Sahar Khalifeh was born in Nablus in 1941 and is the author of eight novels, including Of Noble Origin, The Image, the Icon, and the Covenant, for which she was awarded the Naguib Mahfouz Medal for Literature, and most recently, My First and Only Love. She holds a PhD in women's studies and American literature from the University of Iowa. She divides her time between Amman and Nablus.

Aida Bamia is a literary translator and professor emerita of Arabic language and literature at the University of Florida. She lives between Cairo and Paris.