Youssef Rakha (; born on 12 June 1976 in Cairo, Egypt) is an Egyptian writer. His work explores language and identity in the context of

Cairo Cairo ( ; , ) is the Capital city, capital and largest city of Egypt and the Cairo Governorate, being home to more than 10 million people. It is also part of the List of urban agglomerations in Africa, largest urban agglomeration in Africa, L ...

, and reflects connections with the Arab-Islamic canon and world literature. He has worked in many genres in both Arabic and English, and is known for his essays and poems as well as his novels.

Early life

The only child of a formerly Marxist lawyer, Elsaid Rakha, and an English-to-Arabic translator, Labiba Saad, Rakha was born and grew up in

Dokki Dokki ( , is one of nine districts that make up Giza city, which is part of Greater Cairo, in Egypt. Dokki is situated on the western bank of the Nile, directly across from Downtown Cairo. It is a vital residential and commercial district wi ...

, on the western bank of the Nile, where he lives with his family today. At the age of 19 he left Egypt for the UK, where he obtained a first class honours BA in English and Philosophy from

Hull University The University of Hull is a public research university in Kingston upon Hull, a city in the East Riding of Yorkshire, England. It was founded in 1927 as University College Hull. The main university campus is located in Hull and is home to the Hu ...

in 1998.

Writing

In October 2022,

Graywolf Press Graywolf Press is an independent, non-profit publisher located in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Graywolf Press publishes fiction, non-fiction, and poetry. Graywolf Press collaborates with organizations such as the College of Saint Benedict, the Mel ...

bought Rakha's first novel to be written in English, ''The Dissenters''. Rakha's first novel is ''The'' ''Book of the Sultan's Seal: Strange Incidents from History in the City of Mars.'' First published in 2011 as ''Kitab at-Tugra: Gharaib at-Tarikh fi Madinat al-Marrikh'' (Arabic: كتاب الطغرى: غرائب التاريخ في مدينة المريخ), the book is studied for its innovative use of

Arabic Arabic (, , or , ) is a Central Semitic languages, Central Semitic language of the Afroasiatic languages, Afroasiatic language family spoken primarily in the Arab world. The International Organization for Standardization (ISO) assigns lang ...

, its postmodern take on the theme of the

caliphate A caliphate ( ) is an institution or public office under the leadership of an Islamic steward with Khalifa, the title of caliph (; , ), a person considered a political–religious successor to the Islamic prophet Muhammad and a leader of ...

, its reimagining of the city of

and its possible significance in the history of Arabic literature. It won the Banipal Seif Ghobash Prize for

Paul Starkey Paul Starkey is a British scholar and translator of Arabic literature. Life and career Starkey received his doctorate from Oxford University; the subject of his dissertation was the works of the Egyptian writer Tawfiq Hakim. He is emeritus ...

’s English translation in 2015, and was published in French in 2016. Rakha's Arabic novels also include the Crocodiles Trilogy: ''The Crocodiles'' (2013), ''Paolo'' (2016), which was nominated for the

International Prize for Arabic Fiction The International Prize for Arabic Fiction (IPAF) (), also known as "the Arabic Booker", is regarded as the most prestigious and important literary prize in the Arab world. Its aim is to reward excellence in contemporary Arabic creative writing ...

and won the Sawiris Award, and ''Innaka dhahib ila al bar'' (2024)''.'' Prior to writing ''The Book of the Sultan's Seal'', Rakha contributed to the coverage of Arab culture in English for many years as a reporter, literary critic and cultural editor. He also wrote literary non-fiction and poetry in Arabic, for which he was chosen to participate in the Hay Festival

Beirut39 Beirut39 is a collaborative project between the Hay Festival, Beirut UNESCO's World Book Capital 2009 celebrations, '' Banipal'' magazine and the British Council among others in order to identify 39 of the most promising Arab writers under the age ...

event as one of the 39 best Arab writers under 40. His 2006 photo travelogue ''Beirut Shi Mahal'' (Arabic: بيروت شي محل), later translated into Polish, was nominated for the Lettre Ulysses Award for the Art of Reportage.

Other work

Rakha is also known as a photographer, a journalist, a creative writing coach, and the editor of a bilingual literature and photography site named after his first novel, The Sultan's Seal: Cairo's Coolest Cosmopolitan Hotel, which became an archive in 2023. His photography is featured on ''

Mada Masr ''Mada Masr'' () is an independent Egyptian online newspaper, founded in June 2013 by former journalists of the English-language newspaper '' Egypt Independent'' following the shutting down of its editorial operations in April 2013. It is an inde ...

'' ''Berfrois'', P1xels and ''

Bidoun ''Bidoun'' is a non-profit organization focused on art and culture from the Middle East and its diasporas. Bidoun was founded as a print publication and magazine in 2004 by Lisa Farjam, eventually expanding to online publishing and curatorial p ...

