Ahmed Naji

This reading features author and current City of Asylum Fellow at the Black Mountain Institute, Ahmed Naji.

Ahmed Naji is a writer from Egypt currently living in Las Vegas. In 2016, Ahmed was sentenced to two years for publishing his novel Using Life. His imprisonment marks the first time in modern Egypt that an author has been jailed for a work of literature. Among his works are more than six books, most of which have been translated into different languages. Ahmed has won several prizes and grants throughout his career, including the PEN/Barbey Freedom To Write Award, The Open Eye Award, and AFAC grants. His novel Using Life was also shortlisted for the Neukom Institute Literary Arts Awards. His recent English book, Rotten Evidence: Reading and Writing in Prison, will be published by McSweeney’s in September 2023.