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Abdelrahman ElGendy
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Abdelrahman ElGendy is a former Egyptian political prisoner and writer, who spent more than six years behind bars in Egypt, from 6 October 2013 until his release on 13 January 2020. He was arrested at 17, and left prison at 24. While in prison, he earned a mechanical engineering degree from Ain Shams University. He was born on 12 December 1995. Since his release, he turned to studying creative nonfiction and continued to officially write bilingually in English for Mada Masr, and later started writing for several notable platforms in the Arab world, such as Raseef22 and Daraj Media, and more recently on Newlines Magazine, and The Tahrir Institute for Middle East Policy. As a writer, his vision is to oppose prevalent single-stories of oppressors, and embrace counter-narratives as a form of resistance. He is currently the content writer and editor of the Leading Change Network, and pursues his MFA in Creative Writing, nonfiction genre, at the University of Pittsburgh. Prison Coming from an a-political background and family, ElGendy's first contact with politics was like many of his generation, in the 25 January 2011 revolution. All the adults ended up being sentenced to fifteen years of prison in a maximum security prison, and their appeals rejected less than two years later. Thus, he did not return to prison. Study ElGendy was fresh out of high school at the time he was arrested. 6 October 2013 was the eve of his first day as a freshman at the German University in Cairo, on a scholarship to study Mechatronics engineering. On his first year in prison, the German university in Cairo expelled him. After his release, he shifted his career to teaching English as a second language and writing. In 2021, he obtained a CELTA certificate in teaching English as a second language from Cambridge Assessment English with a Pass A grade. In December 2021, ElGendy was awarded a certificate of completion for the Program with professor Marshall Ganz, from Harvard Kennedy School at Harvard University, Executive Education.<ref name=":1" /> He's currently pursuing his MFA in Creative Writing, nonfiction track, at the University of Pittsburgh. Works Anatomy of an Incarceration, Mada Masr, 2021: a six-part series of essays documenting the political prison experience in a creative-prose first-person narrative. Smuggled prison writings, Mada Masr, 2020 Opinion articles, Raseef22, 2021 Opinion articles, Daraj Media, 2021 First person narratives, Newlines Magazine, 2021 Political analyses, The Tahrir Institute for Middle East Policy, 2022 First person narratives, AlManassa, 2022 Writing Residencies and Awards Lesser Amman Library residency, MMAG Foundation, May 2020 Logan Nonfiction Fellow, June 2021 A finalist for Margolis Award for Social Justice Journalism, December 2021 Interviews Cairo in Exile Podcast, with Marlyn Tadros Bi H'obb podcast, Kerning Cultures Media, with Heba Afifi Refugee Radio Podcast, with Stephen Silverwood EL PAÍS newspaper interview, with Marc Español Podcast 11 interview, with Solafa Magdy Official Social Media Accounts See Also
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