Youssef is a writer of fiction and nonfiction working in Arabic and English. He is the author of the acclaimed novels The Book of the Sultan's Seal (Interlink, 2014) and The Crocodiles (Seven Stories Press, 2015), as well as Paulo, which was longlisted for the International Prize for Arabic Fiction in 2017 and won the 2017 Sawiris Award.
The Dissenters (Graywolf and Peninsula, 2025), his first novel written in English, was named a most anticipated book of 2025 by Harper's Bazaar, LitHub, and The Millions. It was a New Yorker best book of the year and a Dublin Literary Award nominee. Postmuslim: A Testimony, his debut essay collection, is due from the same two presses in fall 2026.
Youssef was among the 39 best Arab writers under 40 selected for the Hay Festival's Beirut39 in 2010. His work has appeared in The Atlantic, Bomb, The Dial, the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung Quarterly, GQ Middle East, Guernica, Internazionale, Lettre International, Mada Masr, McSweeney's, Ploughshares, The White Review, and many others. It is widely anthologized and translated.
Selected Creative Work