Wadida Wassef

Wadida Wassef (Arabic: وديدة واصف; born 1926) is an Egyptian writer and translator.

Biography

Wadida Wassef was born in 1926 in Alexandria, Egypt.[1][2][3] Her family was upper-class and Coptic, though she also studied the Quran to learn about her nation's majority religion, at her father's encouragement.[1][4] She grew up speaking Arabic, French, and Italian at home, as well as English at school, and she studied both English and Arabic literature.[1][2][3] Her family then sent her to study at the American Mission College for Girls in Cairo.[1][2]

After graduation, she worked at her alma mater's Faculty of Arts Department of English, then taught European history as well as English language and literature at El Nasr Girls' College.[1][2]

When marriage cut short her career as an educator, Wassef began picking up work as a translator.[1][3] For the American Research Center in Egypt, she worked on collections of Egyptian short fiction, drama, and philosophy.[1][3] In 1978, she translated into English the Yusuf Idris short story collection The Cheapest Nights, which has been published on multiple occasions, including as part of the Heinemann African Writers Series and Penguin Classics.[1][5][6][7]

In the 1970s, she began writing her own work while feeling isolated in the small city of Shibin El Kom, where she had relocated for her husband's career.[1][2] She published her short stories and autobiographical essays, often originally written in English, in magazines and anthologies, such as 2004's Opening the Gates: An Anthology of Arab Feminist Writing and 2009's Women Writing Africa: The Northern Region.[3][4][8]

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f g h i "The Pioneers: Wadida Wassef". Arab Women Writers. Archived from the original on 2015-02-12.
  2. ^ a b c d e Idris, Yusuf (2020-06-09). The Cheapest Nights. Penguin. ISBN 978-0-525-50576-1.
  3. ^ a b c d e "Wadida Wassef". Arab Women's Writing. 2023-12-08. Retrieved 2025-03-10.
  4. ^ a b Sadiqi, Fatima (2009). Women Writing Africa: The Northern Region. Feminist Press at The City University of New York. ISBN 978-1-55861-589-2.
  5. ^ Alcalay, Ammiel (2021), "Bibliography for Ammiel Alcalay, After Jews & Arabs: Remaking Levantine Culture (Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1993)", A Bibliography for After Jews and Arabs, Punctum Books, pp. 67–120, retrieved 2025-03-10
  6. ^ Harlow, Barbara (1980). Davies, Denys Johnson; Kanafani, Ghassan; Kilpatrick, Hilary; Salih, Tayeb; Ibrahim, Sonallah; Idris, Yusuf; Wassef, Wadida (eds.). "Short Stories in Heinemann's Arab Authors Series". Arab Studies Quarterly. 2 (1): 101–110. ISSN 0271-3519.
  7. ^ "Friday Finds: Excerpts from a New 'Penguin Classic' Edition of Youssef Idris's 'Cheapest Nights'". Arablit. 2020-06-12. Retrieved 2025-03-10.
  8. ^ Badran, Margot; Cooke, Miriam (2004-09-21). Opening the Gates, Second Edition: An Anthology of Arab Feminist Writing. Indiana University Press. ISBN 978-0-253-21703-5.
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