Kamel Daoud, born in 1970 in Mostaganem, Algeria, is a French-speaking Franco-Algerian writer and journalist who recently moved to Paris. He began his career as a journalist at the Quotidien d'Oran in Algeria, where he was editor-in-chief during the Algerian civil war, and made a name for himself with his incisive columns on Algerian and international society. His first novel, Meursault, contre-enquête (2014), which revisits Camus's L'Étranger from the point of view of the ‘Arab’, won the Goncourt prize for first novel in 2015 and has been translated into over forty languages. He won the Prix Méditerranée in 1998 for his novel Zabor ou les psaumes, and the Prix Cino Del Duca for his entire body of work in 2019. He published an essay on Pablo Picasso in the collection ‘Ma nuit dans le musée’, entitled ‘Le peintre dévorant la femme’. In 2024, he won the Prix Goncourt for his novel Houris. Kamel Daoud is also known for his committed stance on freedom of expression and secularism in Le Point, and was the first writer in residence at Sciences Po Paris, where he continues to teach.

Languages spoken: French, English, Arab

Photo credit: Francesca Mantovani/Gallimard