Born in 1961, Al-Kamhawi is an Egyptian journalist and novelist. He graduated from the department of journalism at Cairo University in 1983 and worked as a journalist in different newspapers - including  Al Ghoumhouriya, Al Ahrar, Al Akhbar – and he has worked as the the Senior editor of al-Doha Cultural Magazine He writes weekly for Almasry Alyoum and Al-Quds Al-Arabi. He had published several novels, stories and books. His fourth novel, Bayt Al-Theeb (House of the Wolf), was awarded the Naguib Mahfouz Medal for Literature in 2012, and released in English translation in 2013. His most recent novel, Al-Ba7r Khalf Al-Satair (The Sea Behind the Curtains) (2014) was published with Dar al Adab.