Dunya Mikhail was born in Iraq in 1965 and came to the United States in 1996.  She has six books in Arabic, three in English, and one in Italian.  They include The Iraqi Nights, Diary of A Wave Outside the Sea, and The War Works Hard. She also edited a pamphlet of Iraqi poetry titled 15 Iraqi Poets.  Her Arabic books are published in Egypt, Iraq, Lebanon, Syria, and Tunisia.  Her books in English are published in New York by New Directions.  They are translated into English by Kareem James Abu-Zeid and Elizabeth Winslow, and into Italian by Elena Chiti.  Her honors include the Kresge Fellowship, Arab American Book Award, and UN Human Rights Award for Freedom of Writing.  The War Works Hard was shortlisted for Griffin, and named one of “Twenty-Five Books to Remember from 2005” by the New York Public Library.  Renowned for her subversive, innovative, and satirical poetry, Mikhail speaks about her experiences growing up in the war-torn country, sleeping on the roof of her family’s home during the sweltering summers until the air raid sirens sounded, and losing her father, not to violence but to the lack of adequate medical care.  Mikhail worked as a journalist for the Baghdad Observer, and currently works as an Arabic special lecturer at Oakland University in Michigan.  She has a BA from the University of Baghdad and an MA from Wayne State University.  Mikhail is the co-founder of Mesopotamian Forum for Art and Culture in Michigan.