Hamdi Abu Golayyel was born in 1968. He is of Bedouin origin and he moved to Cairo from a settlement like the one he describes in his novel Thieves in Retirement (2006). Read More He is editorial director for the Folk and Popular Culture Studies Series in the Mass/Public Culture Administration, Government of Egypt, and he writes for Jaridat al-Ittihad al-Imaratiyya (Newspaper of the Emirates’ Union). He has published two volumes of short stories, Asrab al-naml (Swarms of Bees, 1997) and Ashya’ matwiyya bi-*Šñanaya fa’iqa (Items Folded with Great Care, 2000); the novels Lusus mutaqa’idun (2002) and A Dog with No Tail (2008), which won the Naguib Mahfouz Medal; and the nonfictional work al-Qahira: Shawari’ wa-hikayat (Cairo: Streets and Stories, 2003). He is the recipient of three literary awards: Ja’izat al-majmu’a al-qisasiyya (Award for a Short Story Collection), Ministry of Culture, Egypt, 1997; Ja’izat al-qissa (Award for Fictional Narrative: Short Story), Akhbar al-yawm, Cairo, 1999; and Ja’izat al-ibda’ al-*Šñarabi (Arabic Creative Writing Award), United Arab Emirates, 2000. He lives in greater Cairo with his wife and two young daughters, Hala and Dunya.