Sara al-Jarwan is an Emirati writer and cultural researcher living in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates. She is the author of The Melancholy of the Daughter of a Sad Destiny (written 1984; published 1992), the first novel to be written by an Emirati woman, and has published short stories, articles and screenplays. After serving in the armed forces, she wrote Diaries of a Woman Soldier during the Gulf War (1991). She has won several prizes, including the Best Emirati Book in 2003 for her short story collection The Dream Icon (2003) and the 2012 Owais Award, in the best novel category, for The Virgin, the Saint and the Magician (2011).