May el-Morsy is the head of the Author Relations Team at Kotob Arabia, an independent publishing house in Cairo, Egypt.

Saeed al-Wakeel is a professor of Arabic as a Foreign Language at the American University in Cairo as well as of Arabic Language and Literature at Ain Shams University in Cairo, from which he holds a PhD in literary criticism. He has published widely in literary journals in Egypt.

Khaled Mattawa is a Libyan-American poet and professor of creative writing at California State University. He holds an MFA in Creative Writing and an MA in English from Indiana University, and his award-winning poems have appeared in numerous literary journals. Mattawa is also an activist for new literary talent in the Middle East, where he has organized workshops for young writers.

Salma Hellal is co-editor of Editions Barzakh, a literary publishing house in Algiers, Algeria.