Friend,

As we continue to celebrate Arab American Heritage Month it's important to remember our roots, our ties to one another, and our connection to the American immigrant experience. The journey hasn't always been easy, but like any challenge, it reminds us of what we value most. This month, as we elevate one another and share our culture with community and friends, I'm reflecting on what it means to be Arab American and how grateful I am for the hard work, courage, and support for one another so many of you have shown.

To mark Arab American Heritage Month, I'm delighted to share the story of best-selling and award-winning writer and author Laila Lalami. Perhaps, like so many of us, she never expected to become an immigrant, but her experiences led to the creation of an amazing body of work that truly speaks to the immigrant experience today. I hope you enjoy reading a bit about Laila Lalami. Look for another story highlighting an Arab American making a meaningful contribution next week.

A love of books. That's one of Laila Lalami's earliest memories of her working-class family in Rabat, Morocco. Her mother and father sat opposite each other on the sofa, each with a book in their hands, each of them devoted readers. Despite neither of her parents having a college education, Laila grew up in what she describes as a "house full of books" imbibing that love of language and the written word.

Laila's love of literature has not gone unrequited. Over the last 15 years, Laila Lalami has emerged as the voice of the modern-day Arab American immigrant experience. Although she never expected to become an immigrant herself, Laila attributes her immigrant experience and her decision to write in English as having a "profound impact" on her creative and critical thinking. In her best-selling and award-winning novels, she explores the themes of home and belonging, and in her words “of people that don’t quite fit anywhere.”

Laila’s writing gives voice to Arab Americans' unique immigrant story and weaves it within the fabric of the American dream – both as a celebration of that undying immigrant spirit, but also as a keen light on the tribulations of what it means to both leave and find home.

In three of her award-winning and best-selling books, Laila bridges her Arab roots and native Morocco with the experience of becoming American. The Moor’s Account was based on the true story of the first black explorer of America, an enslaved man from Morocco who was part of the Narváez expedition to Florida in 1528. A history too many Americans are unfamiliar with, this book sheds light on themes that continue to challenge us today. The book was a semi-finalist for the Booker Prize and a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize for fiction.

Her most recent novel, The Other Americans, is about the suspicious death of a Moroccan immigrant in California, which sets off a chain of events that reveals a family’s secrets, a small town’s hypocrisies, and the ties that bind people together. It's a window into an America often missed entirely by mainstream entertainment media but one that is recognizable because of the humanity it portrays. It was a national bestseller, a best-of-the-year selection by NPR, Time, the Washington Post, and Variety, and was named a finalist for the Kirkus Prize and the 2019 National Book Award in Fiction.

In Conditional Citizens: On Belonging in America, Laila takes a sharp and sobering look at the tribulations of American identity and citizenship in a collection of critical essays. An important must-read for the times in which we find ourselves, Laila lays bare an American caste system where white supremacy adapts and thrives. Her first book of nonfiction, Conditional Citizens was named a best book of the year by Time, NPR, the L.A. Times, and Alta, and was on the longlist for the Andrew Carnegie Medal for Excellence in Nonfiction.

Laila’s critical debut as a novelist was a collection of short stories, Hope and Other Dangerous Pursuits, about a group of Moroccan immigrants who cross the Mediterranean on a lifeboat. The book humanized the plight of hundreds of thousands of people who cross the Mediterranean in search of a better life and shed light on the legacy of colonialism.

Even with her literary success, Laila continues to teach creative writing at the University of California, Riverside. She was the recipient of the prestigious Guggenheim Fellowship and was selected as a Young Global Leader at the 2009 World Economic Forum.

Laila Lalami is an inspiration to Arab Americans, and we are proud to be sharing her with the rest of the world!

Check out what Laila is up to here: https://lailalalami.com/

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Arab American Institute Foundation
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