Noor Naga
EgyptAbout
Noor Naga is an Egyptian-Canadian writer and poet whose work explores identity, displacement, belonging, and the complicated relationships between culture and power. Born in Philadelphia, she spent her early childhood in the United States before moving to Dubai with her family at the age of seven. She later studied in Toronto, earning an MA in Creative Writing from the University of Toronto, and went on to build a literary career spanning poetry and fiction. Her verse novel Washes, Prays (2020) won the Pat Lowther Memorial Award and an Arab American Book Award. Her debut novel, If an Egyptian Cannot Speak English (2022), received the Graywolf Press Africa Prize and the Center for Fiction First Novel Prize, and won the 2023 Arab American Book Award for Fiction. Naga’s writing challenges conventional narrative forms while examining migration, cultural identity, and the unequal power dynamics that shape human relationships. She has taught at the American University in Cairo and is associated with both Egyptian and Canadian literary communities.
