| Lena Khalaf Tuffaha | |
| Notable Works: | 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: 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),[1] Kaan and Her Sisters (Trio House Press, July 2023), finalist for the 2024 Firecracker Award. Her collection Something About Living, was winner of the 2024 National Book Award for Poetry[2] and the 2022 Akron Prize for Poetry from University of Akron Press. 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.[3] [4] 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.[5] 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.[6] Based in Washington, Khalaf Tuffaha has also served as spokesperson for the Seattle, WA chapter of the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee.[7]