Reem Bassiouney

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Reem Bassiouney is an Egyptian writer, professor, and language expert who has become well known for both her novels and her scholarly work on Arabic sociolinguistics. Born in 1973 in Alexandria, she has held important teaching and leadership roles at universities in the United States and Egypt and now serves as the chair of the Department of Applied Linguistics at The American University in Cairo (AUC).

Education and career
- Born in Alexandria, Egypt, and educated at El Nasr Girls’ College and Alexandria University (English literature).
- Studied linguistics at the University of Oxford, joining Somerville College, and earned her PhD in 2002.
- Worked in the UK and the United States, including positions at the University of Utah and Georgetown University.
- Returned to Egypt in 2013 to join The American University in Cairo as a professor and leader in linguistics.
- She is the editor of Routledge’s Language and Identity book series and the editor of the journal Arabic Sociolinguistics Edinburgh.

Selected works

Fiction
- The Smell of the Sea (2005)
- The Pistachio Seller (2007); English translation published in 2009; won translation awards
- Dr. Hanaa (2008); won the Sawiris Foundation Literary Prize for Young Writers (2009)
- Love, Arab Style (2009)
- Mortal Designs (2010)
- The Tour Guide (2010)
- The Mamluk Trilogy, including Sons of the People (early 2010s); popular and award-winning
- Fountain of the Drowning (2020); English translation
- Ibn Tulun Trilogy (2021)
- Al Halwani: The Fatimid Trilogy (2022), which won the Sheikh Zayed Book Award (2024)
- Mario and Abu Al-Abbas (2023)
- The Diver: Abu Hamid al-Ghazzali (2024)

Academic books
- Functions of Code-Switching in Egypt (2006)
- Arabic Sociolinguistics (2009)
- Arabic and the Media: Linguistic Analyses and Applications (2010)
- Arabic Language and Linguistics (2012)
- Language and Identity in Modern Egypt (2014)
- The Pursuit of Happiness (2023)

Awards and honors
- Sawiris Cultural Award for Young Writers (2009) for Dr. Hanaa
- Translation awards for The Pistachio Seller (2009)
- National Prize for Excellence in Literature (2022)
- Sheikh Zayed Book Award (2024) for Al Halwani: The Fatimid Trilogy
- Naguib Mahfouz Award for Best Egyptian Novel (2020) for Sons of the People
- First Egyptian woman to earn both an MA (1998) and a PhD (2002) in linguistics from Oxford University
- Editor and founder of significant journals and book series in Arabic sociolinguistics

Reem Bassiouney is recognized for shaping both Arabic literary fiction and academic study of language, making her a prominent figure in Egypt’s cultural and academic scenes.