Badriyah Al-Badri is an acclaimed poet, novelist, children’s author and educator whose work has been recognised far beyond her native Oman. In 2021 she was the first woman to win Qatar’s prestigious Katara Prize for Poetry, earning the accolade of “The Prophet’s Poet”. Her 2018 novel The Shadow of Hermaphroditus was chosen as Oman’s best novel in 2019. In 2022 Saqi Press published her novel Fombey, which deals with Belgian colonization and slavery in the Congo.

Al-Badri has authored numerous award-winning collections of poetry and prose for children and young adults. She is active in developing children’s literary potential, directing Oman’s initiative “I imagine and write” to encourage young writers, and is the former editor of the children’s literature column in Murshid magazine. She contributed to Al-Fraq 9, the first police cartoon series in the Arab world, and has written an opera for the Omani Ministry of Education.

The Last Crossing is Al-Badri’s second novel.