Radwa Ashour ( ar, رضوى عاشور) (26 May 1946 – 30 November 2014) was an Egyptian
novelist
A novelist is an author or writer of novels, though often novelists also write in other genres of both fiction and non-fiction. Some novelists are professional novelists, thus make a living writing novels and other fiction, while others asp ...
.
Life
Ashour was born in
El-Manial
El Manial ( , "'' the nilometer''") is a district of Cairo, located on Rhoda Island in the Nile.
Prince Mohamed Ali Palace
The El Manial Palace and garden estate was built for Prince Mohammed Ali Tewfik between 1899 and 1929. The Prince ...
to Mustafa Ashour, a lawyer and literature enthusiast, and Mai Azzam, a poet and an artist. She graduated from
Cairo University
Cairo University ( ar, جامعة القاهرة, Jāmi‘a al-Qāhira), also known as the Egyptian University from 1908 to 1940, and King Fuad I University and Fu'ād al-Awwal University from 1940 to 1952, is Egypt's premier public university ...
with a BA degree in 1967. In 1972, she received her MA in Comprehensive Literature from the same university. In 1975, Ashour graduated from the
University of Massachusetts Amherst
The University of Massachusetts Amherst (UMass Amherst, UMass) is a public research university in Amherst, Massachusetts and the sole public land-grant university in Commonwealth of Massachusetts. Founded in 1863 as an agricultural college, ...
with a
PhD in
African American Literature. Her
dissertation was entitled The search for a Black poetics: a study of Afro-American critical writings. While preparing for her PhD, Ashour was remarked as the first doctoral candidate in English who studied the literature of the African-American. She taught at
Ain Shams University, Cairo.
Between 1969 and 1980, Ashour's mainly focused on studying, raising up her son and playing an active role as an activist. She married Palestinian poet
Mourid Barghouti
Mourid Barghouti ( ar, مريد البرغوثي, ; 8 July 1944 – 14 February 2021) was a Palestinian poet and writer.
Biography
Barghouti was born in Deir Ghassana, near Ramallah, on the West Bank, in 8 July 1944. He studied English litera ...
in 1970. She gave birth to her son, poet
Tamim al-Barghouti
Tamim Al-Barghouti ( ar, تميم البرغوثي) is a Palestinian-Egyptian poet, columnist and political scientist. Nicknamed the "poet of Jerusalem" (), he is one of the most widely read poets in the Arab World.
Life
Tamim al-Barghouti was ...
, in 1977. In that same year, Ashour's husband, Mourid Barghouthi was deported from Egypt to Hungary. As she and her son stayed in Cairo, they used to make frequent visits to Mourid.
Ashour died on 30 November 2014 after months of long-term health problems.
Tribute
On 26 May 2018,
Google Doodle
A Google Doodle is a special, temporary alteration of the logo on Google's homepages intended to commemorate holidays, events, achievements, and notable historical figures. The first Google Doodle honored the 1998 edition of the long-running an ...
commemorated Radwa Ashour's 72nd birthday.
Works
*''The Journey: Memoirs of an Egyptian Student in America'', 1983
*''Warm Stone'', 1985
*''Khadija and Sawsan'', 1989
*''I Saw the Date Palms'', short stories, 1989
*
*
* ''Specters'', Translated
Barbara Romaine, Interlink Books, 2010,
*''Al-Tantouria, 2010''
*
*''Athqal Min Radwa, 2013'' ISBN 9789770932636
*
li Kull Al Mqhoorin Ajnih'a, 2019'
As editor
*
Awards
*In 1994, Granada Trilogy won the year award of 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 ...
*In 1995, Granada Trilogy won the prize of The First Arab Woman Book Fair 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 ...
.
*In 2007, Ashour won Constantine
Cavafy
Konstantinos Petrou Kavafis ( el, Κωνσταντίνος Πέτρου Καβάφης ; April 29 (April 17, OS), 1863 – April 29, 1933), known, especially in English, as Constantine P. Cavafy and often published as C. P. Cavafy (), was a Gree ...
Prize for Literature
*In 2011, Ashour won
Owais Prize.
Translations of Ashour's Work
*Granada Trilogy was translated into
Spanish
Spanish might refer to:
* Items from or related to Spain:
**Spaniards are a nation and ethnic group indigenous to Spain
**Spanish language, spoken in Spain and many Latin American countries
**Spanish cuisine
Other places
* Spanish, Ontario, Can ...
and
English
English usually refers to:
* English language
* English people
English may also refer to:
Peoples, culture, and language
* ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England
** English national ide ...
[
*Siraj was translated into English.
*Atyaaf was translated into Italian.
*She has a number of short stories that were published in English, French, ]Italian
Italian(s) may refer to:
* Anything of, from, or related to the people of Italy over the centuries
** Italians, an ethnic group or simply a citizen of the Italian Republic or Italian Kingdom
** Italian language, a Romance language
*** Regional Ita ...
, German
German(s) may refer to:
* Germany (of or related to)
** Germania (historical use)
* Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language
** For citizens of Germany, see also German nationality law
**Ge ...
and Spanish.
Translated in Tamil by Dr. P. M. M. Irfan, August 2021
References
External links
Githa Hariharan in Conversation with Radwa Ashour and Ahdaf Souief
''Newsclick'', 6 April 2010
''Al Ahram'', Youssef Rakha, 27 January – 2 February 2000
*
Writing, Teaching, Living: Egyptian Novelist Radwa Ashour
''Arab Literature'', 19 March 2011
Egyptian novelists
Egyptian women writers
1946 births
2014 deaths
Writers from Cairo
Cairo University alumni
University of Massachusetts Amherst alumni
Ain Shams University faculty
20th-century novelists
20th-century women writers
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