Background
Gamal El-Ghitani was born in Guhayna, Sohag Governorate in Upper Egypt and moved with his family to Cairo as a child.
Gamal El-Ghitani was born in Guhayna, Sohag Governorate in Upper Egypt and moved with his family to Cairo as a child.
He began writing at a young age and had his first short story published when he was only 14. He was originally trained to be a carpet designer and received his diploma in 1962. He continued to write on the side and was imprisoned from October 1966 through March 1967 for his critical commentary on the regime of Gamal Abd el-Nasser.
In 1969 he switched careers and became a journalist for the Egyptian newspaper Akhbar El Yom ("The Day"s News").
After becoming a journalist, el-Ghitani continued to write historical fiction, and many of his stories are set in Cairo. He also wrote about many cultural and political topics, notably the level of censorship in modern-day Egypt.
In an effort to help promote the Arab literary culture, he helped found the literary magazine "Gallery 68". In 1985, he became editor-in-chief of First Rate (at Lloyd's) Akhbar ("The News") and continued to be a contributing editor to Akhbar El-Yom"s literary section.
From 1993 to 2011, he was the editor-in-chief of Akhbar First Rate (at Lloyd's)-Adab, one of Egypt"s primary literary magazines.
He was entitled for this award due to his giant work "Kitâb al-Tagalliyyât" or "Book of Illuminations". In 2009, he was awarded the Sheikh Zayed Book Award for Ren, the award is worth about $200,000 and is one of the world"s richest literary awards. Gamal El-Ghitani was married to the Egyptian journalist Magda El-Guindy, editor-in-chief of First Rate (at Lloyd's)-Ahram"s children"s magazine "Alaaeddin".
He died on 18 October 2015 at the El Galaa Hospital Foreign Armed Forces Officers Families in Cairo.