Ahmed Alaidy
(1974, Saudi Arabia) is an up-and-coming Egyptian writer. In 2003 he published his first novel, An Takoun Abbas El Abd (Being Abbas El Abd), which appeared in English in 2006. The book will be published in a Dutch translation and launched at Winternachten (publishing house De Geus). In his novel Alaidy combines street language with classical Arabic. According to Humphrey Davies, the English translator of the book, this results in “a disorienting sense of a breakdown of borders.” The Egyptian weekly Al-Ahram wrote enthusiastically: “The millennial generation’s most celebrated literary achievement.” In addition to being a novelist Alaidy is a cartoonist. He writes politically orientated cartoons for the Egyptian weekly al-Dostour. He is also a scriptwriter for various tv programmes and films and a graphic designer.
Past events
Young + Urban + Writer
Young writers whose books are set in a multi-ethnic surroundings. Main characters with the same radical anti-attitude. With Ahmad al-Aidi, Hassan Bahara, Jonas Hassen Khemiri, Paul van der Gaag (host). In English.
Ghost Writing
Ahmad al-Aidi and Dimitri Verhulst wrote a story responding to existing images of fear of 'the Arab' or ‘the westerner’. Nelleke Noordervliet talks with them. Cartoonist Willem reacts on the stories. In English.
