About the Author (from the Narrative Bio at https://lailalalami.com/about/)
"I was born to a working-class family in Rabat, Morocco, and grew up in a house full of books. One of my earliest memories is watching my mother and father, sitting on either end of the sofa, each with a book in their hands. My family spoke Moroccan Arabic at home, and I learned Standard Arabic and French in elementary school. I’ve been writing stories since I was nine years old, first in French and later in English. I hold a Licence ès Lettres in English from Université Mohammed-V; a Master of Arts degree in Linguistics from University College, London; and a Ph.D. in Linguistics from the University of Southern California.
My first book, the collection of short stories Hope and Other Dangerous Pursuits (Algonquin, 2005), is about a group of Moroccan immigrants who cross the Mediterranean on a lifeboat. My second book, the novel Secret Son (Algonquin, 2009), tells the story of a young man from a Casablanca slum who discovers the identity of his real father, leading him on a journey that has devastating personal and political consequences. My third book, The Moor’s Account (Pantheon, 2014), is based on the true story of the first black explorer of America, a Moroccan slave known as Estebanico, who was part of the Narváez expedition to Florida in 1528. My most recent book, The Other Americans (Pantheon, 2019), is about the suspicious death of a Moroccan immigrant in California, which sets off a chain of events that reveals a family’s secrets, a small town’s hypocrisies, and the ties that bind people together.
I never expected to become an immigrant or to be writing fiction in English, but these two decisions have had a profound impact on my creative and critical thinking. My fiction frequently deals with themes of home, and my characters tend to be outsiders, people who don’t quite fit in anywhere..."
Additional biographical information can be found at the Writer's Conference Website, the author's site and this Research Guide.