Hala Alyan
Hala Alyan (born July 27, 1986) is a Palestinian-American writer, poet, and clinical psychologist specializing in trauma, addiction, and cross-cultural behavior. She is the author of the novels Salt Houses (2017) and The Arsonists' City (2021), the memoir I'll Tell You When I'm Home (2025), and five poetry collections. Alyan's honors include an Arab American Book Award in 2013 and the Dayton Literary Peace Prize in 2018.
Hala Alyan
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- Name
- Hala Alyan
- Born
- 27 July 1986
- Birthplace
- Carbondale, Illinois, U.S.
- Occupation
- * Poet
- Education
- * American University of Beirut
- Awards
- * Arab American Book Award (2013)
- Nationality
- Palestine
- Honours
- Dayton Literary Peace Prize
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Documentary summary
Hala Alyan (born July 27, 1986) is a Palestinian-American writer, poet, and clinical psychologist specializing in trauma, addiction, and cross-cultural behavior. She is the author of the novels Salt Houses (2017) and The Arsonists' City (2021), the memoir I'll Tell You When I'm Home (2025), and five poetry collections. Alyan's honors include an Arab American Book Award in 2013 and the Dayton Literary Peace Prize in 2018.
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In this article
Biography
Biography
Her memoir I'll Tell You When I'm Home won the GLCA New Writers Award for creative nonfiction in 2026 and was longlisted for the 2025 National Book Critics Circle Award. The book was a finalist for the 2026 Pulitzer Prize.
Key facts
Key facts
• Name — Hala Alyan • Born — 27 July 1986 • Birthplace — Carbondale, Illinois, U.S. • Occupation — * Poet • Novelist • Clinical psychologist • Education — * American University of Beirut • Columbia University • Rutgers University • Notable Works — * Salt Houses • The Arsonists' City • I'll Tell You When I'm Home • Awards — * Arab American Book Award (2013) • Dayton Literary Peace Prize (2018) • GLCA New Writers Award (2026) • National Book Critics Circle Award (Autobiography longlist, 2025) • Website — https: www.halaalyan.com
Early life and career
Early life and career
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. She graduated from the American University of Beirut and from Columbia University. She received her doctorate in clinical psychology at Rutgers University and is a Clinical Assistant Professor of Applied Psychology at New York University. She and her husband live in Brooklyn, New York.
Novels
Novels
* *
Memoir
Memoir
*
Poetry
Poetry
• Collections • Atrium (2005) • Four Cities (2015) • Hijra (2016) • The Twenty-Ninth Year (2019) • The Moon That Turns You Back (2024) • Anthologies • We Call to the Eye & the Night: Love Poems by Writers of Arab Heritage (2023) edited by Hala Alyan & Zeina Hashem Beck
Essays
Essays
• "'I am not there and I am not here': a Palestinian American poet on bearing witness to atrocity" in The Guardian (January 28, 2024) • "The Power of Changing Your Mind" in TIME (January 17, 2024) • "What a Palestinian-American Wants You To Know about Dehumanization" in Teen Vogue (December 20, 2023) • If Palestinian Freedom Makes You Uneasy, Ask Yourself Why" in The New York Times (November 1, 2023) • "The Palestine Double Standard" in The New York Times (October 25, 2023) • A Letter to My Husband" in Emergency Magazine (January 21, 2019) • "In Dust," essay appearing in Being Palestinian: Personal Reflections on Palestinian Identity in the Diaspora, edited by Yasir Suleiman (2016)
Awards and works
Alyan's work has been published in a range of journals and literary magazines, including The New Yorker, the Academy of American Poets, Guernica, and Jewish Currents, among others. Examples of her poems published online include "Meals" (The Missouri Review) and "Honeymoon" (Poetry). In her first novel, Salt Houses, Alyan follows multiple generations of the fictional Yacoub family, tracing their lives across decades and major regional upheavals, including displacement following the Six-Day War of 1967 and later disruption during the 1990 Gulf War. In 2018, Alyan's novel Salt Houses won the Arab American Book Award (Adult fiction) presented by the Arab American National Museum. That year, she also won the Dayton Literary Peace Prize, and in the fall she was a visiting fellow at the American Library in Paris. Her second novel, The Arsonists' City, was published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt on March 9, 2021, and received positive reviews. In 2026, Alyan won the GLCA New Writers Award for creative nonfiction for her memoir I’ll Tell You When I’m Home, which was longlisted for the 2025 National Book Critics Circle Award for Autobiography. It was a finalist for the 2026 Pulitzer Prize for Memoir or Autobiography. In 2013, Alyan won the Arab American Book Award for poetry for her first full-length poetry collection Atrium: Poems.
