This collection supports and promotes awareness to the important mission and framework of the Al-Mutanabbi Street Starts Here Coalition's focus on the lasting power of the written word and the arts in support of the free expression of ideas, the preservation of shared cultural spaces, and the importance of responding to attacks, both overt and subtle, on artists, writers, and academics working under oppressive regimes or in zones of conflict, despite the destruction of that literary/cultural content.

Sarah Bryant is a letterpress printer and bookbinder specialising in the production of editioned artist's books under her imprint, Big Jump Press. These books have been featured in exhibitions around the United States and have been acquired by special collections libraries internationally, including The Yale Arts Library, The Houghton Library at Harvard University, The New York Public Library and The Darling Bio-medical Library at UCLA. In 2011, Bryant won the MCBA Prize for her book Biography. Bryant has taught book arts courses for The University of Georgia, The University of Alabama MFA in the Book Arts Program, and Wells College.