DUNYA MIKHAIL was born in Baghdad. After graduating from the University of Baghdad, she worked as a journalist and translator for The Baghdad Observer. Facing censorship and interrogation, she left Iraq, eventually settling in Detroit. She is the author of The Beekeeper: Rescuing the Stolen Women of Iraq, which was a finalist for the National Book Award; The Iraqi Nights; Diary of A Wave Outside the Sea; and The War Works Hard, chosen as one of New York Public Library’s Books to Remember; and an edited volume, Fifteen Iraqi Poets. Mikhail is the recipient of a Guggenheim Fellowship, a Knight Foundation grant, a Kresge Artist Fellowship, and the United Nations Human Rights Award for Freedom of Writing. She works as a special lecturer of Arabic at Oakland University in Michigan.
