Najwan Darwish is one of the foremost contemporary Arab poets. Since the publication of his first collection in 2000, his poetry has been hailed across the Arab world and beyond as a singular expression of the Palestinian struggle. He has published eight books in Arabic, and his work has been translated into more than twenty languages. Darwish has two major collections in English, both translated by Kareem James Abu-Zeid: Nothing More to Lose (NYRB Poets, 2014), which was picked as one of the best books of the year by NPR and nominated for several awards; and Exhausted on the Cross (NYRB Poets, 2021, foreword by Raul Zurita). Darwish lives between Haifa and his birthplace, Jerusalem.

Kareem James Abu-Zeid is a translator, editor, writer, and scholar who works across multiple languages. Abu-Zeid has received numerous awards, fellowships, honors, and residencies for his work as a translator from Arabic and as a scholar, including the PEN Center USA 2017 Translation Prize and a 2018 National Endowment for the Arts translation grant. His most recent translation is the Palestinian poet Najwan Darwish's Exhausted on the Cross (NYRB Poets, 2021, foreword by Raul Zurita). He is also the author of the book The Poetics of Adonis and Yves Bonnefoy: Poetry as Spiritual Practice (Lockwood Press, 2021). He lives in the countryside just outside of Santa Fe, New Mexico.