Wajdi al-Ahdal was born near Bajil in the province of Al Hudaydah and studied at the University of Sanaa. His first short stories were published in 1995 in a Yemeni newspaper, and later in Aswat magazine, which was edited by Yemeni poet Abdul Aziz al-Maqaleh.[2]
In 2002, al-Ahdal's novel Qawarib Jabaliya (Mountain Boats) was confiscated by the Yemeni Ministry of Culture for insulting ‘morality, religion, and conventions of Yemeni society’.[3] To avoid imprisonment, he spent some time in exile in Syria before being able to return to Yemen.[4]
A more recent novel, The Quarantine Philosopher was nominated for the International Prize for Arabic Fiction (IPAF) in 2008. In 2010, al-Ahdal was selected as one of the invited writers for Beirut39, a group of 39 Arab writers under the age of 40, chosen through a contest organised by Banipal magazine and the Hay Festival. He was also chosen by IPAF to be one of the seven participants in its writers' workshop Nadwa in 2010.[5]
al-Ahdal's work has appeared in English translation in a number of anthologies:
- Oranges in the Sun: Contemporary Short Stories from the Arabian Gulf (2006)
- Beirut 39: New Writing from the Arab World (2010)
- Emerging Arab Voices: Nadwa 1: A Bilingual Reader (2011)
- Banipal 36: Literature in Yemen Today
- Banipal 65: Contains a chapter from his novel Land of Happy Conspiracies[6]
His novel A Land without Jasmine was translated into English by William M. Hutchins.[7] This translation won the 2013 Banipal Prize for Arabic Literary Translation. According to the Banipal Trust, "Wajdi’s book is in a category all its own, fusing together elements of police procedural, myth, fable, psychological thriller and scathing social critique."[8]
He currently works in the cinema and drama department of the Yemeni Ministry of Culture.