Gamal Al Ghitani is an acclaimed Egyptian journalist and author of fiction. Born in Upper Egypt and brought up in Cairo, he wrote his first story in 1959, at the age of 14. In 1963 “Visit”, one of his short stories, was published, launching a lifelong pattern of moving between fiction and political commentary. In 1969, Gamal started his journalistic career proper from the news desk of Egyptian Newspaper Akhbar el Yawm; currently, he is the Editor-In-Chief of Akhbar Al Adab, a cultural magazine published in Cairo.

A close friend of the late Naguib Mahfouz, Gamal is a major Arabic and international literary figure in his own right. He was awarded the Egyptian National Prize for Literature in  1980, and the French Chevalier de l'Ordre des Arts et des Lettres in 1987. The English translation of his seminal historical novel Zayni Barakat was the first Arabic novel to be published by Penguin, while the French translation of Kitâb al-Tagalliyyât won him the Laure Bataillon in 2005.

In February 2009, Gamal Al Ghitani was awarded the Sheikh Zayed Book Award for Literature for his book Dafater Al Tadween: Ren.

Bibliography

Arabic

• Awraq Shab ‘Asha mundhu Alf ‘Am  (1969)
• Ard .. Ard (1972)
• Zayni Barakat (1974)
• Al-Hisar min Thalath Gihat (1975)
• Hikayat el-Gharib (1976)
• Waqi'i' Harat al-Za'farani (1976)
• al-Rifai (1977)
• Dhikr ma Jara (1978)
• Khitat al-Ghitani (1980)
• Ketab Al Tagaliyat (3 volumes, 1983-1986)
• Muntasaf Layl al-Ghurba (1984)
• Ahrash al-Madina (1985)
• Ithaf aI-Zaman bi-Hikayat Jalbi al-Sultan (1985)
• Risala min al-Sababa wal Wagd (1988)
• Shath al-Madina (1990)
• Risilat al-Basi'ir fi al-Masi'ir (1989)
• Thimar al Waqt (1990)
• Asfar al-Asfar (1992)
• Asfar al-Mushtaq (1992)
• Ha-tif al-Maghib (1992)
• Min Daftar al-'Ishq wal-Ghurba (1993)
• Naftha Masdur (1993)
• Mutun Al- Ahram (1994)
• Shatf al-Nar (1996)
• Hikayat Al Mo'asasa (1997)
• Al Zowail (2006)

English

• The Mahfouz Dialogs
• Pyramid Texts: A Modern Arabic Novel
• The Zafarani Files
• Zayni Barakat