Mohamed el-Bisatie

was born and brought up in the Nile Delta and lives in Cairo. Since 1968 he has published six volumes of short stories and a number of novels, many published in English translation, as described below.

A collection of his short stories translated by Denys Johnson-Davies was published in the mid-1990s – A Last Glass of Tea and Other Stories, and in 2003 AUC Press published Johnson-Davies's translation of his novel Houses Behind the Trees.

Banipal No 7 published an extract from the manuscript translation by Hala Halim of Clamor of the Lake, with the whole book published by AUC Press in 2004. This novel,translated by Hala Halim, was runner-up in the inaugural Banipal Prize for Arabic Literary Translation, awarded in 2006. Click here for more details.

In 2006 his novel Over the Bridge, translated by Denys Johnson-Davies was published by AUC Press, and in 2008, his latest, Hunger.

The Arabic orginal of Hunger has been short-listed for the International Prize for Arabic Fiction 2008-09.

Mohamed el-Bisatie was awarded the prestigious Oweis Prize in 2001.