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Iman Mersal is an Egyptian poet, essayist, translator and literary scholar, and Professor of Arabic Language and Literature at the University of Alberta, Canada. She is the author of five books of Arabic poetry, selections from which have been translated into numerous languages. In English translation, her poems have appeared in Parnassus, Paris Review, The Nation, American Poetry Review, The Kenyon Review and Michigan Quarterly Review. A selection of Mersal’s poetry, entitled These Are Not Oranges, My Love, translated by Khaled Mattawa, was published in 2008 (Sheep Meadow Press). Her most recent publications include an Arabic translation of Charles Simic’s memoir, A Fly in the Soup (Al Kotob Khan, 2016), and Kayfa Talta’im: ‘An al-Umuma wa Ashbahiha (Kayfa Ta and Mophradat, 2017), translated into English by Robin Moger as Motherhood and its Ghosts (Kayfa Ta and Sternberg Press, 2018).

Hoda Barakat is a Visiting Professor in Middle Eastern Studies at Dartmouth. Shortlisted for the Man Booker Award in 2016, Lebanese author Hoda Barakat (b. 1952) is one of the most important Arab authors writing today. She is the author of almost dozen novels, plays, and essay collections including Stone of Laughter (1990), Disciples of Passion (1993), and most recently “The Night Mail” (2017) which is shortlisted for the International Prize of Arabic Fiction in 2019. Barakat’s writing has been praised for its bold exploration of ethical, social, and psychological collapse exposed in times of war. Published in over 14 languages, she is the recipient of the Ordre du Mérite from the French Presidency, Chevalier des Arts et des Lettres from the French Ministry of Culture, and the Amalfi Prize for Mediterranean Literature. She was a fellow at the Wissenshaft College (Wiko) in Berlin (2008) and at the Institute for Advanced Study at Central European University in Budapest (2017), and a visiting professor at UT Austin (2013) and the University of Virginia (2014).