Iman Mersal
Born in 1966 in the northern Egyptian Delta, Iman Mersal is the author of four books of poems in Arabic. She was an editor for the cultural and literary reviews Bint al-Ard (Daughter of the Earth, a feminist journal) and Adab wa Naqd in Egypt for several years before leaving for North America. Mersal relocated to Boston, Massachussetts, USA in 1998 and from there to Edmonton, Alberta, Canada where she works as an assistant professor of Arabic literature at the University of Alberta. Her poems have been translated into numerous languages, including French, German, Spanish, Dutch and Italian. These Are Not Oranges, My Love, a selection of Mersal's work translated into English by Khaled Mattawa, was published by Sheep Meadow Press in 2008.