Samar Yazbek is a Syrian writer and journalist who has been a prominent advocate for human rights, and more specifically women's rights, in Syria. In 2010, Yazbek was selected as one of the "39 most promising authors under the age of 40" by Beirut39, organized by the Hay Festival. In 2011, she took part in the popular uprising against the Assad regime and was forced into exile soon after. In 2012 she was awarded the PEN/Pinter Prize "International writer of courage" for her book In the Crossfire, and received the Swedish Tucholsky Prize and the Dutch Oxfam/PEN Prize the following year. In 2022, Yazbek was chosen by the Royal Society of Literature as one of twelve International Writers. Yazbek has published two short-story collections, seven novels, and four nonfiction literary narratives. Her work has been translated into more than twenty languages.

Leri Price is an award-winning literary translator of contemporary Arabic fiction. She was a finalist for the National Book Award for Translated Literature in 2024, 2021, and 2019. Her translation of Khaled Khalifa's Death Is Hard Work won the 2020 Saif Ghobash Banipal Prize for Arabic Literary Translation.