Wolfson Fellow closes Mesopotamia book deal with major publisher

Al-Rashid said on Twitter: "I will do my best to tell the story of Ennigaldi-Nanna and her museum, and through them the many stories that survive from ancient Mesopotamia."  

Senior commissioning editor Anna Baty secured all languages rights from Doug Young at the London literary agency PEW. It's also been secured for North American distribution with W W Norton by the publishing house’s vice-president and senior editor at Alane Mason. Both publishers intend to release the book in Spring 2024.  

Al-Rashid studied philosophy as an undergraduate and went on to complete an MPhil in Cuneiform Studies and a DPhil in Oriental Studies at the University of Oxford, where she now researches the use of metaphor in descriptions of mental distress in cuneiform medical texts. Through her Twitter account, which has almost 30k followers, she hopes to give ancient Mesopotamia as wide an audience as possible, and to humanise its long history.