Egyptian writer (1951–2024)
Somaya Yehia Ramadan (1951 - 20 August 2024) was an Egyptian academic, translator and writer. She is mainly known for her 2001 novel Awraq Al-Nargis, published in English as Leaves of Narcissus that won the Naguib Mahfouz Medal for Literature and for her Arabic translation of Virginia Woolf's A Room of One's Own.
Biography
Ramadan was born in Cairo in 1951 and studied English literature at Cairo University. Subsequently, she obtained a PhD in English from Trinity College, Dublin, in 1983.[1]
Ramadan's first two books were short story collections: Khashab wa Nahass (Wood and Brass) and Manazil al-Qamar (Phases of the Moon). Her first novel Awraq Al-Nargis (Leaves of Narcissus) published in 2001, set largely in Ireland and centred aroung the notion of exile, won the Naguib Mahfouz Medal for Literature.[2] It was translated into English by Marilyn Booth and published in 2006 by AUC Press.[3] The same year, a French translation was published as Feuilles de Narcisse.[4] Commenting on her literary technique and narrative style, the jury for this prestigious Egyptian literary prize wrote:[5]
The novel is supremely complex, with modernist techniques pushed to the utmost, and thus maintaining all along a superb and vibrant creative tension. … Marked by a hallucinating and captivating narration, this is liminal writing par excellence: writing while gazing at the abyss of being.
Ramadan also worked extensively as a translator. Among her translations is Virginia Woolf's A Room of One's Own. Further, she was a founding member of the Women and Memory Forum, a non-profit organisation, and taught English and Translation at the National Academy of Arts in Cairo.[5]
Ramadan was an Egyptian Baha'i and author of a non-fiction book, where she tried to clarify common misunderstandings about this faith.[6] She died on 19 August 2024, at the age of 73.[7]
Works
Ramadan's works include:
- Khashab wa-nuḥās (Wood and Brass), short stories,1995
- Manāzil al-Qamar (Phases of the Moon), short stories, 1999
- Awraq al-Nargis, novel, 2001 Leaves of Narcissus, translated by Marilyn Booth, Cairo: AUC Press, ISBN 9789774160585.
- Ṭarīq al-mustaqbal: ruʼyah Bahāʼīyah' (Path of the Future: Baha'i Faith), non-fiction work
Literature
References
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