Laila halaby biography

PERSONAL:

Born 1966, in Lebanon; immigrated to United States as an infant; married Raik Zaghloul; children: two. Education: Washington University, B.A.

ADDRESSES:

Home—Tucson, AZ.

[email protected]

CAREER:

Writer. Arizona College of Public Health, University of Arizona, Tucson, outreach counselor.

AWARDS, HONORS:

Fulbright fellowship, c. 1987, to study folklore in Jordan; PEN Beyond Margins Award, and silver medal for literary fiction, Foreword Magazine, both for West of the Jordan.

WRITINGS:

West of the Jordan (novel), Beacon Press (Boston, MA), 2003.

Once in a Promised Land (novel), Beacon Press (Boston, MA), 2006.

SIDELIGHTS:

The daughter of a Jordanian father and an American mother, Laila Halaby speaks four languages and has traveled widely in the Middle East.

She was drawn to write about the Arab American experience after spending a year in Jordan on a Fulbright scholarship. The result was her debut novel, West of the Jordan