Hayan Charara

The son of Lebanese immigrants, Hayan Charara grew up in Detroit, Michigan. He is a poet, children’s book author, essayist, and editor. He earned a BA in English from Wayne State University, an MA in humanities from New York University, and a PhD in literature and creative writing from the University of Houston. He is the author of the poetry collections The Alchemist’s Diary (2001), The Sadness of Others (2006), Something Sinister (Carnegie Mellon, 2016), and These Trees, Those Leaves, This Flower, That Fruit (forthcoming 2022). His work often explores family, loss, identity, and the experience of growing up Arab American in Detroit.
 
Charara is the editor of the annual literary anthology Graffiti Rag; he also edited Inclined to Speak: An Anthology of Contemporary Arab American Poetry (2008). His honors include fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts, the Lucille Joy Prize in Poetry from the University of Houston Creative Writing Program, the John Clare Prize, and the Arab American Book Award. His children’s book The Three Lucys won the Lee & Low Books’ New Voices Award Honor.

Charara teaches creative writing at the University of Houston. He is married with two children.