Biography
Sawad Hussain is an Arabic translator and litterateur with a passion for bringing narratives from Africa to a wider audience. She has lectured at the IAIS at the University of Exeter, and taught Arabic (KS3 & KS4) in Johannesburg and Dubai. Her work has been recognised by English PEN, the Anglo-Omani Society and the Saif Ghobash Banipal Prize for Arabic Literary Translation, among others. She is a judge for the Palestine Book Awards and the 2023 National Translation Award. She has run translation workshops under the auspices of Shadow Heroes, Africa Writes, Shubbak Festival, the Yiddish Book Center, the British Library, and the National Centre for Writing. Her most recent translations include Black Foam by Haji Jaber (AmazonCrossing) and What Have You Left Behind by Bushra al-Maqtari (Fitzcarraldo Editions). She was selected to be the Princeton Translator in Residence in 2025.
Books
