Samah Selim is an Egyptian

Egypt

Egypt , officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, Arabic: , is a country mainly in North Africa, with the Sinai Peninsula forming a land bridge in Southwest Asia. Egypt is thus a transcontinental country, and a major power in Africa, the Mediterranean Basin, the Middle East and the Muslim world...

 scholar and translator of Arabic literature

Arabic literature

Arabic literature is the writing produced, both prose and poetry, by writers in the Arabic language. The Arabic word used for literature is adab which is derived from a meaning of etiquette, and implies politeness, culture and enrichment....

. She studied English literature

English literature

English literature is the literature written in the English language, including literature composed in English by writers not necessarily from England; for example, Robert Burns was Scottish, James Joyce was Irish, Joseph Conrad was Polish, Dylan Thomas was Welsh, Edgar Allan Poe was American, J....

 at Barnard College

Barnard College

Barnard College is a private women's liberal arts college and a member of the Seven Sisters. Founded in 1889, Barnard has been affiliated with Columbia University since 1900. The campus stretches along Broadway between 116th and 120th Streets in the Morningside Heights neighborhood in the borough...

, and obtained her PhD from Columbia University

Columbia University

Columbia University in the City of New York is a private, Ivy League university in Manhattan, New York City. Columbia is the oldest institution of higher learning in the state of New York, the fifth oldest in the United States, and one of the country's nine Colonial Colleges founded before the...

 in 1997. At present she is an assistant professor at Rutgers University

Rutgers University

Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey , is the largest institution for higher education in New Jersey, United States. It was originally chartered as Queen's College in 1766. It is the eighth-oldest college in the United States and one of the nine Colonial colleges founded before the American...

. She has also taught at Columbia, Princeton

Princeton University

Princeton University is a private research university located in Princeton, New Jersey, United States. The school is one of the eight universities of the Ivy League, and is one of the nine Colonial Colleges founded before the American Revolution....

 and Aix-en-Provence

University of Provence

The University of Provence Aix-Marseille I is a public university mostly located in Aix-en-Provence and Marseille. It is one of the three Universities of Aix-Marseille and is part of the Academy of Aix and Marseille.-Overview:...

 universities.

Selim is the author of The Novel and the Rural Imaginary in Egypt, 1880-1985 (2004). She won the 2009 Banipal Prize for her translation of Yahya Taher Abdullah

Yahya Taher Abdullah

Yahya Taher Abdullah was an Egyptian writer.Abdullah grew up in Upper Egypt but moved to Cairo in 1964 at the age of 28. One of the first to recognize his talents was the writer and editor Edwar al-Kharrat who arranged a monthly stipend for him. Nonetheless, Abdullah lived a meagre existence...

's The Collar and the Bracelet. She has also translated Neighborhood and Boulevard: Reading through the Modern Arab City by the Lebanese

Lebanon

Lebanon , officially the Republic of LebanonRepublic of Lebanon is the most common term used by Lebanese government agencies. The term Lebanese Republic, a literal translation of the official Arabic and French names that is not used in today's world. Arabic is the most common language spoken among...

 writer Khaled Ziadeh, and Memories of a Meltdown: An Egyptian Between Moscow and Chernobyl by Mohamed Makhzangi

Mohamed Makhzangi

Mohamed Makhzangi is an Egyptian doctor and writer. He was born in the town of Mansourah in the Nile delta. He studied medicine, and specialized in psychology and alternative medicine during a stint in the Soviet Union in the 1980s...

. Future releases include a translation of Miral al-Tahawy

Miral al-Tahawy

Miral al-Tahawy is an award-winning Egyptian novelist and short story writer. She comes from a conservative Bedouin background and is regarded as a pioneering literary figure...

's Brooklyn Heights (end of 2011).

In 2011, Selim won the Arkansas Arabic Translation Award

Arkansas Arabic Translation Award

The Arkansas Arabic Translation Award is a prize given for a notable English translation of a book-length literary work originally written in the Arabic language. The award is administered by the King Fahd Center for Middle East and Islamic Studies at the University of Arkansas...

 for her translation of Jurji Zaydan

Jurji Zaydan

Jurji Zaydan was a prolific Lebanese novelist, journalist, editor and teacher most noted for his creation of the journal al-Hilal, which he used to serialize his 23 historical novels.His primary goal as a writer and intellectual during the Nahda was to imbue the common...

's novel Shajarat al-Durr, based on the life of the Mamluk sultana. She thus became the first person to win both the Banipal Prize and the Arkansas Prize for Arabic literary translation.

Translator

• Yahya Taher Abdullah, The Collar and the Bracelet (2009 Banipal Prize winner)
• Khaled Ziadeh, Neighborhood and Boulevard: Reading through the Modern Arab City
• Mohamed Makhzangi, Memories of a Meltdown: An Egyptian Between Moscow and Chernobyl
• Jurji Zaydan, Shajarat al-Durr
• Miral al-Tahawy, Brooklyn Heights (2011 Arkansas Award winner)