Balsam Karam (b. 1983) is of Kurdish ancestry and has lived in Sweden since she was a child. An author, librarian and university lecturer, she made her literary debut in 2018 with the critically acclaimed Event Horizon, which was shortlisted for the Katapult Prize. The Singularity, her English-language debut, was nominated for Sweden’s August Prize and shortlisted for the 2021 European Union Prize for Literature.