Monia Mazigh is an academic and author of three novels and a memoir. She was catapulted onto the public stage in 2002 when her husband, Maher Arar, was deported to Syria and held without charges for over a year. Her memoir, Hope and Despair, documents the ordeal. Her debut novel Mirors et mirages was nominated for a Trillium Book Award, Ottawa Book Award, and a prize given by Salon du Livre de Toronto. Her second novel, Hope Has Two Daughters, was published by House of Anansi and she won the 2021 Ottawa Book Award for Farida, her third novel. Mazigh was born in Tunisia, earned a PhD in finance from McGill University, and is a professor at Carleton University in Ottawa.