Celestial Bodies

Jokha Alharthi is the author of two collections of short fiction, a children's book, and three novels in Arabic. Fluent in English, she completed a PhD in Classical Arabic Poetry in Edinburgh, and teaches at Sultan Qaboos University in Muscat. She has been shortlisted for the Sahikh Zayed Award for Young Writers and her short stories have been published in English, German, Italian, Korean, and Serbian.

A Phi Beta Kappa graduate of Harvard University, Laurence Bouvard trained at LAMDA and made her professional debut creating the role of Maria Elena Holly in the original cast of the West End musical, Buddy. Since then she has appeared in a variety of leading roles in Britain, including Cathy in Wuthering Heights, Persephone in Stravinsky's Persephone with BBC Symphony Orchestra, and Roxane in the French version of Cyrano de Bergerac. Her film and television credits include The Flying Camel, The Tomorrow People (Nickelodeon), and Eastenders (BBC). An experienced voice artist, Laurence has recorded over fifty audiobooks to date, with other recent audio work including Jo in Little Women (BBC R4), Joanna Dark in Perfect Dark Zero (Microsoft Xbox360), and the voice of Nico in the Dolmio ad campaign. Laurence voices both Lola and the title role of Robotboy in the international hit cartoon series Robotboy for Cartoon Network. Laurence has been selected for 2016 BAFTA Crew, a program that recognizes rising talent in the Film/TV/Games industry.

Marilyn Booth holds the Khalid bin Abdullah Al Saud Chair for the Study of the Contemporary Arab World, Oriental Institute and Magdalen College, Oxford University. In addition to her academic publications, she has translated many works of fiction from the Arabic.