Background
She co-founded Bint al-Ard (Daughter of the Earth), which she co-edited from 1986 to 1992.
She co-founded Bint al-Ard (Daughter of the Earth), which she co-edited from 1986 to 1992.
Iman Mersal graduated from Mansoura University, and received her Master of Arts and Doctor of Philosophy from Cairo University.
She immigrated to Boston, in 1998, and then to Edmonton, Alberta with her family in 1999. Mersal serves as Associate Professor of Arabic literature and Middle Eastern and African Studies at the University of Alberta. Her work has appeared in Blackbird, The American Poetry Review, "Parnassus", and Paris Review.
She has read at numerous poetry festivals, including the London Poetry Parnassus, billed as the biggest gathering of poets in world history, where she represented Egypt.
Selected poems from Mersal"s oeuvre have been translated into numerous languages, including English, French, German, Spanish, Dutch, Macedonian, Hindi, and Italian. These Are Not Oranges, My Love, a selection of Mersal"s work translated into English by Khaled Mattawa, was published by Sheep Meadow Press, New York in.