JOKHA ALHARTHI is the first Omani woman to have a novel translated into English. Her previous novel, Celestial Bodies, was the first book translated from the Arabic to win the International Booker Prize (formerly known as the Man Booker International Prize). Alharthi is the author of three previous collections of short fiction, three children’s books, and three novels in Arabic. Narinjah (The Bitter Orange Tree) received the Sultan Qaboos Award for Culture, Art, and Literature. She completed a Ph.D. in Classical Arabic poetry in Edinburgh and teaches at Sultan Qaboos University in Muscat.