Hala Alyan

Hala Alyan is the author of the novels Salt Houses (HarperCollins, 2017), winner of the Dayton Literary Peace Prize and the Arab American Book Award, and The Arsonists’ City (HarperCollins, 2022), a finalist for the Aspen Words Literary Prize. Her debut memoir, I’ll Tell You When I’m Home (Avid Reader Press, 2026), was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize. She is also the author of five collections of poetry, most recently The Moon That Turns You Back (HarperCollins, 2024). Her work has appeared in The New Yorker, Poets.org, AGNI, The New York Times, The Guardian, and Guernica. She is a clinical psychologist and professor at New York University and lives in Brooklyn with her family. (updated 10/2026)