Jabbour Douaihy was born in Zghorta, North Lebanon, in 1949. He holds a PhD degree in Comparative Literature from the Sorbonne, and works as a French literature professor at the Lebanese University. To date, he has published 6 works, including novels, short stories and children’s books.   Elias Farkouh was born in Amman in 1948. He holds a BA in Philosophy and Psychology from the Arab University of Beirut. He is the founder and general manager of “Azminah” publishing house, and has published several dozen books, including novels and short stories.   Khaled Khalifa was born in Aleppo in 1964 and holds a BA in Law from Aleppo University. He has written many successful scenarios for TV series, as well as for the cinema. He also writes regularly in different Arabic newspapers. To date, he has published 3 novels.   May Menassa was born in Beirut in 1939 and holds a postgraduate diploma in French Literature. She began her journalistic career in television in 1959. She works as a critic for the Lebanese newspaper An Nahar since 1969. She has published 4 novels, as well as a children’s book, and many translations, mainly from French.   Mekkawi Said was born in Cairo in 1955. He published his first collection of short stories, “Running towards the Light“, in 1981. Since then, he has published many novels, as well as writing scripts for short and long movies, and for documentaries. He has also written for children magazines throughout the Arab world.   Bahaa Taher was born in Giza (Greater Cairo) in 1935, to Upper Egyptian parents from the village of Karnak, Luxor. He holds postgraduate diplomas in History and Mass Media from Cairo University. He has published 14 books (6 novels, 4 short story collections, and 4 non-fiction works), as well as numerous translations from English and French.