Books by Hala Alyan

On the eve of her daughter Alia's wedding, Salma reads the girl's future in a cup of coffee dregs. Although she keeps her predictions to herself that day, they soon come to pass in the wake of the Six-Day War of 1967. Caught up in the resistance, Alia's brother disappears, while Alia and her husband move from Nablus to Kuwait City.

In Atrium, award-winning Palestinian-American poet Hala Alyan traces lines of global issues in personal spaces, with fervently original imagery, and a fierce passion and intense intimacy that echoes long after initial reading.The book received the 2013 Arab American Book of the Year Award for Poetry, an astounding achievement for a first collection. In addition, Alyan was recently tapped as a finalist in the Nazim Himet Poetry Competition.Already in her young career, Alyan has etched her mark on other award-winning poets who are universal in their praise: “Don''t miss the dazzling Hala Alyan. Wow. When she says ‘the poetry like a spear,’ she isn''t kidding.” —Naomi Shihab Nye; “Hala Alyan’s poems startle us with their beautiful, enigmatic images and capture us with their passionate engagement with the world. A powerful debut.” —Chitra Divakaruni; “For all the stunning angularity in this vision, we do not doubt that what we are seeing and sensing here is a surprising, sharp-edged sense of the real, of a world that had been there all along, just waiting for this poet and these poems to reveal. Start to finish, these poems convey a singular vision and represent an important new voice in the international poetry arena.” —Fred MarchantHala Alyan''s Atrium is truly a remarkable debut by a poet of stunning virtuosity and range.