Nathalie Handal is an award-winning poet, playwright, and writer. She has lived in Europe, the United States, the Caribbean, Latin America and the Arab world. She is the author of numerous books, most recently, The Lives of Rain (short-listed for The Agnes Lynch Starrett Poetry Prize/recipient of the Menada Award) and co-editor of Language for a New Century: Contemporary Poetry from the Middle East, Asia & Beyond (W.W. Norton). She has been involved either as a writer, director or producer in over twenty theatrical and/or film productions worldwide. She was a finalist for the 2009 A Room of Her Own’s Freedom Award, and her latest poetry book, Love and Strange Horses (University of Pittsburgh Press) is forthcoming.