Amina Zaydan (born 1966) is an Egyptian novelist and short story writer. She was born in 1966 in

Suez Suez ( ar, السويس '; ) is a seaport city (population of about 750,000 ) in north-eastern Egypt, located on the north coast of the Gulf of Suez (a branch of the Red Sea), near the southern terminus of the Suez Canal, having the same bou ...

and now lives in

Cairo Cairo ( ; ar, القاهرة, al-Qāhirah, ) is the Capital city, capital of Egypt and its largest city, home to 10 million people. It is also part of the List of urban agglomerations in Africa, largest urban agglomeration in Africa, List of ...

where she works as a civil servant. Zaydan is known for her strong stand on gender inequality in her writings. In 1994, her short story collection entitled ''It Happened Secretly'' won first prize in a literary competition held by

Gamal al-Ghitani Gamal al-Ghitani, ( ar, جمال الغيطانى, ; 9 May 1945 – 18 October 2015) was an Egyptian author of historical and political novels and cultural and political commentaries and was the editor-in-chief of the literary periodical '' Akh ...

's ''

Akhbar al-Adab ''Akhbar Al Adab'' ( ar, أخبار الأدب; ''Cultural News'' in English) is an Arabic weekly literary magazine which is published by state-run Akhbar Al Yawm publishing house. History and profile ''Akhbar Al Adab'' was established by Gamal A ...

'' weekly newspaper. It also won the prize for Best Short Story Collection at the

Cairo International Book Fair The Cairo International Book Fair is the largest and oldest book fair in the Arab world, held every year in the last week of January in Cairo, Egypt, at Egypt International Exhibitions Center in New Cairo, it is organised by the General Egyptian ...

the following year. She has since published a further volume of short stories called ''Fawda'' and several novels. Her second novel ''Red Wine'' won the Naguib Mahfouz Medal in 2007. An English translation of ''Red Wine'' by Sally Gomaa was published by the

AUC Press The American University in Cairo Press (AUCP, AUC Press) is the leading English-language publisher in the Middle East. The largest translator of Arabic literature in the world, AUC Press has a reputation for carefully selecting and translating t ...

in 2010.

References

People from Suez 1966 births Egyptian novelists Egyptian women short story writers Egyptian short story writers Living people Recipients of the Naguib Mahfouz Medal for Literature International Writing Program alumni 20th-century Egyptian women writers 20th-century Egyptian writers 20th-century short story writers 21st-century Egyptian women writers 21st-century Egyptian writers 21st-century novelists 21st-century short story writers {{egypt-writer-stub