arabic-language literary journal فصول (Seasons). Qandil has published poetry collections, such as Questions Hanging Like Slaughtered Animals and My House Has Two Doors, and her work has been translated into a variety of languages, including English, French, German, and Spanish. Qandil’s first novel, Empty Cages (أقفاص فارغة) was published in 2021 and won the Naguib Mahfouz Medal for Literature the following year. Qandil’s novel is to be published in English by Hoopoe, an imprint of AUC Press.