Jamal Saeed spent 12 years as a prisoner of conscience in Syria before fleeing to Canada with his family as refugees in 2016. His works include a short story collection, The Sun's Crazy Girls; Yara's Spring, a young-adult fiction based on the Syrian civil war; and My Road From Damascus: A Memoir. He continues to raise awareness about Syria’s ongoing civil war and humanitarian crisis through his work as an activist, editor, visual artist, and author.

“Jamal writes with brutal clarity — and yet, there is a poetic quality to the telling. He manages to hold in balance the idyllic memories of growing up in a land he loves, alongside his experiences inside Syrian prisons, where he peels back the dark walls and allows us to witness and pay heed to the unthinkable.” — Frances Itani