Taghi Modarressi was born in Iran and educated as a doctor. He continued his education in the United States and became a member of the Department of Psychiatry of the University of Maryland School of Medicine. He is the author of The Book of Absent People and The Pilgrim's Rules of Etiquette.

Nasrin Rahimieh is Maseeh Chair and Director of the Dr. Samuel M. Jordan Center for Persian Studies and Culture at the University of California, Irvine, where she is also professor of comparative literature. She is the author of Missing Persians: Discovering Voices in Iranian Cultural History, also published by Syracuse University Press.