Hala Alyan Explained

Hala Alyan
Birth Date:27 July 1986
Birth Place:Carbondale, Illinois, U.S.
Nationality:Palestinian-American
Alma Mater:Rutgers University
Awards:2013 - Arab American Book Award
2018 - Dayton Literary Peace Prize

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 and Tallahassee (directed by Darine Hotait).[1] [2]

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 is a Clinical Assistant Professor of Applied Psychology at New York University.[4] She and her husband live in Brooklyn, New York.[5]

Awards and works

Alyan's poems have been published in various journals and literary magazines including The New Yorker, the Academy of American Poets, Guernica, Jewish Currents among others.[6] [7] [8] [9]

In her first novel, Salt Houses, the Yacoub family is forced to leave their home in Nablus, Palestine in the wake of the Six-Day War of 1967. They move to Kuwait City and reluctantly try and rebuild their life. But when Sadam Hussein invades Kuwait in 1990, the family again lose their home, their land and their story, scattering to Beirut, Paris, Boston and beyond.[10] [11]

In 2013, Alyan's poetry collection, Atrium, received an award from the Arab American National Museum.[12] [13] In 2018, she won the Dayton Literary Peace Prize, an award given to writers whose writing is believed to promote peace.[14] [15] She was also a visiting fellow at the American Library in Paris in the fall of 2018.

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
Anthologies

Essays

Further reading

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.

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

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.

Notes and References

  1. Web site: 'Tallahassee' Tackles Mental Health Stigma in Arab-American Communities. egyptianstreets.com. Amina. Zaineldine. October 17, 2021. 2021-11-22.
  2. Web site: I Say Dust. newfilmmakersonline.com. 2021-11-22.
  3. Web site: 'Ink Knows No Borders' tells story of immigrant and refugee experience through poetry. Claire. Keyes. North of Boston. July 11, 2019. July 11, 2019. https://web.archive.org/web/20190711162805/https://northofboston.wickedlocal.com/news/20190628/ink-knows-no-borders-tells-story-of-immigrant-and-refugee-experience-through-poetry. dead.
  4. Web site: Hala Nafez Alyan NYU Steinhardt . 2024-03-03 . steinhardt.nyu.edu . en.
  5. News: Masad . Ilana. 3 May 2017 . Middle East, Middle Class: Pain and Privilege in Hala Alyan's 'Salt Houses' . Los Angeles . 3 November 2018.
  6. Alyan. Hala. 1 December 2014. Meals. Missouri Review. University of Missouri. 3 November 2018.
  7. LaBerge. Peter. Biggs. Garrett. August 2017. CAN I APOLOGIZE NOW. The Adroit Journal. 22. 3 November 2018.
  8. Web site: Magazine. Poetry. 4 March 2019. Honeymoon by Hala Alyan. Poetry Foundation.
  9. Book: Being Palestinian : personal reflections on Palestinian identity in the diaspora. 2016. Yasir Suleiman. 978-0-7486-3403-3. Edinburgh. 63. 963672141.
  10. Web site: Salt Houses . 2024-03-03 . Goodreads . en.
  11. Web site: Code Switch Book Club, Summer 2019. NPR.org.
  12. Web site: 2013 Arab American Book Award Winners . Arab American National Museum . 3 November 2018 . November 3, 2018 . https://web.archive.org/web/20181103210139/http://www.arabamericanmuseum.org/2013.book.award.winners#book3 . dead .
  13. Web site: Hala Alyan. Poetry. Foundation. 3 March 2019. Poetry Foundation.
  14. Web site: Hemley. Robin. 2018 Fiction Winner - Salt Houses. 3 November 2018. Dayton Literary Peace Prize. The Ohio Public Library Network.
  15. Web site: September 19, 2018. Hala Alyan, Ta-Nehisi Coates win Dayton Literary Peace Prize. AP NEWS.
  16. Web site: The Arsonists' City . Houghton Mifflin Harcourt . 20 March 2021.
  17. Web site: Fiction Book Review: The Arsonists' City by Hala Alyan. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, $26 (464p) ISBN 978-0-358-12655-3. 2021-10-16. PublishersWeekly.com. en.
  18. News: Salam. Maya. 2021-03-09. A Family Reunites in Beirut, Where the Past Is Never Past. en-US. The New York Times. 2021-10-16. 0362-4331.
  19. Book: THE ARSONISTS' CITY Kirkus Reviews. en.
  20. Web site: 2021-02-06. The Arsonists' City. 2021-10-16. BookPage Discover your next great book!. en-US.
  21. News: Alyan . Hala . 2024-01-28 . 'I am not there and I am not here': a Palestinian American poet on bearing witness to atrocity . 2024-03-03 . The Guardian . en-GB . 0261-3077.
  22. 2024-01-17 . The Power of Changing Your Mind . 2024-03-03 . TIME . en.
  23. Web site: 2023-12-20 . What a Palestinian-American Wants You To Know About Dehumanization . 2024-03-03 . Teen Vogue . en-US.
  24. News: Alyan . Hala . Darbha . Vishakha . 2023-11-01 . Opinion If Palestinian Freedom Makes You Uneasy, Ask Yourself Why . 2024-03-03 . The New York Times . en-US . 0362-4331.
  25. News: Alyan . Hala . 2023-10-25 . Opinion The Palestine Double Standard . 2024-03-03 . The New York Times . en-US . 0362-4331.
  26. Web site: 2019-01-21 . A Letter to my Husband – Hala Alyan . 2024-03-03 . Emergence Magazine . en-US.

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