Born in the town of Bsharri in Mount Lebanon, Kahlil Gibran (1883 – 1931) was a celebrated Lebanese-American writer, poet, and artist. He came to the United States as a young man, studied art, and began his literary career, writing in English and Arabic. His masterpiece The Prophet sold over 9 million copies in the United States.

Zeina Abirached was born in Beirut in the middle of the civil war. She studied graphic arts in Lebanon but moved to Paris in 2004, where she attended the National School of Decorative Arts. Her short animated film Mouton was nominated during the fifth international film festival in Tehran. A Game For Swallows (Lerner, 2012) has won numerous awards, including being named an ALA Notable Children’s Book and a YALSA Great Graphic Novel for Teens. I Remember Beirut, the follow-up to A Game For Swallows, was published by Lerner in 2014.