Trent Reedy served as a combat engineer in the Iowa Army National Guard from 1999 to 2005, including a year's tour of duty in Afghanistan, where he befriended Jawad Arash. Based upon his experiences there, he wrote his debut middle-grade novel, Words in the Dust, which won the Christopher Medal and was chosen for Al Roker's Book Club for Kids on the Today show. His novels Stealing Air, If You're Reading This, and the Divided We Fall trilogy were Junior Library Guild selections. Trent also writes a weekly military life column for the Washington Examiner. He lives with his family outside Spokane, Washington.
Jawad Arash's home country of Afghanistan has been at war throughout his entire life. Nevertheless, Jawad remained optimistic for his future. Despite challenges imposed by war, he developed a love for learning and wanted to help build a new and better Afghanistan. Enduring Freedom is his debut novel.