Manhal Al Sarraj was born in Homs, Syria, and has been living in Sweden with her family since 2006. She holds a degree in engineering. 

She has written dozens of articles on political, social and religious subjects. A lifelong militant, she refused to join the Syrian Arab Writers Union for political reasons and since 2006 has been a member of the Swedish Writers’ Union. Her literary production is closely connected to the history of the city of Hama. She has published four novels, a collection of short stories and several other short stories in the Arab press in “an effort to reclaim the [Hama] massacre’s story from the official narrative and record the traumatic impact on those who lived through it”.