Youssef Rakha
Egyptian writer From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Egyptian writer From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Youssef Rakha (Arabic: يوسف رخا; born on 12 June 1976 in Cairo, Egypt) is an Egyptian writer. His work explores language and identity in the context of Cairo, 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.
Youssef Rakha | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Native name | يوسف رخا |
| Born | June 12, 1976 Cairo, Egypt |
| Language | English, Arabic |
| Alma mater | University of Hull (BA) |
| Subject | Cairo; Islam; the Arab Spring |
| Years active | 1999–present |
| Notable works | The Book of the Sultan's Seal |
| Spouse | Heba El Nahhas (m. 2011) |
| Website | |
| therakha.net | |
 Literature portal | |
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, 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 in 1998.
In October 2022, Graywolf Press bought Rakha's first novel to be written in English, The Dissenters.[1]
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, its postmodern take on the theme of the caliphate, its reimagining of the city of Cairo and its possible significance in the history of Arabic literature. It won the Banipal Seif Ghobash Prize for Paul Starkey’s English translation in 2015,[2] and was published in French in 2016.[3]
Rakha's Arabic novels also include the Crocodiles Trilogy: The Crocodiles (2013), Paolo (2016), which was nominated for the International Prize for Arabic Fiction[4] 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 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,[5] was nominated for the Lettre Ulysses Award for the Art of Reportage.[6]
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.[7] His photography is featured on Mada Masr[8] Berfrois,[9] P1xels[10] and Bidoun.[11] 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 and Pauls Toutonghi. The site was discontinued in January 2023, but is archived at sultansseal.wordpress.com.[12][13]
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