Sara Haghdoosti was born in Iran, grew up in Sydney and now lives in Chicago. Like her protagonist, she has been politically active from a young age. Sara got her start in organising at the Australian Youth Climate Coalition and then went on to work at GetUp, Change.org, the Mozilla Foundation and founded Berim ('Let's go' in Farsi) - a non-profit that worked to support change makers in Iran. She's currently the Deputy Director at Win Without War. Her writing has appeared in the Sydney Morning Herald and The Drum and she's been a panelist on ABC TV's Q&A. Sunburnt Veils is her first novel.