Notes from the source article
Cited by Wikipedia
Notes from the source article
These works are cited by the source article, in its own numbering. They are recorded as its citations, not as sources VALÉORINE has verified.
- 1.Shearn, Amy. How to Recreate Palestine: Researching Salt Houses. JSTOR Daily. 2017-07-06.
- 2.Alyan, Hala. ‘I am not there and I am not here’: a Palestinian American poet on bearing witness to atrocity. The Guardian. 2024-01-28. 0261-3077.
- 3.Hala Nafez Alyan NYU Steinhardt. steinhardt.nyu.edu.
- 4.Hala Alyan. The Poetry Foundation.
- 5.2013 Arab American Book Award Winners. Arab American National Museum.
- 6.Keyes, Claire. 'Ink Knows No Borders' tells story of immigrant and refugee experience through poetry. North of Boston.
- 7.Hala Alyan. The Poetry Foundation.
- 8.Hala Nafez Alyan NYU Steinhardt. steinhardt.nyu.edu.
- 9.Masad, Ilana. Middle East, Middle Class: Pain and Privilege in Hala Alyan's 'Salt Houses'. 3 May 2017.
- 10.Hala Alyan. Lannan Foundation.
- 11.Hala Alyan. Poetry Center (University of Arizona).
- 12.Hala Alyan. Jewish Currents.
- 13.Alyan, Hala. Meals. Missouri Review. 1 December 2014.
- 14.Magazine, Poetry. Honeymoon by Hala Alyan. Poetry Foundation. 4 March 2019.
- 15.LaBerge, Peter. CAN I APOLOGIZE NOW. The Adroit Journal. 22. August 2017.
- 16.Being Palestinian : personal reflections on Palestinian identity in the diaspora. 63. 2016. 978-0-7486-3403-3.
- 17.Maslin, Janet. Review: In Hala Alyan’s ‘Salt Houses,’ a Palestinian Family’s History Is a Chronicle of Displacement. The New York Times. 5 May 2017.
- 18.Code Switch Book Club, Summer 2019. NPR.org.
- 19.2018 Arab American Book Award Winners. Arab American National Museum.
- 20.Hemley, Robin. 2018 Fiction Winner - Salt Houses. Dayton Literary Peace Prize. The Ohio Public Library Network.
- 21.Hala Alyan, Ta-Nehisi Coates win Dayton Literary Peace Prize. AP NEWS. September 19, 2018.
- 22.Hala Alyan. The American Library in Paris.
- 23.Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. The Arsonists' City.
- 24.Fiction Book Review: The Arsonists' City by Hala Alyan. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, $26 (464p) ISBN 978-0-358-12655-3. PublishersWeekly.com.
- 25.Salam, Maya. A Family Reunites in Beirut, Where the Past Is Never Past. The New York Times. 2021-03-09. 0362-4331.
- 26.THE ARSONISTS' CITY Kirkus Reviews.
- 27.GLCA Announces 2026 Winners of the New Writers Award. Great Lakes Colleges Association.
- 28.2025 NBCC Awards Longlist: Autobiography. National Book Critics Circle. December 16, 2025.
- 29.2026 Pulitzer Prizes. pulitzer.org.
- 30.2026 Pulitzer Prize Finalist in Memoir or Autobiography, Hala Alyan. pulitzer.org.
- 31.2013 Arab American Book Award Winners.
- 32.Sinclair, Safiya. A Palestinian American Memoir of Motherhood, War and Exile. The New York Times. 2025-06-03. 0362-4331.
- 33.Fadel, Leila. Palestinian American writer Hala Alyan finds home and motherhood in a new memoir. NPR. 2025-07-03.
- 34.Farah, Summer. In and Out of the Dark: PW Talks with Hala Alyan. PublishersWeekly.com.
- 35.Chrusciel, Ewa. Grief at the Verge of Revelation: A Conversation with Hala Alyan. The Rumpus. 2024-07-24.
- 36.Alyan, Hala. 'I am not there and I am not here': a Palestinian American poet on bearing witness to atrocity. The Guardian. 2024-01-28. 0261-3077.
- 37.The Power of Changing Your Mind. TIME. 2024-01-17.
- 38.What a Palestinian-American Wants You To Know About Dehumanization. Teen Vogue. 2023-12-20.
- 39.Alyan, Hala. Opinion If Palestinian Freedom Makes You Uneasy, Ask Yourself Why. The New York Times. 2023-11-01. 0362-4331.
- 40.Alyan, Hala. Opinion The Palestine Double Standard. The New York Times. 2023-10-25. 0362-4331.
- 41.A Letter to my Husband – Hala Alyan. Emergence Magazine. 2019-01-21.
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