Iman Mersal is a poet, essayist, translator and literary scholar, and Associate Professor of Arabic Language and Literature at the University of Alberta, Canada.

She is the author of several books of poetry and other, which have been translated into numerous languages. Her books include How to Mend: Motherhood and its Ghosts, The Threshold: Poems, and Traces of Enayat among others. 

Mersal was awarded the Shaykh Zayed award for literature in 2021. Born in Mit ‘Adlan, Egypt, she lives and works in Alberta.

Kayfa ta is a publishing initiative that uses the popular form of how-to manuals (how=kayfa, to=ta) to respond to some of today’s perceived needs; be they the development of skills, tools, thoughts, or sensibilities.

 These books situate themselves in the space between the everyday and the speculative, the instructional and the intuitive, the factual and the fictional.

 Kayfa ta was founded in 2012 by artists Maha Maamoun and Ala Younis