Lena Khalaf Tuffaha | |
|---|---|
 Tuffaha at the 2024 National Book Awards finalists reading | |
| Born | Seattle, Washington, U.S. |
| Notable work | Something About Living |
| Website | https://www.lenakhalaftuffaha.com |
Lena Khalaf Tuffaha is a poet, essayist, and translator. She is co-founder of the Institute for Middle East Understanding and the author of five works of poetry.
Contents
Letters from the Interior was published in 2019 by Diode Editions. Water & Salt was published by Red Hen Press and won the 2018 Washington State Book Award. Arab in Newsland was published by Two Sylvias Press and won the 2016 Two Sylvias Press Prize. [1] Kaan and Her Sisters, published by Trio House Press in 2023, was a finalist for the 2024 Firecracker Award.
Khalaf Tuffaha's collection Something About Living won the 2024 National Book Award for Poetry [2] and the 2022 Akron Poetry Prize. It was selected by the American Library Association as a Notable Book in 2025 [3] and shortlisted for the 2025 PEN Heaney Prize. [4]
Khalaf Tuffaha is the recipient of a 2019 Washington State Artist Trust Fellowship and the inaugural Poet-In-Residence at Open Books: A Poem Emporium in Seattle, Washington. [5] [6] Her writing has appeared or is forthcoming in Barrow Street, Hayden's Ferry Review, Michigan Quarterly Review, New England Review, TriQuarterly, and the Academy of American Poets Poem-a-Day series. [7]
Khalaf Tuffaha holds a BA in Comparative Literature from the University of Washington and an MFA in creative writing from Pacific Lutheran University. [8] Based in Washington, Khalaf Tuffaha has also served as spokesperson for the Seattle chapter of the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee. [9]
