Lena Khalaf Tuffaha

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: ''Letters from the Interior'' (Diode Editions); the 2018 Washington State Book Award winner ''Water & Salt'' (Red Hen Press); the 2016 Two Sylvias Press Prize winner ''Arab in Newsland'' (Two Sylvias Press), ''Kaan and Her Sisters'' (Trio House Press, July 2023), finalist for the 2024 Firecracker Award. Her 2024 collection ''Something About Living,'' was winner of the 2022 Akron Prize for Poetry from University of Akron Press and longlisted for the National Book Award for Poetry. 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. 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. Khalaf Tuffaha holds a BA in Comparative Literature from the University of Washington and an MFA from the Rainier Writing Workshop at Pacific Lutheran University. Based in Washington, Khalaf Tuffaha has also served as spokesperson for the Seattle, WA chapter of the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee. Provided by Wikipedia