Lena Khalaf Tuffaha (author of Arab In Newsland, Two Sylvias Press, 2017)
Winner of the 2016 Two Sylvias Press Chapbook Prize, judged by January Gill O'Neil
Lena Khalaf Tuffaha has lived the experiences of first-generation American, immigrant, and expatriate. Her heritage is Palestinian, Jordanian, and Syrian and she is fluent in Arabic and English, and has academic proficiency in French. She has lived in and traveled across the Arab world, and many of her poems are inspired by the experience of crossing cultural, geographic and political borders, borders between languages, between the present and the living past. Lena writes poetry, essays and translations. Her essays have been published in the Seattle Times, Al-Ahram Weekly, and Kenyon Review Online. She translated the screenplay for the multi award-winning feature film When I Saw You, written and directed by Annemarie Jacir. When I Saw You premiered at the Toronto Film Festival in 2012 and was Palestine's official submission to the 2012 Academy Awards. She translated I Am A Guest on This Earth by Iraqi poet Faiza Sultan, published by Dar Safi Press.
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