Gamal al-Ghitani

Gamal al-Ghitani was born in Juhaynah, a village in Upper Egypt, and moved with his family to Cairo as a child. He began writing at a young age and had his first short story published when he was only 14. He was originally trained to be a carpet designer and received his diploma in 1962. He continued to write on the side and was imprisoned from October 1966 through March 1967 for his critical commentary on the regime of Gamal Abd el-Nasser. In 1969 he switched careers and became a journalist for the Egyptian newspaper Akhbar El Yom. He also wrote historical fiction, and many of his stories are set in Cairo. He also wrote about many cultural and political topics, notably the level of censorship in modern-day Egypt. In an effort to help promote the Arab literary culture, he helped found the literary magazine “Gallery 68”. In 1980, he was awarded with the Egyptian National Prize for Literature, and in 1987, the French Chevalier de l’ Ordre des Arts et des Lettres. In 1985, he became editor-in-chief of Al Akhbar and continued to be a contributing editor to Akhbar El-Yom’s literary section. From 1993 to 2011, he was the editor-in-chief of Akhbar Al-Adab, one of Egypt’s primary literary magazines. In 2005, he won a French Award for translated literature “Laure Bataillon”, one of the highest French awards to be bestowed upon non-French writers. He was entitled for this award due to his giant work Khitāb al-tajalliyāt (The Book of Epiphanies). In 2009, he was awarded the Sheikh Zayed Book Award for Ren, the award is worth about $200,000 and is one of the world’s richest literary awards. Gamal al-Ghitani was married to the Egyptian journalist Magda El-Guindy, editor-in-chief of Al-Ahram’s children’s magazine “Alaaeddin”. He has a son, Mohammad, and a daughter, Magda. He died on 18 October 2015 at the El Galaa Hospital For Armed Forces Officers Families in Cairo. He was widely regarded as one of the most prominent and influential figures of contemporary Arabic literature.