Mansoura Ez-Eldin
Mansoura Ez-Eldin (Arabic: منصورة عزّ الدين) (born 1976) is an Egyptian novelist and journalist. Biography. Mansoura Ez Eldin was born in Delta, Egypt in 1976. She studied journalism at the Faculty of Media, Cairo University, graduating in 1988, and has since published short stories in various newspapers and magazines. She is currently the deputy editor-in-chief of the cultural weekly "Akhbar Al-Adab". Her work has also appeared in international publications such as "The New York Times." She published her first collection of short stories, "Shaken Light," in 2001. This was followed by two more  short story collections and six novels. Her work has been translated into a number of languages, including an English translation of "Maryam's Maze" by the American University in Cairo (AUC) Press, which came out in 2007 and German and Italian translations of her work, too. She won awards at the Cairo International Book Fair in 2014 for "Towards Madness" and from the Sharjah International Book Fair that same year for "Emerald Mountain." Her second novel, "Beyond Paradise", was shortlisted for the Arabic Booker Prize in 2010, making her the youngest writer to ever reach the shortlist and the first  Egyptian woman writer to do so as well. Her 2020 novel "The Orchards of Basra" was later longlisted for the same prize. In 2009, she was selected for the Beirut39 as one of the 39 best Arab authors below the age of 40. She was also a participant in the inaugural Nadwa (writers’ workshop) held by the International Prize for Arabic Fiction in Abu Dhabi.