Leila Aboulela

Leila Aboulela is the first-ever winner of the Caine Prize for African Writing. She is the author of six novels — Bird Summons; The Kindness of Enemies; The Translator, a New York Times 100 Notable Books of the year; Minaret; Lyrics Alley, Fiction Winner of the Scottish Book Awards; and River Spirit, published by Saqi Books in March 2023. Her short story collection Elsewhere, Home, won the Saltire Fiction Book of the Year. Her work has been translated into 15 languages and she’s been nominated three times for the Orange Prize (now the Women’s Prize for Fiction). Leila was born in Cairo, grew up in Khartoum and moved in her mid-twenties to Scotland where she now lives.