Gretchen McCullough

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Gretchen McCullough is currently on the faculty at the American University in Cairo. Her bilingual book of short stories in English and Arabic, Three Stories from Cairo, translated with Mohamed Metwalli was published in July 2011 by AFAQ Publishing House, Cairo. A collection of short stories about expatriate life in Cairo, Shahrazad’s Tooth, appeared soon after in 2013. Her co-translation of Mohamed Metwalli's volume of poetry, A Song by the Aegean Sea was published by Laertes Press, 2022. McCullough's novel, Confessions of a Knight Errant, a comedy featuring Cairo and Texas, was published by Cune Press the same year. Articles, essays and reviews from numerous journals are posted on her website: gretchenmcculloughfictionwriter.com.

Hamdi Abu Golayyel: A Gifted Storyteller with an Eye on Rogues and Tall Tales

August 24, 2023 Gretchen McCullough
Hamdi Abu Golayyel (b. 1967) was a gifted storyteller who fused Egyptian oral storytelling, myth, and folklore to tell the tales of marginalized and working-class communities in Egypt. He died on June…
Egyptian Movie Stars: Our Friends for Dinner

June 10, 2020 Gretchen McCullough
Historical markers for Ismail Yassine. They are both off of 26th of July Street. Photo courtesy of the author Suffering news fatigue, a writer-translator walks Cairo’s streets searching for the h…
Sheltering Words: Collaboratively Translating Montasser Al-Qaffash

November 2017
Gretchen McCullough, Mohamed Metwalli
One of the reasons I love living in Cairo is the fact that everyone spins yarns: the porter, the maid, the taxi driver. No one has the corner on stories—many of these stories rely on rumor, humor, an…