Fatma Qandil

Fatma Qandil

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فاطمة قنديل

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.

© Mona Abdel Karim / Ithra
Date of birth : 1958
Country of birth: Egypt
Country of residence: Egypt
Publisher(s): Dar Sharqiyat & Dar Elain
Contact: Fatma Qandil

Selected bibliography

Her novel:

  • أقفاص فارغة, Empty Cages*, Al Kotob Khan, Egypt, 2021

Her published books of poetry include:

  • بيتي له بابان , My House has Two Doors*, Dar Al Ain, Egypt, 2017
  • أنا شاهد قبرك, I’m your Tombstone*, Dar Al Afaq, Egypt, 2009
  • أسئلة معلقة كالذبائح, Questions Strung up like Carcasses*, Dar an-Nahdah, Lebanon, 2008
  •  صمت قطنة مبتلة, Silent as wet cotton*, Dar Sharqiyyat, Egypt, 1995
  • الليلة الثانية بعد الألف, The 1002nd Night*, self-published, 1990
  • حظر تجول, Curfew*, self-published, 1987
  • عشان نقدر نعيش, So That We Might Live*, self-published, 1984

* Working title

Press

Fatma Qandil’s ‘Empty Cages’ Wins 2022 Naguib Mahfouz Medal for Literature in ArabLit, December 2022

La poésie à fleur de peau de Fatma Qandil (in French) by Al-Ahram Hebdo / Arab World Books, October 2017

Prizes and awards

  • Naguib Mahfouz Medal for Literature, 2022

Book(s) featured on this site

Reviewed by Adam Talib