Leila Fuad Aboulela (Arabic:ليلى فؤاد ابوالعلا; born 1964) is a fiction writer, essayist, and playwright of Sudanese origin based in
Aberdeen, Scotland
Aberdeen (; sco, Aiberdeen ; gd, Obar Dheathain ; la, Aberdonia) is a city in North East Scotland, and is the third most populous city in the country. Aberdeen is one of Scotland's 32 local government council areas (as Aberdeen City), an ...
.
She grew up in
Khartoum, Sudan
Khartoum or Khartum ( ; ar, الخرطوم, Al-Khurṭūm, din, Kaartuɔ̈m) is the capital of Sudan. With a population of 5,274,321, its metropolitan area is the largest in Sudan. It is located at the confluence of the White Nile, flowing nor ...
, and moved to
Scotland
Scotland (, ) is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. Covering the northern third of the island of Great Britain, mainland Scotland has a Anglo-Scottish border, border with England to the southeast ...
in 1990 where she began her literary career.
Aboulela has published five novels and several short stories, which have been translated into fifteen languages.
Her most popular novels,
''Minaret'' (2005) and ''
The Translator
''The Translator'' is Sudanese writer Leila Aboulela's first novel, published in 1999. It is a story about a young Muslim Sudanese widow living in Scotland without her son, and her blooming relationship with a secular Scottish Middle Eastern sch ...
'' (1999) both feature the stories of Muslim women in the UK and were long-listed for the
International Dublin Literary Award
The International Dublin Literary Award ( ga, Duais Liteartha Idirnáisiúnta Bhaile Átha Chliath), established as the International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award in 1996, is presented each year for a novel written or translated into English. ...
and
Orange Prize
The Women's Prize for Fiction (previously with sponsor names Orange Prize for Fiction (1996–2006 and 2009–12), Orange Broadband Prize for Fiction (2007–08) and Baileys Women's Prize for Fiction (2014–2017)) is one of the United Kingdom's m ...
.
Aboulela’s works have been included in publications such as ''
Harper's Magazine'', ''
Granta
''Granta'' is a literary magazine and publisher in the United Kingdom whose mission centres on its "belief in the power and urgency of the story, both in fiction and non-fiction, and the story’s supreme ability to describe, illuminate and ma ...
'', ''
The Washington Post
''The Washington Post'' (also known as the ''Post'' and, informally, ''WaPo'') is an American daily newspaper published in Washington, D.C. It is the most widely circulated newspaper within the Washington metropolitan area and has a large nati ...
'' and ''
The Guardian
''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers ''The Observer'' and ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the Gu ...
''. ''
BBC Radio
BBC Radio is an operational business division and service of the British Broadcasting Corporation (which has operated in the United Kingdom under the terms of a royal charter since 1927). The service provides national radio stations covering ...
'' has adapted her work extensively and broadcast a number of her plays, including ''The Insider'', ''The Mystic Life'' and the historical drama ''The Lion of Chechnya''.
The five-part radio serialization of her 1999 novel ''
The Translator
''The Translator'' is Sudanese writer Leila Aboulela's first novel, published in 1999. It is a story about a young Muslim Sudanese widow living in Scotland without her son, and her blooming relationship with a secular Scottish Middle Eastern sch ...
'' was short-listed for the
Race In the Media Award (RIMA).
Aboulela’s work is critically acclaimed for its depiction of Muslim migrants in the West the and the challenges they face. Her work is heavily influenced by her own experiences as an immigrant to the United Kingdom and the hardships she experienced during the transition. Her work centers around political issues and themes such as identity, multi-cultural relationships, the East-West divide, migration, and Islamic spirituality. Her prose has been celebrated for its "restrained lyricism, irony and clarity” by
J.M Coetzee,
Ben Okri
Ben Okri (born 15 March 1959) is a Nigerian-British poet and novelist.[Ben Okri"]
British Council, ...
and
Ali Smit.
