Born in Beirut in 1939, May Menassa studied French Literature and began working in journalism in 1959, first for Lebanese television, then for An Nahar newspaper as a literary and art critic. She was editor-in-chief of the monthly women’s magazine Jamaloki (Your Beauty). During her lifetime, she published ten novels, of which one was longlisted and another shortlisted for the Arabic Booker Prize. She also wrote children’s books and worked as a translator. Her last novel I Killed My Mother in Order to Live was longlisted for the Arabic Booker Prize in 2019. Menassa died in 2019.