Leila Khaled Mouammar is a Palestinian, born-in-exile as a settler in Toronto. She got her BA from McGill University in 1997 and worked for a year in Palestinian refugee camps with UNICEF in Lebanon, before continuing her MA studies in the Humanities at NYU where she graduated magna cum laude.

In 2002, she started her PhD studies at Concordia University in Montreal, working as a teaching and research assistant in the departments of interdisciplinary sexuality studies and anthropology. She also worked part-time as a sous-chef in a ritzy Westmount restaurant with a Bangladeshi master chef, and as an English tutor for two incredibly interesting Japanese men, while also doing community organizing around the issue of Palestine and the rights of indigenous people and immigrants/refugees in Canada. 

After completing her first year at Concordia with a near perfect GPA, she was suspended by the Rector for refusing to do a community service sanction for participating in a demonstration against Benjamin Netanyahu on September 9th 2002.

Leila went to Palestine, fell in love, and even got married. She now lives in Nazareth where she writes - when she isn\'t translating and editing other people\'s writing to pay the bills.