Mandy Fessenden Brauer is a retired American clinical child psychologist who taught at the American University in Cairo and with a Fulbright at Cairo University Medical School. She’s published numerous picture and story books in Arabic and English in Egypt to help kids understand themselves and their world better. She’s also published books and articles in Egyptian magazines on parenting children in conflict zones and those seriously ill as well as published books for adults and children on preventing, identifying and treating child abuse. An illustrated poem, Goodnight My Cairo sold over 22,000 copies and is being re-illustrated. Her poem, “Celebration in the City” was made into a performance piece at The Mattress Factory in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. More recently an article about living in Gaza during the first intifada was published in New Moons: Contemporary Writing by North American Muslims, published by Red Hen Press, November, 2021 and currently she’s working on stories and essays about the Islamic World for adolescents. When she’s not doing anything else she’s thinking about what to write next or going for long walks along the Nile if she’s in Egypt or strolling through rice paddies in Indonesia since she, her husband and two senior cats now divide their time between these two fascinating countries.