Mansour El Souwaim
Mansour El Souwaim is a Sudanese writer and journalist. He has published both novels and short stories. He was invited to join the first IPAF Nadwa as well as the Beirut39 young Arab writers project, and has received international recognition through translations of his novels into English and French.
Biography
El Souwaim was born in Nyala in southern Darfur, and lives and works in the Sudanese capital Khartoum. He started writing in 1990 and was first published in 1995. Up to 2021, he has released five novels and two collections of short stories. His first novel was called Tukhoum Ar-Ramad and translated into English in 2012. His second novel, entitled Dhakirat Shirrir '', received the Tayeb Salih Award for Creative Writing, named after the famous Sudanese novelist, in 2005. It was published in French in 2021 and received a positive review in the literary section of Le Monde newspaper.In 2009, El Souwaim was invited by the inaugural IPAF Nadwa. In 2010, he was one of the Beirut39, a group of 39 Arab writers under the age of 40, chosen through a contest organised by Banipal magazine and the Hay Festival. In 2011, El Souwaim received a grant by the Arab Fund for Arts and Culture for his next project, a historical novel entitled The Last Sultan. In 2023, he was awarded his second Tayeb Salih International Award for Creative Writing for his novel Blue Algae''.