Noor Naga
Noor Naga is a Canadian-Egyptian writer, most noted for her 2022 novel If an Egyptian Cannot Speak English.
Life
Naga was born in Philadelphia and spent time living in Charleston, South Carolina, until at age seven, she and her family moved to Dubai. She received a Master of Arts in Creative Writing from the University of Toronto. Naga presently lives in Cairo, Egypt.Awards and honours
Naga received the Canada Graduate Scholarship-Master’s, the Mary Coyne Rowell Jackman Graduate Scholarship, and the Avie Bennett Emerging Writers Scholarship from the University of Toronto.CBC included Naga's Washes, Prays in their "Best Canadian Poetry of 2020" list. If an Egyptian Cannot Speak English received positive media responses, as well. TIME included it on their list of "100 Must-Read Books of 2022,” and BuzzFeed listed it as one of their "Best Books of 2022." Kirkus Reviews gave it a starred review and included it on their "Best Fictional Voices of 2022" list.
| Year | Title | Award | Result | Ref |
| 2015 | Room's Fiction Contest | Shortlist | ||
| 2017 | "The Mistress and the Ping" | RBC [Bronwen Wallace Award for Emerging Writers] | Winner | |
| 2019 | DISQUIET Fiction Prize | Winner | ||
| 2019 | American Girl and Boy from Shobrakheit | Graywolf Press Africa Prize | Winner | |
| 2019 | RBC/PEN Canada New Voices Award | Winner | ||
| 2021 | Washes, Prays | George Ellenbogen Poetry Award | Honorable mention | |
| 2021 | Washes, Prays | Pat Lowther Award | Winner | |
| 2022 | If an Egyptian Cannot Speak English | Center for Fiction [First Novel Prize] | Winner | |
| 2022 | If an Egyptian Cannot Speak English | Giller Prize | Shortlist | |
| 2022 | If an Egyptian Cannot Speak English | PEN/ Jean Stein Book Award | Shortlist |