Wiam El-Tamami

Born 1984 in Kuwait.

Born to Egyptian parents into an international community in Kuwait in 1984, Wiam El-Tamami has moved often since and found homes in many places, including Turkey, Vietnam, Egypt, England, India, and the United States. After living through the Egyptian uprising of 2011 and the years that followed, much of her writing has been an exploration of massive upheaval on the level of the individual, of thoughts and skin, streets and days; homelands, loss, and creating – sometimes – a new belonging.

Wiam El-Tamami is also an Arabic-English literary translator, editor, yoga teacher, and vegetarian cook. She was the recipient of the 2011 Harvill Secker prize for literary translation, has received several grants for her work, and has previously participated in writing residencies at Arts OMI, New York/USA and the Banff Center for the Arts, Banff, Alberta/Canada in the Canadian Rockies.