About

Hadil Ghoneim writes in Arabic and English. Her nonfiction essays and columns have appeared in Zone 3, Michigan Quarterly Review, Arab Lit Quarterly, Mada Masr, Shorouk, Al-Ahram and other print and online publications. She contributed to Beyond Memory: An Anthology of Contemporary Arab American Creative Nonfiction (2020) with her essay, “Baba and the Pontiac”, and was mentioned in the 2021 volume of Best American Essays for her essay, “Hairdressing”.

Hadil has written many fiction and nonfiction books for children and young adults. Her book Layali Shahrzizi (The Nights of Shahrzizi) won the International Award for Arabic Children’s Literature for “children’s book of the year” in 2020. Sisters Hana and Shefa was a finalist for best picture book for the same award in 2022 and was translated into Persian in 2024. Those Are Your Lenses, Abla was shortlisted for “best story” in 2020 from the Children’s Books Publishers Forum. Her novella, Sana fi Qena (A Year in Qena) was a finalist in the YA category for the International Award for Arabic Children’s Literature in 2014 and is on the IBBY Honor List. It continues to be read in schools, alongside the biographies she wrote of Naguib Mahfouz and Ahmed Zewail. Hadil also wrote song lyrics for the children’s album Afratta in a musical collaboration produced by Mophradat. Two of Hadil’s books for children were selected for the UN Sustainable Development Goals Book Club and catalogue, and three were selected among 100 Books for Young People in Arabic (2018-2024) by an international committee of experts.

Hadil holds a BSc in Political Science from Cairo University and an MSc in Culture and Society from the London School of Economics. She was the assistant editor at the book review magazine “Weghat Nazar” for several years since its inception. Later, as editor at Dar El Shorouk, she translated and localized many books for children into Arabic, including the famous book series Geronimo Stilton and Dick Bruna’s Miffy.

Hadil lives with her husband and daughter in Ann Arbor, Michigan. and is currently at work on her debut novel for adults, due in 2026.. She enjoys playing tennis in her free time.