Roger Allen obtained his doctoral degree in modern Arabic literature from Oxford University in 1968, the first student to do so. He was Professor of Arabic and Comparative Literature at the University of Pennsylvania for forty-three years, Chair of the Department 2005–11, and President of MESA 2009–2010. His translations of Naguib Mahfouz’s novels include Mirrors, Autumn Quail, Karnak Café, Khan al-Khalili and One Hour Left, as well as the short story collection God’s World. He has also translated the seminal works of key contemporary authors such as Jabra Ibrahim Jabra, Yusuf Idris, May Telmissany, Ahmad al-Tawfiq and Hanan al-Shaykh.
Hilary Kilpatrick has taught Arabic literature at the Universities of Nijmegen and Bern. She has published on both classical and modern Arabic prose literature.
Ed de Moor is reader in Arabic literature at the University of Nijmegen and editor of Orientations, the annual publication of the Dutch Association for Middle Eastern and Islamic Studies. He has written widely on Arabic literature, particularly on modern poetry.