Wajdi Mouawad was born in Lebanon in 1968. At a very young age, he emigrated with his family to France to escape the civil war, and later moved to Montreal. There he studied at the National Theater School and, after directing several centers, in 2005 he created two companies, Au carré de l’hypoténuse, in France, and Abé carré cé carré, in Quebec. His most important work is the tetralogy Sang des promesses, consisting of Forêts, Littoral, Incendies, and Ciels. The film adaptation of Incendies was nominated for an Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film, and the author himself has brought Littoral to the big screen.
He has received prestigious awards, such as the 2012 Terenci Moix Prize, the Governor General’s Literary Award for Drama, and the Award from the Society of Dramatic Authors and Composers of the Francophone World for his entire body of work. In 2002, he was named Knight of the National Order of Arts and Letters in France. Ánima is his masterpiece and has been awarded the Prix Méditerranée, the Grand Prix Thyde Monnier, and the Prix du Deuxième Roman.