Dunya Mikhail was born in Baghdad, Iraq. After graduating from university, she worked as a journalist and translator for The Baghdad Observer. Facing censorship and interrogation, she left Iraq, first to Jordan and then to America, settling in Detroit. Her prior book, The Beekeeper, was a finalist for the National Book Award. She has received a Guggenheim Fellowship and the UN Human Rights Award for Freedom of Writing and works as a special lecturer of Arabic at Oakland University in Michigan.
