Alaa Al Aswany
| Alaa Al Aswany | |
|---|---|
Al Aswany in 2011
|
|
| Born | 26 May 1957 |
| Occupation | Writer, novelist and dentist |
| Language | Arabic |
| Nationality |
 Egypt
|
| Ethnicity | Egyptian |
| Citizenship |
Egypt
|
| Alma mater |
Cairo University University of Illinois at Chicago |
| Notable works |
The Yacoubian Building Chicago Friendly Fire |
| Notable awards | Bashraheel Award for Arabic Novel The International Cavafi Award Bruno-Kriesky Award Tiziano Terzani Literary Award |
| Spouse | Eman Taymoor (1993-present) |
| Children |
|
Alaa Al-Aswany (Arabic: علاء الأسواني, IPA: [ʕæˈlæːʔ elɑsˈwɑːni]; born 26 May 1957) is an Egyptian writer, and a founding member of the political movement Kefaya.
Al-Aswany was born on 26 May 1957. His mother, Zainab, came from an aristocratic family; her uncle was a Pasha and Minister of Education before the Egyptian Revolution of 1952. His father, Abbas Al-Aswany, was from Aswan (in Lower Nubia) and was a lawyer and writer who “is remembered as being a captivating and charismatic speaker with a broad following and loyalty within a cross-section of the Egyptian revolutionary intelligentsia”. Abbas Al-Aswany wrote a regular back-page essay in the Egyptian weekly magazine Rose al-Yūsuf entitled Aswaaniyat. In 1972, he was “the recipient of the state award for literature". He died when Alaa was 19 years old.
Aswany attended Le Lycée Français in Cairo and received a bachelor's degree in dental and oral medicine at Cairo University in 1980. He went on to pursue a master's degree in dentistry at the University of Illinois at Chicago in 1985. He speaks Arabic, English, French and Spanish. He studied Spanish literature in Madrid.
Al-Aswany married his first wife in his early twenties, she was a dentist, and they had their son Seif, they divorced later. When he was 37, he married Eman Taymoor and they had two daughters, Mai and Nada.
He wrote a weekly literary critique entitled "parenthetic phrase" in the Egyptian newspaper Al-Sha'ab, and then became responsible for the culture page in the same newspaper. He wrote a monthly political article in the Egyptian newspaper Al-Arabi Al-Nasseri and a weekly article in the Egyptian newspaper Al-Dustour. Then, he wrote a weekly article in the Egyptian newspaper Al-Shorouk. Currently, he writes a weekly article in Al-Masry Al-Youm on Tuesdays. His articles have been published in leading international newspapers such as The New York Times,Le Monde,El Pais,The Guardian,The Independent and others.
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