Sherif Meleka was born in Alexandria, Egypt, in 1958. Thereafter he lived in Cairo, graduating from the College De La Salle (a French lycée), in June 1975. He joined the Faculty of Medicine at Cairo University in September 1975. Graduating in 1981; he finished his internship in the Cairo University hospitals, worked for a year as a Public Health inspector in Tora, a Cairene suburb, frequently visiting the infamous Tora Prison over the next year. He started residency in obstetrics and gynecology in Cairo, but soon immigrated to the United States, in October of 1984.
He finished a residency in internal medicine at the Brooklyn Hospital in New York City in 1989, and then started to practice internal medicine in Fresno California. He then took a sabbatical leave, and moved to Boston, MA where he finished a fellowship in pain management with the department of Neurology at Massachusetts General Hospital in June 1992. He then started another fellowship in pain management with the Departments of Neurosurgery and Anesthesiology at Johns Hopkins University Hospital in Baltimore, Maryland for 18 months. He remained afterwards as a faculty member from 1994 to date, specializing in the treatment of chronic pain. This experience put him in direct contact with people's suffering and probably instigated his poetic inclination.
He settled in Maryland, near the cultural centers of Washington, D.C. and Virginia along with local ones in Baltimore and Annapolis, while maintaining his cultural ties with New York City, where his immigration journey had started.
He began to write fiction and poetry in April of 2000, an unforeseen and unexplainable compelling urge that overwhelmed him at the time. He had always enjoyed literature, and admired Egyptian Nobel laureate in literature Naguib Mahfouz and Salah Jahin, his favorites in prose and poetry respectively, but he also enjoyed the works of Louis Awad, Tawfiq al-Hakim, and Bayram al-Tunsi, all Egyptians. His favorite non-Egyptian writer is Gabriel Garcia Marquez, whom he admires enormously.
Literary publication, according to the dates of issuance of the editions and publishers:
Dawayir (Circles, collection of colloquial Egyptian poems), May 2003; Al Hadara Publishing, Cairo, Egypt.
Mihagrin (Migrants, collection of stories), February 2005; Al Hadara Publishing, Cairo, Egypt.
Hawadith min kitab al-hubb (Stories from the Book of Love, A collection of colloquial Egyptian poems) July 2005; Al Hadara Publishing, Cairo, Egypt.
Il-Ism:Masreya (The Name: An Egyptian Woman, collection of colloquial Egyptian poems) July 2005; Al Hadara Publishing, Cairo, Egypt.
Zuhur bilastik (Plastic Flowers, novel; first edition May 2006, second edition November 2007); Al Hadara Publishing, Cairo, Egypt.
Khatim Sulayman (Suleiman’s Ring, novel); January 2008; Al Hadara Publishing, Cairo, Egypt.
Al-Yawm al-thamin (The Eighth Day, collection of stories); October 2009; Al Hadara Publishing, Cairo, Egypt.
Raqsat qaws quzah (The Rainbow’s Dance, novel); May 2010; Al Hadara Publishing, Cairo, Egypt.
Fingan qahwa ma`a Jahin (A Cup of Coffee with Jahin, collection of colloquial Egyptian poems); Al Hadara Publishing, Cairo, Egypt.
Al-Mala’ika aydan tas`ad lil-tabiq al-thalith (Angels also Rise to the Third Floor, Novel) November 2011; Al Hadara Publishing, Cairo, Egypt.
Mariam wal-rijal (Mariam and the Men, novel); June 2014; Dar el-Ein Publishing, Cairo, Egypt.
Sihr Al-Hayat (The Magic of Life, collection of stories); January 2017the Egyptian General Book Publishing, Cairo, Egypt
Al-Ba’hth ‘An Candide (In Search For Candide, Novel) December 2018, Dar Ghorab Publishing and Distribution, Cairo, Egypt.
Da’wtt Farah (The Calling of Farah, Novel) December 2019, Dar el-Ein Publishing, Cairo, Egypt.
Critical writings on his literary works, including published books (in Arabic, titles and other bibliographic info translated into English):
"The Coptic Church and the phenomenon of encouraging the arts and literature," François Basile, Liberty Journal, October 2002
"Church, arts and culture" Magdi Khalil, National, January 2003
"Dawayir (Circles), Sherif Meleka," Leila Farid, National, March 2004
"New versions": review of Dawayir (Circles), Views, June 2004
"Egyptians creativity while in the Diaspora," Farouk Shousha, The Pyramids (al-Ahram)//September 2004
"Migrants; short stories of creativity doctor poet Sherif Meleka," Tawfik Hanna, National, March 2005
"Migrants" Alfred Farag, The Pyramids (al-Ahram), April 2005
"Plastic flowers, from the creativity of Sherif Meleka," Tawfiq Hanna, National, June 2006
“Plastic Flowers: controversy of nature and culture," Maher Shafi
Farid, National, September 2006.
"A Read for nostalgia and absenteeism in Plastic Flowers," Sami al-Behiri, Cairo, November 2006.
