Alia Mamdouh is an Iraqi novelist and journalist.
A graduate in psychology from al-Mustansiriyah University in 1971, she wrote for the daily Al-Rasid for ten years. In 1973, she published her first collection of short stories, Overture for Laughter. In 1982, she left Iraq and settled in Paris.
Her works, banned in her native country, tackle family and social taboos, and highlight the many forms of sexual, religious and political oppression that mark the lives of Iraqis.
In 2004, she received the Naguib-Mahfouz Prize for her novel Al-Mahboubât (Beloved), translated into English as The Loved Ones and into French in 2022 as Comme un désir qui ne veut pas mourir. His novel Al-Tanki (The Tank), meanwhile, was a finalist for the International Prize for Arab Fiction in 2020.
In May 2022, the Institut du Monde Arabe pays tribute to him for his entire literary career.