Born in 1964 Cairo, Egypt, Leila Aboulela grew up in Khartoum, Sudan where she attended the Khartoum American School and Sister School. She graduated from Khartoum University in 1985 with a degree in Economics and was awarded an MSc and an MPhil degree in Statistics from the London School of Economics. She lived for many years in Aberdeen where she started to write while looking after her family; she currently (2010) lives in Doha.

She was awarded the Caine Prize for African Writing in 2000 for her short story The Museumincluded in her collection of short stories Coloured Lights. Her novel The Translator was nominated for the Orange Prize and was chosen as a Notable Book of the Year by the New York Times in 2006. Her second novel Minaret was nominated for the Orange Prize and the IMPAC Dublin Award. Her latest novel Lyrics Alley is set in the Sudan of the 1950s.