Omar El Akkad

Omar El Akkad is an Egyptian-Canadian-American novelist and journalist born in Cairo, Egypt, who grew up in Doha, Qatar, moved to Canada as a teenager, and now lives in the United States.[1][2][3] A former staff reporter for The Globe and Mail, he has covered major events including the war in Afghanistan, Guantanamo Bay trials, the Arab Spring, and Black Lives Matter protests, earning awards like the National Newspaper Award for Investigative Journalism.[2][4] His notable works include the novels American War (2017) and What Strange Paradise (2021), and the nonfiction book One Day, Everyone Will Have Always Been Against This (2025), which won the National Book Award for Nonfiction.[1][2]