Hala Alyan

Hala Alyan was born in Carbondale, Illinois. She grew up in Kuwait, Oklahoma, Texas, Maine, and Lebanon. She holds a BA from the American University of Beirut, an MA from Columbia University, and a PsyD from Rutgers University. 

Alyan is the author of five books of poetry, including The Moon that Turns You Back (Ecco, 2024); The Twenty-Ninth Year (Mariner Books, 2019); Hijra (Southern Illinois University, 2016), winner of the 2016 Crab Orchard Series in Poetry; and Atrium (Three Rooms Press, 2012), winner of the 2013 Arab American Book Award. 

Alyan is also the author of the novels The Arsonists’ City (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2021), a finalist for the Aspen Words Literary Prize, and Salt Houses (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2017), winner of the Dayton Literary Peace Prize and the Arab American Book Award, and a finalist for the Chautauqua Prize. She is also the author of the memoir I’ll Tell You When I’m Home (Avid Reader Press / Simon & Schuster, 2025).

Alyan was also awarded a Lannan Foundation Fellowship. She works as a clinical psychologist and lives in Brooklyn, New York.