Bushra al-Maqtari was born in 1979. She is a Yemeni writer and novelist and member of the executive board of the Union of Yemeni Writers. She has published a prose collection called The Furthest Reaches of Pain (2003, Dar Ubadi) and a novel, Behind the Sun (2012, Al-Markez al-Thaqafi al-Arabi, Beirut). Her writings have been published in various Arab newspapers and periodicals. In 2013, she was awarded the Françoise Giroud Award for Defence of Freedom and Liberties in Paris and also the Leaders for Democracy Prize presented by the Project on Middle East Democracy organisation in Washington.