Saud Alsanousi is a Kuwaiti novelist who won the 2013 International Prize for Arabic Fiction for his novel The Bamboo Stalk, which features a half-Kuwaiti, half-Filipino protagonist and raises questions about cultural and religious identity.The Bamboo Stalk also won the State of Kuwait Award for Literature, and was described by the Arab Times as ‘a force to be reckoned with’. The original Arabic version of the book and its translation in English continue to fly off the shelves around the Gulf region.
His first novel, Prisoner of Mirrors, won the 2010 Laila al-Othman Prize, awarded for novels and short stories by young writers. His story The Bonsai and the Old Man won first place on the ‘Stories on the Air’ competition, organised by Al-Arabi Magazine and BBC Arabic.
Alsanousi’s most recent novel is Mama Hissa’s Mice. Set in 2020, it follows a young Kuwaiti man in the midst of a sectarian war.
His work has appeared in a number of Kuwaiti publications, including Al-Watan newspaper and Al-Arabi, Al-Kuwait and Al-Abwab magazines and he currently writes for Al Qabas newspaper, Kuwait.
