Sahar Khalifeh was born in Nablus in 1941 and is the author of eight novels, including Of Noble Origins (AUC Press, 2012) and The Image, the Icon, and the Covenant (AUC Press, 2007), for which she was awarded the Naguib Mahfouz Medal for Literature in 2006. She holds a PhD in women’s studies and American literature from the University of Iowa. She divides her time between Amman and Nablus.