Hala Alyan

Hala Alyan (born July 27, 1986) is a Palestinian-American writer, poet, and clinical psychologist who specializes in trauma, addiction, and cross-cultural behavior. Her writing covers aspects of identity and the effects of displacement, particularly within the Palestinian diaspora. She is also known for acting in the short films I Say Dust andTallahassee (directed by Darine Hotait).[1][2]

Hala Alyan
Born (1986-07-27) July 27, 1986
Carbondale, Illinois, U.S.
NationalityPalestinian-American
Occupations
Awards2013 - Arab American Book Award
2018 - Dayton Literary Peace Prize
Websitewww.halaalyan.com

Biography

Hala Alyan was born in Carbondale, Illinois, on July 27, 1986. Her family lived in Kuwait after her birth but sought political asylum in the United States when Iraqi forces invaded the country.[3]

She received her doctorate in clinical psychology at Rutgers University and works part-time at New York University in the Counseling and Wellness Center. She and her husband live in Brooklyn, New York.[4]

Awards and works

Alyan's poems have been published in journals and literary magazines.[5][6][7][8]

In her novel Salt Houses, the Yacoub family, a Palestinian family, is forced to leave their home but after settling in Kuwait are forced to leave again during the invasion by Sadam Hussein.[9][10]

Alyan's Atrium: Poems received an award from the Arab American National Museum in 2013.[11][9] In 2018, she won the Dayton Literary Peace Prize, an award given to writers whose writing is believed to promote peace.[12][13] She was a visiting fellow at the American Library in Paris in the fall of 2018.

The Twenty-Ninth Year, a collection of Alyan's poems was published by Mariner in January 2019.[14][15]

Her second novel The Arsonists' City was published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt on March 9, 2021[16] to critical acclaim.[17][18][19] The novel is about the Nasr family, which reunites in Beirut to discuss the family patriarch's will, revealing family secrets and the impact of war and violence on the family.[20]

Bibliography

Novels

Poetry
Collections
  • Atrium.
  • Hijra.
  • The Twenty-Ninth Year. 2019.
List of poems
Title Year First published Reprinted/collected
Wife in reverse 2017 Alyan, Hala (Dec 2017 – Jan 2018). "Wife in reverse". The Believer. 14 (3): 73.
Spoiler 2020 Alyan, Hala (September 28, 2020). "Spoiler". The New Yorker.
Half-life in exile 2021 Alyan, Hala (September 27, 2021). "Half-life in exile". The New Yorker. 97 (30): 67.

Essays and other works
  • "In Dust," essay appearing in Being Palestinian: Personal Reflections on Palestinian Identity in the Diaspora, edited by Yasir Suleiman (2016)[8]

References
  1. "'Tallahassee' Tackles Mental Health Stigma in Arab-American Communities". egyptianstreets.com. Retrieved 2021-11-22.
  2. "I Say Dust". newfilmmakersonline.com. Retrieved 2021-11-22.
  3. Keyes, Claire. "'Ink Knows No Borders' tells story of immigrant and refugee experience through poetry". North of Boston.
  4. Masad, Ilana (3 May 2017). "Middle East, Middle Class: Pain and Privilege in Hala Alyan's "Salt Houses"". Los Angeles. Retrieved 3 November 2018.
  5. Alyan, Hala (1 December 2014). "Meals". Missouri Review. University of Missouri. Retrieved 3 November 2018.
  6. LaBerge, Peter; Biggs, Garrett (August 2017). "CAN I APOLOGIZE NOW". The Adroit Journal (22). Retrieved 3 November 2018.
  7. Magazine, Poetry (4 March 2019). "Honeymoon by Hala Alyan". Poetry Foundation.
  8. Being Palestinian : personal reflections on Palestinian identity in the diaspora. Yasir Suleiman. Edinburgh. 2016. p. 63. ISBN 0-7486-3403-7. OCLC 963672141.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link) CS1 maint: others (link)
  9. Foundation, Poetry (3 March 2019). "Hala Alyan". Poetry Foundation.
  10. "Code Switch Book Club, Summer 2019". NPR.org.
  11. "2013 Arab American Book Award Winners". Arab American National Museum. Retrieved 3 November 2018.
  12. Hemley, Robin. "2018 Fiction Winner - Salt Houses". Dayton Literary Peace Prize. The Ohio Public Library Network. Retrieved 3 November 2018.
  13. "Hala Alyan, Ta-Nehisi Coates win Dayton Literary Peace Prize". AP NEWS. September 19, 2018.
  14. "Lit Hub's Most Anticipated Books of 2019". Literary Hub. 2018-12-28. Retrieved 2018-12-29.
  15. "When you turn 29, 'metamorphosis is not optional,' this poet says". PBS NewsHour. February 8, 2019.
  16. "The Arsonists' City". Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. Retrieved 20 March 2021.
  17. "Fiction Book Review: The Arsonists' City by Hala Alyan. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, $26 (464p) ISBN 978-0-358-12655-3". PublishersWeekly.com. Retrieved 2021-10-16.
  18. Salam, Maya (2021-03-09). "A Family Reunites in Beirut, Where the Past Is Never Past". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2021-10-16.
  19. THE ARSONISTS' CITY | Kirkus Reviews.
  20. "The Arsonists' City". BookPage | Discover your next great book!. 2021-02-06. Retrieved 2021-10-16.

References:


Wael Salam. (2022) The Burden of the Past: Memories, Resistance and Existence in Susan Abulhawa's Mornings in Jenin and Hala Alyan's Salt Houses. Interventions 24:1, pages 31–48. https://doi.org/10.1080/1369801X.2020.1863840.

Wael Salam. (2022) The Palestinian Re-experience of Historical Violence: “A Wound Never Completely Scabbed Over”. English Studies 103:1, pages 94–112. https://doi.org/10.1080/0013838X.2021.1997469

Salam, Wael J., and Safi Mahfouz. “Claims of memory: Transgenerational traumas,: fluid identities, and resistance in Hala Alyan’s Salt Houses.” Journal of Postcolonial Writing 56, no. 3 (2020): 296–309. https://doi.org/10.1080/17449855.2020.1755718

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