Early life and education
Born in 1964 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 ...
, Egypt, to an Egyptian mother and a Sudanese father, Aboulela moved at the age of six weeks to Khartoum, Sudan, where she lived continuously until 1987. Aboulela’s father comes from a prominent Sudanese family, with his cousin being poet, Hassan Awad Aboulela.
He studied at
Victoria College in Egypt and
Trinity College, Dublin.
Her mother was a Statistics professor at the
University of Khartoum
The University of Khartoum (U of K) ( ar, جامعة الخرطوم) is a public university located in Khartoum, Sudan. It is the largest and oldest university in Sudan. UofK was founded as Gordon Memorial College in 1902 and established in 195 ...
and the first Demographer in Sudan after earning a PhD in the subject from a university in London.
Her multicultural upbringing was marked by summer vacations in Cairo where she was able to form a connection with her mother’s family and absorb Egyptian culture through food, popular media, and film.
As a child she attended the
Khartoum American School and the Sisters' School, a private Catholic high school.
She described her education at the American School as one with “very few Sudanese pupils and no Sudanese teachers”. Aboulela grew up speaking both English and Arabic; however, she recalls being the victim of bullying at school due to her use of colloquial
Egyptian Arabic
Egyptian Arabic, locally known as Colloquial Egyptian ( ar, العامية المصرية, ), or simply Masri (also Masry) (), is the most widely spoken vernacular Arabic dialect in Egypt. It is part of the Afro-Asiatic language family, and ...
, which she learned from her mother.
Aboulela later attended the
University of Khartoum
The University of Khartoum (U of K) ( ar, جامعة الخرطوم) is a public university located in Khartoum, Sudan. It is the largest and oldest university in Sudan. UofK was founded as Gordon Memorial College in 1902 and established in 195 ...
, graduating in 1985 with a degree in Economics.
In 1991, Aboulela was awarded a Master of Science (M.Sc) and a Master of Philosophy (MPhil) degree in Statistics from the
London School of Economics
The London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE) is a public university, public research university located in London, England and a constituent college of the federal University of London. Founded in 1895 by Fabian Society members Sidn ...
. Her thesis is title
Stock and flow models for the Sudanese educational system
Personal life
As of 2021, Aboulela lives between
Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates and Aberdeen, Scotland.
Her husband, an engineer, is Half-Sudanese, Half-British. They have three children together.
In 1990 Aboulela moved to Aberdeen with her husband and children, a move she cites as the inspiration for her first novel, ''
The Translator
''The Translator'' is Sudanese writer Leila Aboulela's first novel, published in 1999. It is a story about a young Muslim Sudanese widow living in Scotland without her son, and her blooming relationship with a secular Scottish Middle Eastern sch ...
''.Aboulela began writing in 1992 while working as a lecturer at
Aberdeen College and later as a research assistant at the
University of Aberdeen
, mottoeng = The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom
, established =
, type = Public research universityAncient university
, endowment = £58.4 million (2021)
, budget ...
. In 2006, she moved back to Khartoum, Sudan, to care for her ailing father who passed away in 2008.
Between 2000 and 2012, Aboulela lived in
Jakarta,
Dubai
Dubai (, ; ar, دبي, translit=Dubayy, , ) is the most populous city in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and the capital of the Emirate of Dubai, the most populated of the 7 emirates of the United Arab Emirates.The Government and Politics of ...
, Abu Dhabi, and
Doha
Doha ( ar, الدوحة, ad-Dawḥa or ''ad-Dōḥa'') is the capital city and main financial hub of Qatar. Located on the Persian Gulf coast in the east of the country, north of Al Wakrah and south of Al Khor, it is home to most of the count ...
.
Aboulela is a devout Muslim, and her faith informs much of her written work.
Literary career
Aboulela began writing at the age of 28, following a move to Aberdeen, Scotland, with her two young children spurred by her husband’s work in the oil rigs.
