Hussein al-Wad was a university professor, poet, critic and academic born in Moknine, Tunisia in 1948. He received his PhD in Arabic language and literature from the university of Tunis in 1987 and was appointed dean of the Faculty of Letters and Social sciences in Kairouan. Al-Wad is mainly known for his academic studies of classical Arabic literature, notably his works on Al-Ma’aari’s The Epistle of Forgiveness and Mutanabbi’s poetic language. His major and first contribution to the Arabic literary scene is his debut novel The City’s Scentsروائح المدينة  (2010) which won the prominent Golden Comar Award (Comar d’Or) in Tunisia in 2011. Its sequel, His Excellency the Minister   سعادته … السيد الوزير(2011), was shortlisted for the 2013 International Prize for Arabic Fiction. Al-Wad  worked as a professor of literary criticism at King Saud University in Riyadh until his death in 2018.