Author Khaled Mattawa is the author of two books of poetry and has translated several books of Arab poetry. Host Jenny Kander reads a selection of poems from his book Ismailia Eclipse (Sheep Meadow Press, 1996). He was born in Libya and moved to the U.S. during his teen years.

Mattawa is currently an assistant professor in the University of Michigan's MFA Creative Writing Program. He is the recipient of a Guggenheim fellowship, an Alfred Hodder followship from Princeton University, and an NEA translation grant. He's won two Pushcart prizes and has been awarded the PEN award for literary translation, in addition to having his work published in a variety of literary journals. He received his MFA in 1994 from Indiana University.