Aboulela began writing after enrolling in a creative writing course at the Aberdeen Central Library where she was encouraged and supported by the writer-in-residence,
Todd McEwen, who passed along Aboulela’s work to his editor.
Aboulela writes in English, a decision she dates back to her childhood, and notes that she chose to express herself in English because it was “a third language, refreshingly free from the disloyalty of having to choose between my father and my mother’s tongues” in reference to Egyptian and
Sudanese colloquial Arabic.
She is a contributor to the 2019 anthology ''New Daughters of Africa'', edited by
Margaret Busby which compiles the work of 200 women writers of African descent. The anthology includes several genres such as autobiography, memoir, letters, short stories, novels, poetry, drama, humour, journalism, essays and speeches.
Novels
* ''The Translator:'' Originally published in 1999, ''
The Translator
''The Translator'' is Sudanese writer Leila Aboulela's first novel, published in 1999. It is a story about a young Muslim Sudanese widow living in Scotland without her son, and her blooming relationship with a secular Scottish Middle Eastern sch ...
'' is Aboulela’s first novel which tells the story of a Sudanese widow in Scotland who works as a translator and her relationship with her secular Scottish employer.
In 2006, ''
The Translator
''The Translator'' is Sudanese writer Leila Aboulela's first novel, published in 1999. It is a story about a young Muslim Sudanese widow living in Scotland without her son, and her blooming relationship with a secular Scottish Middle Eastern sch ...
'' was listed by ''
The New York Times
''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid d ...
'' as one of the
100 Notable Books of the Year.
* ''Minaret:'' Published in 2005, ''
Minaret'' is centered around Najwa, who was forced to flee Sudan and live in exile in London following a coup which overthrew the regime her father, a Minister, served under.
Najwa’s story is one of culture shock, love, islamophobia, and immigration. It also describes a young woman’s journey to survive and find a home in a new, unfamiliar environment.
* ''Lyrics Alley:'' First published in 2010, ''
Lyrics Alley'' is Aboulela’s third novel and the winner of the
Scottish Book of the Year award for fiction. ''
Lyrics Alley'' is directly inspired by the life of her uncle, poet Hassan Awad Aboulela.
Set in post-colonial 1950s Sudan, this novel tells the story of a country in transition through the life of an affluent family as they lose the life they had been accustomed to and suffer a devastating tragedy, which alters their dynamic and lives forever.
* ''The Kindness of Enemies:'' Published in 2015, ''The Kindness of Enemies'' depicts the story of a half-Russian, half-Sudanese professor who embarks on a journey to document the life of a Muslim historical figure,
Imam Shamil
Imam Shamil ( av, Шейх Шамил, Şeyx Şamil; ar, الشيخ شامل; russian: Имам Шамиль; 26 June 1797 – 4 February 1871) was the political, military, and spiritual leader of North Caucasian resistance to Imperial Russia in ...
, who gained notoriety through his leading role in the anti-Russian resistance movement of the
Caucasian War
The Caucasian War (russian: Кавказская война; ''Kavkazskaya vojna'') or Caucasus War was a 19th century military conflict between the Russian Empire and various peoples of the North Caucasus who resisted subjugation during the ...
.
Set in 2010, the book also tackles the theme of life as a Muslim in the post-9/11 era.
* ''Bird Summons:'' Published in 2019, ''
Bird Summons'' is a story of three Muslim women who travel to the
Scottish Highlands
The Highlands ( sco, the Hielands; gd, a’ Ghàidhealtachd , 'the place of the Gaels') is a historical region of Scotland. Culturally, the Highlands and the Lowlands diverged from the Late Middle Ages into the modern period, when Lowland S ...
to visit the grave of
Lady Evelyn Cobbold
Zainab Cobbold (born Lady Evelyn Murray; 17 July 1867 – January 1963) was a Scottish diarist, traveller and noblewoman who was known for her conversion to Islam in the Victorian era.
