Laila Lalami

Laila Lalami is the author of six books, including The Moor’s Account, which won the American Book Award, the Arab-American Book Award, and the Hurston / Wright Legacy Award. It was on the longlist for the Booker Prize and was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in Fiction. Her next novel, The Other Americans, was a national bestseller, won the Joyce Carol Oates Prize, and was a finalist for the National Book Award in Fiction. Her books have been translated into over twenty languages. Her essays have appeared in the The Nation, Harper’s, the Guardian, and the New York Times Magazine.  She has been awarded fellowships from the British Council, the Fulbright Program, the Guggenheim Foundation, and the Radcliffe Institute at Harvard University.  She lives in Los Angeles.  Her new novel, The Dream Hotel, was published in March 2025.


Articles by Laila Lalami

Black-and-white portrait of a woman with curly hair next to bold white text reading “WE WILL EMERGE” on a dark, abstract background with orange accents, capturing the spirit of voter engagement during the 2020 election.
Global Free ExpressionU.S. Free Expression
Thursday October 29

Why Vote?

“The ballot is the only means we have to evaluate the public servants whose salaries we all pay, whether we choose to vote or not.”

Banned BooksU.S. Free Expression
Monday September 22

On Beauty: Banning Toni Morrison’s The Bluest Eye

The narrative that Pecola absorbs from the world around her is simple. It tells her that to be beautiful is to be white. It shapes her identity at the same time as it threatens it.