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Laila Halaby

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Laila Halaby


Born
Beirut, Lebanon
Website

Genre
Fiction, Poetry, Memoir


Laila Halaby was born in Beirut, Lebanon, to a Jordanian father and an American mother. She speaks four languages, won a Fulbright scholarship to study folklore in Jordan, and holds a master's degree in Arabic literature.

Halaby is the author of two (Beacon Press) novels, Once in a Promised Land (voted one of the top 100 works of fiction in 2007 by the Washington Post, also a Barnes and Noble Discover Great New Writers selection) and West of the Jordan (winner of a PEN Beyond Margins award), a memoir, The Weight of Ghosts (Red Hen Press), and two collections of poetry, why an author writes to a guy holding a fish (2leaf Press) and my name on his tongue (Syracuse University Press). Laila was the recipient of a Fulbright scholarship and holds ...more

Combine Editions

Average rating: 3.55 · 691 ratings · 96 reviews · 7 distinct works • Similar authors
Once in a Promised Land
3.48 avg rating — 379 ratings — published 2007 — 11 editions
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West of the Jordan
3.50 avg rating — 250 ratings — published 2003 — 9 editions
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my name on his tongue: poems
4.32 avg rating — 37 ratings — published 2012 — 3 editions
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The Weight of Ghosts
3.74 avg rating — 19 ratings — published 2023 — 2 editions
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Hair, Prayer, and Men
3.50 avg rating — 4 ratings — published 2008 — 3 editions
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Magnolia, A Journal of Wome...
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it was amazing 5.00 avg rating — 1 rating — published 2013
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why an author writes to a g...
it was amazing 5.00 avg rating — 1 rating — published 2022
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More books by Laila Halaby…
Quotes by Laila Halaby  (?)
Quotes are added by the Goodreads community and are not verified by Goodreads. (Learn more)

“...As with many American conversations, the words he spoke had not conveyed what he had intended by them. He could never decide if it was his English, his actual use of language, or if it was because people didn't really listen and instead put into the words they heard the words they expected to hear.”
― Laila Halaby
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“my rage quiets
throughout the sweet morning
filled with giggles”
― Laila Halaby, my name on his tongue: poems
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“beautiful fields
are still beautiful
only now they're littered
with shrapnel and death,
the kind that makes people,
see crooked
breathe rage
swear revenge”
― Laila Halaby, my name on his tongue: poems
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Topics Mentioning This Author

topics posts views last activity  
Our Shared Shelf: Feminist/Notable Female Poets? 44 2035 Oct 26, 2018 02:23PM  
Around the World ...: calzean - Frequent Flyer 2018 177 158 Oct 26, 2018 11:52PM  
Around the World ...: Calzean - Circumnavigator 117 263 May 06, 2021 12:32AM  
Around the World ...: Jordan 24 1800 Jan 08, 2025 09:01PM  
Around the World ...: Israel and Palestine 73 1381 Jan 11, 2025 08:55AM  


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