Nesrin Alrefaai Editor

Brought up in London, Christy Lefteri is the child of Cypriot refugees. She holds a PhD in creative writing from Brunel University, where she was a lecturer for many years. She is the author of Songbirds and the international bestseller The Beekeeper of Aleppo, which won the Aspen Words Literary Prize and was the runner-up for the Dayton Literary Peace Prize. Her first novel, A Watermelon, a Fish and a Bible, was longlisted for the International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award. Nesrin Alrefaai is an academic and playwright. Her plays include an adaptation (with Matthew Spangler) of Christy Lefteri's novel The Beekeeper of Aleppo (Nottingham Playhouse, 2023, and tour; revived in 2026). She is a Research Fellow at Queen Mary University of London and Arabic Managing Editor at the Middle East Centre (MEC) at the London School of Economics (LSE). She holds a Doctorate degree in Drama and Theatre Education from the University of Warwick, UK. Her research interests are language, arts, and politics in the Middle East with a special focus on Syria. Matthew Spangler is a playwright and professor of performance studies at San José State University, California. His plays include adaptations of Khaled Hosseini's novel The Kite Runner (Nottingham Playhouse, 2012; Broadway, 2022) and of Christy Lefteri's novel The Beekeeper of Aleppo, adapted with Nesrin Alrefaai (Nottingham Playhouse, 2023, and tour; revived in 2026).