Born in Jerusalem, Issa J. Boullata is a Palestinian writer, scholar, and translator who taught Arabic studies at Hartford Seminary, Connecticut, before moving to Montreal, where he taught graduate courses in Arabic literature, Modern Arab Thought, and Qur'anic Studies until recently at McGill University's Institute of Islamic Studies. The author of several books on Arabic literature and on the Qur'an, he is a noted translator of Arabic literature and has twice won the Arkansas Arabic Translation Award. He is contributing editor of Banipal magazine.