ShareKuwaiti women have always been pioneers across many fields. Their bravery and passion to make a difference has helped make Kuwait what it is today and their courageous efforts have enabled them to obtain leadership roles regionally and internationally.
Over the years, Kuwaiti women have established themselves as a force to be reckoned with in the literary world, with many achieving outstanding successes. Although some have had their work translated into English, few are Anglophone writers. On International Women’s Day, we present to you four of these women (in no particular order), who are paving the way for the next generation of Kuwaiti female writers publishing in English.
Shahd Alshammari
Shahd Alshammari is a Kuwaiti-Palestinian author and academic. She teaches literature at the Gulf University for Science and Technology (GUST) in Kuwait and is the author of four books and numerous short stories and creative non-fiction pieces. In her acclaimed book, “Head Above Water” Alshammari takes the reader on a thoughtful journey as she reflects on being diagnosed with multiple sclerosis (MS) in Kuwait at the age of 18 and how that has shaped her life.
“What makes Head Above Water a must-read is not only the fact that it engages with MS in a broader sense, but that it teaches you that while you may have to grapple with your own disabilities and illnesses, you are often still able to do the things you intend to do,” Tugrul Mende writes in a review of her book for The Markaz Review.
Throughout, Alshammari explores themes of exile and ableism through family members’ stories and those of her own. “Head Above Water” was shortlisted for The Barbellion Prize for Literature, a British literary award dedicated to the furtherance of ill and disabled voices in writing.
Chelsea Abdullah
Chelsea Abdullah is an American-Kuwaiti writer born and raised in Kuwait. Abdullah earned her MA in English in the United States, where she currently lives. She is the author of “The Stardust Thief”, the first installment of an epic fantasy series Abdullah is penning called “The Sandsea Trilogy”.
Inspired by “One Thousand and One Nights”, the book weaves together the gripping tale of a legendary smuggler, a cowardly prince and a dangerous quest across the desert to find a legendary, magical lamp. Although the book’s world features plural deities, its culture is rich as a retelling of the Middle Eastern folktales which Abdullah says she was surrounded by during her childhood. In an interview with Publishers Weekly, she describes the book as an ode to the power of oral storytelling, which she’s come to value through her father’s vivid stories about life on Failaka Island before it was depopulated.
Layla AlAmmar
Layla AlAmmar is a Kuwaiti writer and academic. She has a PhD in Arab women’s fiction and literary trauma theory and an MSc in Creative Writing. Her debut novel, “The Pact We Made”, was longlisted for the Authors’ Club Best First Novel Award. “The Pact We Made” follows the story of Dahlia, a young woman who straddles two cultures, being born to an American mother and a Kuwaiti father. Dahlia’s worlds collide as she struggles to contend between her own aspirations and her family’s traditional expectations of marriage before the age of thirty.
Ammar is praised in several reviews for her understanding of trauma, which influences her second novel “Silence is a Sense”, an insightful novel about a Syrian refugee who has been so traumatized by conflict and her perilous journey across Europe that she no longer speaks. It was shortlisted for the William Saroyan International Prize for Writing.
Mai Al-Nakib
Mai Al-Nakib was born in Kuwait and spent the first six years of her life in London, Edinburgh and St Louis, Missouri. Her award-winning short story collection, “The Hidden Light of Objects”, was published in 2014 to great praise. It won the Edinburgh International Book Festival’s 2014 First Book Award, the first collection of short stories to do so. Nakib tells Bazaar magazine that the 10 short stories were inspired by feelings of dislocation and unfamiliarity upon her return to Kuwait in a post-invasion and, more precisely, a post-9/11 era. The stories take the readers to Kuwait, Lebanon, Greece, Japan and beyond, and tackles a wide range of issues that have affected Arab life over the last 60 years.
Nakib holds a PhD in English literature and teaches English and comparative literature at Kuwait University. Her academic research focuses on cultural politics in the Middle East, with a special emphasis on gender, cosmopolitanism, and postcolonial issues. Her debut novel, “An Unlasting Home”, was published in April 2022.
