Jonas Elbousty holds an MPhil and a Ph.D. from Columbia University. He teaches at Yale University where he is the Director of Undergraduate Studies. His publications include Vitality and Dynamism (Leiden University Press, 2015), Advanced Arabic Literary Reader (Routledge Press, 2016), Media Arabic (Routledge Press, 2021), Aswat Muasira (Georgetown University Press, 2023), Tales of Tangier (Yale University Press, 2023), and two forthcoming books, Screams of War (Seagull books 2024) and Faces (Georgetown University Press, 2024)

Roger Allen retired in June 2011 after serving for 43 years as Professor of Arabic and Comparative Literature at the University of Pennsylvania. In 2009-10 he was President of the Middle East Studies Association of North America. He is the author of numerous studies in book and article form devoted to the Arabic literary tradition and is also a translator of numerous contributions to the tradition of both modern and pre-modern Arabic narrative.