Laila LalamiLaila Lalami was born in Rabat, and educated in Morocco, where she earned her B.A. in English from Université Mohammed V in Rabat. She earned her M.A. from University College, London, and her Ph.D. in linguistics from the University of Southern California. Her work has appeared in The Boston Globe, The Los Angeles Times, The Nation, The New York Times, The Washington Post and elsewhere, and has been widely anthologized.

Secret Son, a novelHer debut book of fiction, Hope and Other Dangerous Pursuits, was published in the fall of 2005 and has since been translated into Spanish, Dutch, French, Portuguese, and Italian. The book touches on a theme familiar to many Americans: illegal immigration. However, this collection of short stories tells of young people making a harrowing journey by boat from Morocco to Spain, all in search of a better life. She was short-listed for the Caine Prize for African Writing in 2006. She is currently Assistant Professor of Creative Writing at the University of California Riverside. Her first novel, Secret Son, will be published in April 2009. While Lalami’s North African upbringing influences both her writing and her teaching, she uses her full life experience to “inform her work.” Visit her site.