Youssef Idris was an Egyptian writer of short stories and novellas. He was born in 1927, and studied at the Faculty of Medicine, where he also started his political activism against King Farouk's regime. He wrote his first short story while at the faculty, and it was highly praised by his colleagues. He continued working in medicine until 1960, and was employed as an editor in Al-Gomhoreya newspaper in 1957. His short stories are extremely popular in the Middle East, and were also translated to many languages and adapted to numerous short films.