Biography
Born in Edinburgh in 1867, she was the eldest d ...
, the first British woman to complete the
Hajj pilgrimage to
Mecca
Mecca (; officially Makkah al-Mukarramah, commonly shortened to Makkah ()) is a city and administrative center of the Mecca Province of Saudi Arabia, and the holiest city in Islam. It is inland from Jeddah on the Red Sea, in a narrow ...
. The trip evolves into one of adventure and self discovery for the women.
The freedom afforded to them through the distance from their homes and the lush Scottish landscape inspires them to reflect on their lives and the decisions which brought them to where they are.
Short-story collections
* ''Coloured Lights'': Originally published in 2001, ''Coloured Lights'' is Aboulela’s first short-story collection. It contains eleven short stories. The collection features the stories of young Sudanese women in varying settings, as they navigate their lives in search of meaning and belonging. Many of the stories depict the immigrant experience and the challenges of transitioning from life in the East to the culture of the West. Aboulela’s short story “The Museum” - which is included in this collection - was awarded the inaugural
Caine Prize for African Writing
The Caine Prize for African Writing is an annual literary award for the best original short story by an African writer, whether in Africa or elsewhere, published in the English language. The £10,000 prize was founded in the United Kingdom in 20 ...
in 2000. “The Museum” recounts the story of a Sudanese student in Aberdeen and her first date with her Scottish classmate. The titular museum refers to the story’s critique of the exhibition of African art in Scottish museums and the colonial legacy of institutions.
* ''Elsewhere, Home'': Published in 2018, this anthology was awarded the
Saltire Fiction Book of the Year award and contains thirteen short stories.
Depicting tales of multicultural relationships, friendships, and loss, ''Elsewhere, Home'' is a collection of short-stories that follows the lives of characters as they transform and reinvent themselves.
The stories are set in Abu Dhabi, Aberdeen, Edinburgh, and London.
In “Pages of Fruit”, a lonely housewife travels to the Edinburgh book festival to meet an author whom she idolizes, only to find herself aimless and disappointed following their ill-fated meeting.
Meanwhile, in “Something Old, Something New”, a Scottish Muslim convert visits Khartoum to see his Sudanese fiancée and begins to experience doubt regarding their relationship when confronted with his feelings of suspicion and fear of foreigners in a faraway land.
Plays
Aboulela has written several radio plays, with many of them not published in print form. Her plays ''The Insider, The Mystic Life, The Lion of Chechnya,'' and T''he Sea Warrior'' were broadcast on
BBC radio
BBC Radio is an operational business division and service of the British Broadcasting Corporation (which has operated in the United Kingdom under the terms of a royal charter since 1927). The service provides national radio stations covering ...
programs. ''The Mystic Life'' is an adaptation of a story from her short-story collection, ''Coloured Lights'', while ''The Lion of Chechnya'' recounts the story of
Imam Shamil
Imam Shamil ( av, Шейх Шамил, Şeyx Şamil; ar, الشيخ شامل; russian: Имам Шамиль; 26 June 1797 – 4 February 1871) was the political, military, and spiritual leader of North Caucasian resistance to Imperial Russia in ...
(1797-1871), a Muslim political leader and the subject of her novel, ''The Kindness of Enemies''.
Her novel ''The Translator'' and short-story “The Museum” were also adapted into radio plays while her stage-play ''Friends and Neighbors'' was performed in Aberdeen in 1998.
Literary Influences
Much of Aboulela’s writing is directly inspired by her own life. She credits her move from Sudan to Scotland in 1990 as being the catalyst for her literary career and cites her desire to write about Sudan and Islam - topics which she had seen scarcely represented - for being her preliminary motivators.
Aboulela has stated her interest in countering stereotypical portrayals of Muslims, Sudan, and immigrants through her writing and has made an effort to reflect people she has met and places she has lived within her stories.
