AHMED KABIL IS A WRITER AND EDITOR BASED IN BARCELONA.
Born near the US-Mexico border to Egyptian immigrants, Ahmed split his childhood between Texas and Cairo, and has lived most of his adult life in the San Francisco Bay Area. His writing appears in Catapult, EAT THE PROBLEM (Museum of Old and New Art, 2019), GEN, OneZero, and elsewhere. He is the founding Managing Editor of Long Now Ideas, an online magazine about the deep past and possible futures of civilization. He holds an MSt in Creative Writing from the University of Cambridge, a BA in History from Reed College, and has been a metaLAB Fellow at Harvard University. The recipient of a 2023 First Pages Prize from the de Groot Foundation, Ahmed is presently working on his first book.
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ESSAYS
— You Don’t Look Like an Ahmed, on Arab American identity and belonging | published in CATAPULT, 2021
— My Name is Ahmed. Am I White?, on Arab-American identity and the U.S. Census | published in GEN, 2019
— Confessions of a Juul Junkie, on e-cigarette addiction | published in GEN, 2018
— Tripping on Acid with My Dad, on using psychedelics to bridge familial divides and heal past trauma | published in TRIPS WORTH TELLING (ed. by Michael Pollan), 2018
FEATURES
— Naming the Unspoken Thing, on secret psychedelic art parties in the Bay Area (GEN, 2018)
PROFILES & INTERVIEWS
— How Long is Now, on the interdisciplinary artist Alicia Eggert (LONG NOW, 2021)
— The Boundless Optimism and Timeless Wisdom of Fantastic Negrito, on Grammy-winning blues musician Fantastic Negrito | published in LEVEL, 2019
— What Happens When A Computer Runs Your Life, on the software engineer who has embraced the randomness of algorithms to make life choices | published in ONEZERO, 2018
BOOK CHAPTERS
— The Medicine Woman of Huautla de Jiménez, on María Sabina and psilocybin mushrooms | published in EAT THE PROBLEM (Hobart: Museum of Old and New Art, April 2019)
REPORTAGE
— Two Arrested and Charged in Czech Republic for Distributing Ayahuasca, a reported story on the use and legality of ayahuasca in Europe | (LUCID NEWS, 2020)
JOURNAL ARTICLES
— The New Myth: Frederic Spiegelberg and the Rise of a Whole Earth, 1914-1968, on the German professor of comparative religions who inspired the San Francisco counterculture | published in the INTEGRAL REVIEW, Vol. 8, No. 1 (Jul., 2012), 43-61
PSYCHEDELIC HISTORIES
— This magical drug mansion in Upstate New York is where the psychedelic ‘60s took off, on Timothy Leary’s time at Millbrook | published in TIMELINE, 2017
— This Mexican medicine woman hipped America to magic mushrooms, with the help of a bank executive, on María Sabina and psilocybin mushrooms | published in TIMELINE, 2017
— This genius chemist spent 50 years creating psychedelic drugs in his home lab…for a good cause, on Alexander Shulgin and the history of MDMA | published in TIMELINE, 2016
— Meet the psychedelics-obsessed scientist who wanted to learn dolphins’ language, on John Lilly’s research into dolphin communication and psychedelics | published in TIMELINE, 2016
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— 2nd Place, 2023 First Pages Prize for Creative Nonfiction
— 1st Place, 2023 Cambridge Creatives Screenwriting Competition
— Shortlist, 2023 Plaza Prize for Memoir
— Shortlist, 2023 Cambridge University Poetry and Prose Prize
— 2012-13 metaLAB Fellowship, Harvard University