''. His site has helped to introduce significant young writers in Arabic like the Libyan Ali Latife, the Algerian Salah Badis, the Palestinian Carol Sansour and the Egyptian Amgad Al Sabban; it has featured literary and photographic figures including Bezav Mahmod, Hilary Plum,

Niall Griffiths Niall Griffiths (born 1966) is an English author of novels and short stories, set predominantly in Wales. His works include the novels ''Grits'' and ''Sheepshagger'', travel guides to Aberystwyth and Liverpool, and a book of poetry. He has won t ...

and Pauls Toutonghi. The site was discontinued in January 2023, but is archived at sultansseal.wordpress.com.

Books published

*''Azhar ash-shams'' (Arabic: أزهار الشمس; Flowers of the Sun), short stories, Cairo: Dar Sharqiyat, 1999. *''Beirut shi mahal'' (Arabic: بيروت شي محل; Beirut Some Place), photo travelogue, Alexandria: Amkenah Books, 2006. Reviews of ''Beirut shi mahal'' appeared in, among other Arabic newspapers, ''

Al-Ahram ''Al-Ahram'' (; ), founded on 5 August 1876, is the most widely circulating Egyptian daily newspaper, and the second-oldest after '' Al-Waqa'i' al-Misriyya'' (''The Egyptian Events'', founded 1828). It is majority owned by the Egyptian governm ...

'' ''Al-Ittihad'' and ''

Asharq Al-Awsat ''Asharq Al-Awsat'' (, meaning "The Middle East") is an Arabic international newspaper headquartered in London. A pioneer of the "off-shore" model in the Arabic press, the paper is often noted for its distinctive green-tinted pages. Although pu ...

''. The text was extracted in German translation in ''Lettre International 74''. *''Bourguiba ala madad'' (Arabic: بورقيبة على مضض; Bourguiba Reluctantly), part two of Beirut shi mahal (without photos), Beirut: Riyad El-Rayyes, 2008. *''Shamal al qahira gharb al filibbin'' (Arabic: شمال القاهرة غرب الفلبين; North of Cairo, West of the Philippines), travel essays, Beirut: Riyad El-Rayyes, 2009. *''Kull amakinina'' (Arabic: كل أماكننا; All Our Places), poems and essays, Cairo: Dar Al-Ain, 2010. *''The Book of the Sultan's Seal: Strange Incidents from History in the City of Mars'' (Arabic: كتاب الطغرى: غرائب التاريخ في مدينة المريخ), novel, Cairo: Dar Al-Shorouk, 2011. . Beirut: Arab Institute for Research and Publishing, 2018. . USA: Interlink, 2015. . Geneva: Éditions Zoé, 2016. *''The Crocodiles'' (Arabic: التماسيح), novel, Beirut: Dar Al-Saqi, 2012. . New York:

Seven Stories Press Seven Stories Press is an independent American publishing company. Based in New York City, the company was founded by Dan Simon in 1995, after establishing Four Walls Eight Windows in 1984 as an imprint at Writers and Readers, and then incorpor ...

, 2015. *''Paolo'' (Arabic: باولو), novel, Cairo-Beirut-Tunis: Dar Al-Tanwir, 2016. *''Arab Porn'', essay (ebook only), 60Pages (long-form collective), 2016. ASIN B01J4YMPZK. Berlin: Matthes & Seitz, 2017. *''Barra and Zaman: Reading Egyptian Modernity in Shadi Abdel Salam’s The Mummy'', essay, London: Palgrave Pivot (Studies in Arab Cinema), 2020. *''Walakinna Qalbi: Mutanabbi al Alfiya al Thalitha'' (Arabic: ولكن قلبي: متنبي الألفية الثالثة; And Yet My Heart: Third Millennium Mutanabbi), 20 poems and a personal essay, with illustrations by Walid Taher (on a grant from the Arab Fund for Arts and Culture), Cairo-Beirut-Tunis: Dar Al-Tanwir, 2021. *''Walakinna Qalbi: Ma ba'd al Mutanabbi'' (Arabic: ولكن قلبي: ما بعد المتنبي; And Yet My Heart: Post Mutanabbi), essays and poems, with illustrations by Walid Taher, Dammam: Dar Athar, 2022. *''Emissaries and Other Short Stories'', London: Barakunan, 2023. *''Innaka dhahib ila al bar'' (Arabic: إنك ذاهب إلى البار; You Are Going to the Bar), novella, Milano: Almutawassit, 2024. *''The Dissenters'', novel, Minneapolis: Graywolf Press, 2025. ; London: Peninsula Press, 2025.

References

External links

{{DEFAULTSORT:Rakha, Youssef 1976 births Egyptian writers Living people Alumni of the University of Hull