Alia Mamdouh, also spelled Aliyah Mamduh (Arabic: عالية ممدوح, romanized: ʻĀliyah Mamdūḥ; born 1944) is an Iraqi novelist, author, and journalist living in exile in Paris, France.
She won the 2004 Naguib Mahfouz Medal for Literature for her novel The Loved Ones.
[1][2] She is most known for her widely acclaimed and translated book Naphtalene, originally written in Arabic.
After completing her degree in psychology from the University of Mustansiriya in 1971, while at the same time working as editor-in-chief of Al Rasid magazine and editor of al-Fikr al-mua’sir magazine, Mamdouh decided to move in 1982.
"[5] Her first novel, Naphtalene, published soon after she left Iraq, tells the story of a young girl growing up in Baghdad in the 1940s and 1950s.