Ruqaya Izzidien

Ruqaya Izzidien is an Iraqi-Welsh novelist and journalist. Born to an Iraqi father and an English mother, she grew up in Llanybydder in Wales and studied modern languages at Durham University. Her journalism has appeared in the New York Times, the Guardian, Al Jazeera English and on the BBC. After living in Gaza, Egypt and Morocco she settled in north-west England. Her first novel, The Watermelon Boys (Hoopoe, 2018), received a Betty Trask Award in 2019.

Timeline of Ruqaya Izzidien’s life

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