Ahdaf Soueif is the author of Aisha, Sandpiper, and In the Eye of the Sun. Her bestselling novel The Map of Love was shortlisted for a Booker Prize. The founder of PalFest, she is a key political commentator on Egypt and Palestine. Soueif lives in London and Cairo. ahdafsoueif.com Omar Robert Hamilton co-founded PalFest and has written for the Guardian, the London Review of Books, and Guernica. His debut novel, The City Always Wins, is forthcoming from Farrar, Straus. orhamilton.com