Somaya Ramadan
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Somaya Yehia Ramadan | |
|---|---|
سمية رمضان | |
| Born | 1951 |
| Died | (aged 73) |
| Alma mater | Cairo University, Trinity College, Dublin |
| Notable work | Leaves of Narcissus |
| Awards | Naguib Mahfouz Medal for Literature |
Somaya Yehia Ramadan (Arabic: سمية رمضان, romanized: Sumayyah Ramaḍān; 1951 - 20 August 2024) was an Egyptian academic, translator and writer. She is mainly known for her 2001 novel Awraq Al-Nargis, published in English as Leaves of Narcissus that won the Naguib Mahfouz Medal for Literature and for her Arabic translation of Virginia Woolf's A Room of One's Own.
Ramadan was born in Cairo in 1951 and studied English literature at Cairo University. Subsequently, she obtained a PhD in English from Trinity College, Dublin, in 1983.[1]
Ramadan's first two books were short story collections: Khashab wa Nahass (Wood and Brass) and Manazil al-Qamar (Phases of the Moon). Her first novel Awraq Al-Nargis (Leaves of Narcissus) published in 2001, set largely in Ireland and centred around the notion of exile, won the Naguib Mahfouz Medal for Literature.[2] It was translated into English by Marilyn Booth and published in 2006 by AUC Press.[3] The same year, a French translation was published as Feuilles de Narcisse.[4] Commenting on her literary technique and narrative style, the jury for this prestigious Egyptian literary prize wrote:[5]
The novel is supremely complex, with modernist techniques pushed to the utmost, and thus maintaining all along a superb and vibrant creative tension. … Marked by a hallucinating and captivating narration, this is liminal writing par excellence: writing while gazing at the abyss of being.
Ramadan also worked extensively as a translator. Among her translations is Virginia Woolf's A Room of One's Own. Further, she was a founding member of the Women and Memory Forum, a non-profit organisation, and taught English and Translation at the National Academy of Arts in Cairo.[5]
Ramadan was an Egyptian Baha'i and author of a non-fiction book, where she tried to clarify common misunderstandings about this faith.[6] She died on 19 August 2024, at the age of 73.[7]
