Leila Aboulela, FRSL is a novelist, playwright and short-story writer. She is the 2025 winner of the PEN Pinter Prize and the 2000 winner of the Caine Prize for African Writing. Leila is the author of six novels, among them River Spirit, The Translator, a New York Times 100 Notable Books of the year, Minaret, and Lyrics Alley, Fiction Winner of the Scottish Book Awards. Her short story collection Elsewhere, Home, won the Saltire Fiction Book of the Year. Leila’s work has been translated into fifteen languages, and her audio plays were broadcast on BBC Radio. Leila is Honorary Professor of the WORD centre at the University of Aberdeen.