Professor Wins the Arab American Book Award for Poetry

Nathalie Handal, a professor of English at Columbia University and a professor in the low-residency creative writing program at Sierra Nevada College, has been selected to received the The George Ellenbogen Poetry Award as part of the 2016 Arab American Book Awards. The awards honor books written by or about Arab Americans and are presented by the Arab American Museum in Dearborn, Michigan. Professor Handal will be celebrated on October 24 in New York City.

Professor Handal is being honored for her book The Republics (University of Pittsburgh Press, 2015). The collection of poems was inspired by the author’s trip to Haiti in the aftermath of the devastating 2010 earthquake. Professor Handal was born in Haiti to Palestinian parents.

Professor Handel has taught at Columbia University and Sierra Nevada College since 2004. She holds a master of fine arts degree from Bennington College in Vermont and a master’s degree from the University of London.