Her novel ''
Lyrics Alley'' is based on the true story of the life of her uncle, poet Hassan Awad Aboulela, and his tragic accident in the early 1940s which left him paraplegic.
She collaborated with her father to write the novel and learn more about the life of his cousin who serves as an inspiration behind the main character, Nur.
Aboulela cites
Naguib Mahfouz
Naguib Mahfouz Abdelaziz Ibrahim Ahmed Al-Basha ( arz, نجيب محفوظ عبد العزيز ابراهيم احمد الباشا, ; 11 December 1911 – 30 August 2006) was an Egyptian writer who won the 1988 Nobel Prize in Literature. M ...
and
Tayeb Salih as literary influences from her childhood and time in Sudan. Her move to Scotland introduced her to
Jean Rhys
Jean Rhys, ( ; born Ella Gwendolyn Rees Williams; 24 August 1890 – 14 May 1979) was a British novelist who was born and grew up in the Caribbean island of Dominica. From the age of 16, she mainly resided in England, where she was sent for he ...
and
Anita Desai
Anita Desai, born Anita Mazumdar (born 24 June 1937) is an Indian novelist and the Emerita John E. Burchard Professor of Humanities at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. As a writer she has been shortlisted for the Booker Prize three ti ...
, authors whom she notes as having a “haunting influence on her works”.
Aboulela has indicated her attraction to authors such as
Abdulrazak Gurnah
Abdulrazak Gurnah (born 20 December 1948) is a Tanzanian-born British novelist and academic. He was born in the Sultanate of Zanzibar and moved to the United Kingdom in the 1960s as a refugee during the Zanzibar Revolution. His novels include ...
,
Doris Lessing,
Buchi Emecheta, and
Ahdaf Soueif who migrated to Britain at a young age and thus possess similar experiences to her own. She also acknowledges the influence of Scottish writers, such as
Alan Spence and
Robin Jenkins.
Critical Reception
Aboulela’s works have amassed overwhelmingly positive critical reception and she is celebrated by the likes of
Ben Okri
Ben Okri (born 15 March 1959) is a Nigerian-British poet and novelist.[Ben Okri"]
British Council, ...
, Nobel Prize winner
J.M Coetzee, and
Ali Smith
Ali Smith CBE FRSL (born 24 August 1962) is a Scottish author, playwright, academic and journalist. Sebastian Barry described her in 2016 as "Scotland's Nobel laureate-in-waiting".
Early life and education
Smith was born in Inverness on 24 ...
for her mastery of both the novel and short-story formats as well as her unique prose.
She was referred to as “one of the best short story writers alive” by editor and author
John Freeman. Her prose impressed Kim Hedges of the ''
San Francisco Chronicle
The ''San Francisco Chronicle'' is a newspaper serving primarily the San Francisco Bay Area of Northern California. It was founded in 1865 as ''The Daily Dramatic Chronicle'' by teenage brothers Charles de Young and Michael H. de Young. The ...
'' who wrote,“Aboulela’s prose is amazing. She handles intense emotions in a contained yet powerful way, lending their expressions directness and originality, and skillfully capturing the discrete sensory impressions that compound to form a mood.”
She is recognized for her nuanced depictions of Muslim immigrants, the intricacies of inter-cultural relationships, Islam, and female characters who subvert social expectations.
She was complimented by journalist
Boyd Tonkin
Boyd Tonkin Hon. FRSL is an English writer, journalist and literary critic. He was the literary editor of ''The Independent'' newspaper from 1996 to 2013. A long-time proponent of foreign-language literature, he is the author of ''The 100 Best Nov ...
for being “One of the few Muslim women writers in Britain to present their faith as a living force rather than discarded history”.
Among her works, her second novel
''Minaret'' (2005) has drawn the most critical attention.
''Minaret'' signaled Aboulela's arrival as an influential member of a new wave of British Muslim writers. ''
Minaret'' was lauded as a “brilliant success” and a “beautiful, daring, challenging novel” by
Mike Phillips for ''
The Guardian
''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers ''The Observer'' and ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the Gu ...
