The Iraqi poet and writer Manal Al-Sheikh was born in Nineveh in northern Iraq and earned a degree in English-Arabic translation from the College of Arts at Mosul University. She has worked in the local and wider Arab press as a freelance journalist.
She has published creative and literary articles and texts in many Iraqi, Arab, and European newspapers and magazines, and participated in many cultural festivals within and outside her native country Many of her poems and essays have been translated into several languages, including English, French, Norwegian, Catalan, and Italian. She lives in Stavanger, Norway. Her books include the poetry collections With a red dot under his left eye (2010) and Impossible Letters (2010), as well as the essay collections Deviation of Coffins, The Gates of Antioch Night and Books of Seclusion. She edited the anthology of modern Iraqi poetry Princes of Visions.