"Meleka's Plastic Flowers, East and West,” Literature, December 2006.
"Plastic Flowers: a bold novel dealing with minorities and religious intolerance and the world," Abdul Aziz Abdul Aziz, Modern Dialogue website, April 2007
"Stories of migration: an example in Plastic Flowers" Mohammed Rahouma, People, January 2008.
"Suleiman’s Ring and the Psalms of David," Sami Al-Behiri, People, December 2008,
"Egyptian identity conflict in the novel (Suleiman’s Ring) of Sherif Meleka" Ragi Shawki Mikhail, Cairo, March 2009.
"A Collection of Egyptian stories worth reading: The Eighth Day; creativity of Dr. Sherif Meleka," Tawfik Hanna, Voice of My Country, December 2009.
"A Reading in Two Novels: Plastic Flowers and Suleiman's Ring of Sherif Meleka" Mohi Eddin Ibrahim, Voice of My Country, April, 2010.
"This novel, The Rainbow’s Dance," Maher Shafiq Farid, submission of May 2010
“The Evolving Mythology in Khatam Suleiman novel” Abdel Nasser ‘Eissawi, Radio and Television Magazine, June 2011
“An Initial Trial to Discuss the Novel; Angels also Rise to the Third Floor” Tawfik Hanna, The Voice of My Country, November 2011
“Sherif Meleka, the Pain Doctor writes about the Revolution” Abdel Nasser ‘Eissawi, Radio and Television Magazine, May 2012
“Always… The Fish of Alexandria return” ‘Alaa’ el-Dib, Cairo Weekly, a Book in a Word, and a Word in a Book, June 2012
“The Questions of Identity in the Novel Mariam and the Men” Ragui Shawki Michail, Cairo Weekly, August 2014
“Mariam and the Men, the Prose of the Evil Flowers” Mostafa ‘Abdallah, Dubai Culture Magazine, June 2015
“Sherif Meleka between the Magic of Life and Life in Magic” Mostafa ‘Abdallah, Middle East Online, September 2016
“A Reading in the Story Collection the Magic of Life by Sherif Meleka” ‘Gharraa Mehanna, Al-Ahram Portal, February 2017
“Differing in Writing and Writing about Differences in Short Stories, the Magic of Life as an example”, Shawki Badr Youssef, July 2017
“Creative Vision in Some of the Narration Techniques in the Magic of Life”, Sherif ‘Abdin, July 2017
“Introduction to the Novel in Search for Candide”, Mohamed Ayet Mayhoub, Tunisia, October 2017
“Reading Through the Novel in Search for Candide”, ‘Alaa’ Eddin Gawish, Narratives Lab, the Library of Alexandria, June 2018
“The Realizations of the Narrative Discourse in Khatam Suleiman Between Memory Documentation and Mechanisms of Writing”, Ahmed Farah, the Atelier of Alexandria, May 2018
“The Scream of the Other- a Blasting Resonance in Khatam Suleiman”, Iman el-Zayat
the Atelier of Alexandria, May 2018
“The Loss of Khatam Suleiman Between Religion and the State”, Shawki ‘Abdel-Hamid, May 2018
“A River and a Thousand Tributaries” Analytical Writings about Sherif Meleka, edited and prefaced by Mohamed Ayet Mayhoub, Tunisia, Horus Publishing, April 2019
“January 25th In the Egyptian Novel” Shawki ‘Abdel-Hamid, the Center of Arabic Culture, a Chapter (pp259-270), Cairo 2019
“The Historical Novel-a Study into Arabic Fictional Worlds” a chapter (pp50-95) by Mohamed Dekheisi Abou-Osama, Dar Ghorab Publishing, March 2020
Participations in cultural and literary media:
Member of the PEN Society of America
Lecture on "Physician Writers," The Library of Congress, Oct 2009
Literary prizes and honors: Plastic Flowers (novel), nominated for the Arabic Booker Prize in 2006.
Suleiman’s Ring (novel) nominated for the Arabic Booker Prize in 2008.
The Bizerte International Writers Congress, Tunisia, a presentation titled “Who Am I? Writing Autobiography or Personal Experiences, May 2019
The author had also published two albums of musical hymns, of his poetry. The first was Stories from the Book of Love, published in Cairo in 2002. The album received a decent acceptance and instigated the poet and writer Francois Bassili to write an article about it published in two local newspapers in the US in October 2002.
His second album was Tribulation, published in 2003, orchestrated and produced by a famous US Jazz musician, Joe Ercole, which led to a published article by Magdi Khalil in Watani (National) in January 2003.
He has also published numerous articles and essays, political and literary, mostly in Arabic but also some in the English language. They have appeared in Elaph, an electronic newspaper, in Watani in 2002 and 2003, and Voice of My Country, 2009-2011; both print publications. He has also written in The Middle East Transparent; in Modern Discussion; and more recently in Pajamas Media: all being electronic publications, and in The Washington Post in the fall of 2011.
