Hala Alyan
“Reclaim language. Allow writing to transcend those borders. Creative expression has always been a shelter under which the lonely and heartsick built small fires to warm themselves. Be proud of yourself for being part of that tradition.”
Hala Alyan is the author of the novels Salt Houses — winner of the Dayton Literary Peace Prize and the Arab American Book Award, and a finalist for the Chautauqua Prize — and The Arsonists’ City, a finalist for the Aspen Words Literary Prize. Her 2025 memoir I’ll Tell You When I’m Home was an NPR Book of the Year and one of TIME Magazine’s 100 Must-Read Books of the Year. She is also the author of five highly acclaimed collections of poetry, including The Twenty-Ninth Year and The Moon That Turns You Back.
Hala’s work has been published by The New Yorker, The Academy of American Poets, The New York Times, The Guardian, and Guernica. She lives in Brooklyn with her family, where she works as a clinical psychologist and professor at New York University.
