Leila Aboulela is a Sudanese writer who lives in Great Britain and writes in English. Her most recent books are the novelBird Summons and the short-story collection Elsewhere, Home which was the winner of the 2018 Saltire Fiction Book of the Year Award. Her novel The Kindness of Enemies, was inspired by the life of Imam Shamil, who united the tribes of the Caucasus to fight against Russian Imperial expansion. Aboulela's 2011 novel, Lyrics Alley, was Fiction Winner of the Scottish Book Awards and short-listed for a Regional Commonwealth Writers Prize. She is also the author of the novels The Translator and Minaret. All three novels were long-listed for the Orange Prize and the IMPAC Dublin Award. Leila Aboulela won the Caine Prize for African Writing for her short story "The Museum", included in the collection Coloured Lights, which went on to be short-listed for the Macmillan/Silver PEN award. Aboulela’s work has been translated into 15 languages and included in publications such as Harper's Magazine, Granta, The Washington Post and The Guardian. BBC Radio has adapted her work extensively and broadcast a number of her plays, including The Insider, The Mystic Life and the historical dramaThe Lion of Chechnya. The five-part radio serialization of her 1999 novel The Translator was short-listed for the RIMA. Aboulela grew up in Khartoum and now lives in Aberdeen.
Personal life
Born in 1964 in Cairo, Egypt, to an Egyptian mother and a Sudanese father, Aboulela moved at the age of six weeks to Khartoum, Sudan, where she lived continuously until 1987. As a child she attended the Khartoum American School and the Sisters' School, a private Catholic high school, where she learned English. She later attended the University of Khartoum, graduating in 1985 with a degree in Economics. Aboulela was awarded an M.Sc. and an MPhil degree in Statistics from the London School of Economics. In 1990 Aboulela moved to Aberdeen with her husband and children, a move she cites as the inspiration for her first novel, The Translator. Aboulela began writing in 1992 while working as a lecturer in Aberdeen College and later as a research assistant in Aberdeen University. Between 2000 and 2012, Aboulela lived in Jakarta, Dubai, Abu Dhabi, and Doha. In 2012, she returned to live in Aberdeen. Aboulela is a devout Muslim, and her faith informs much of her written work.
Literary career
She was awarded the Caine Prize for African Writing in 2000 for her short story "The Museum", included in her collection of short storiesColoured Lights. Her novel The Translator was nominated for the Orange Prize and was chosen as a "Notable Book of the Year" by The New York Times in 2006. Her second novel, Minaret, was nominated for the Orange Prize and the IMPAC Dublin Award. Her third novel, Lyrics Alley, is set in the Sudan of the 1950s and was long-listed for the Orange Prize 2011. Lyrics Alley was the Fiction Winner of the Scottish Book Awards and was shortlisted for the Commonwealth Writers Prize -Europe and S.E Asia. Aboulela cites Arab authors Tayeb Salih and Naguib Mahfouz, as well as Ahdaf Soueif, Jean Rhys, Anita Desai, and Doris Lessing, as her literary influences. She also acknowledges the influence of Scottish writers such as Alan Spence and Robin Jenkins. Among her works, her second novel Minaret has drawn the most critical attention. Minaret signaled Aboulela's arrival as an influential member of a new wave of British Muslim writers. Her collection of short stories Elsewhere, Home won the Saltire Fiction Book of the Year Award in 2018. Her work has been translated into 15 languages. She is a contributor to the 2019 anthology New Daughters of Africa, edited by Margaret Busby.
Prizes and awards
2000: Caine Prize for African Writing, for "The Museum"