''.
She is considered an African, Arab, Scottish, and diasporic female author by her audience of critics, literary prize boards, and researchers.
Author
James Robinson described Aboulela as “a unique and refreshing voice in contemporary Scottish fiction”.
John A. Stotesbury and Brendan Smyth, argue that Aboulela has cemented her role in the literary sphere as an author who challenges Orientalist and Islamic perceptions of masculinity as well as the popular conception of Muslim women.
Aboulela’s work has also become a popular topic for PhD theses and scholarly articles surrounding Muslim and contemporary women’s writing.
Bibliography
* 1999: ''
The Translator
''The Translator'' is Sudanese writer Leila Aboulela's first novel, published in 1999. It is a story about a young Muslim Sudanese widow living in Scotland without her son, and her blooming relationship with a secular Scottish Middle Eastern sch ...
'', Grove Press, Black Cat – translated into Arabic by Elkhatim Adl'an
* 2001: ''Coloured Lights'', Polygon, Edinburgh
* 2005: ''
Minaret'', Grove Press, Black Cat -translated into Arabic by Badreldin Hashimi
* 2011: ''
Lyrics Alley'', Grove Press -translated into Arabic by Badreldin Hashimi
* 2015: ''The Kindness of Enemies'', Weidenfeld & Nicolson - translated into Arabic by Badreldin Hashimi
* 2018: ''Elsewhere, Home'', Telegram Books
* 2019: ''
Bird Summons'', Weidenfeld & Nicolson
Prizes and awards
* 2000:
Caine Prize for African Writing
The Caine Prize for African Writing is an annual literary award for the best original short story by an African writer, whether in Africa or elsewhere, published in the English language. The £10,000 prize was founded in the United Kingdom in 20 ...
, for "The Museum"
* 2000:
Saltire Society Scottish First Book of the Year Award (shortlist), ''The Translator''
* 2002:
PEN Macmillan Macmillan Silver PEN Award (shortlist), "Coloured Lights"
* 2003: Race and Media Award (shortlist – radio drama serialisation), ''The Translator''
* 2011: Shortlisted for the
Commonwealth Writers Prize
Commonwealth Foundation presented a number of prizes between 1987 and 2011. The main award was called the Commonwealth Writers' Prize and was composed of two prizes: the Best Book Prize (overall and regional) was awarded from 1987 to 2011; the Best ...
- Europe and S. E Asia, ''
Lyrics Alley''
* 2011: Fiction Winner of the Scottish Book Awards, ''
Lyrics Alley''
* 2018:
Saltire Fiction Book of the Year Award, ''Elsewhere, Home''
See also
*
Sudanese literature
*
List of Sudanese writers
*
Modern Arabic literature
The instance that marked the shift in the whole of Arabic literature towards modern Arabic literature can be attributed to the Arab World-West contact during the 19th and early 20th century. This contact resulted in the gradual replacement of Cla ...
References
Further reading
;Review
*
External links
*
Leila Aboulela's radio playsLeila Abouleila's short story ''Doctor on the Nile'', from VQR journal, Winter 2010
{{DEFAULTSORT:Aboulela, Leila
1964 births
Living people
Writers from Khartoum
Sudanese dramatists and playwrights
Islamic fiction writers
Sudanese women writers
Women novelists
Sudanese novelists
University of Khartoum alumni
Alumni of the London School of Economics
Women dramatists and playwrights
Sudanese women short story writers
Sudanese short story writers
20th-century novelists
20th-century dramatists and playwrights
20th-century women writers
21st-century novelists
21st-century dramatists and playwrights
21st-century women writers
Sudanese expatriates in the United Arab Emirates
Sudanese people of Egyptian descent
Egyptian people of Sudanese descent
Caine Prize winners
20th-century short story writers
21st-century short story writers
20th-century Sudanese writers
21st-century Sudanese writers