Hayan Charara, (PhD, University of Houston, MA, New York University, MA, John W. Draper Interdisciplinary Master's Program, BA, Wayne State University)
Associate Professor
Contact Information:
Phone: 210-434-6711, ext. 4003
E-mail: hcharara@lake.ollusa.edu
BIO:
Hayan Charara is the author of two poetry books, The Alchemist's Diary (Hanging Loose, 2001), named a Publishers Weekly "Notable Debut," and The Sadness of Others (Carnegie Mellon, 2006), nominated for the National Book Award. He also edited the critically-acclaimed Inclined to Speak: An Anthology of Contemporary Arab American Poetry (University of Arkansas, 2008). He is a recipient of a National Endowment for the Arts fellowship, the Lucille Joy Prize in Poetry, and has been nominated several times for the Pushcart Prize. His children's book, The Three Lucys, received the New Voices Award Honor from Lee & Low Books.
Since 1996, he has taught literature and writing at more than a dozen colleges and universities, including the University of Houston, the University of Texas at Austin, St. Edward's University, Trinity University, Queens College in New York, and Wayne State University in Detroit. His teaching interests include modern and contemporary poetry, postcolonial literature and theory, modern theory, modern and contemporary American literature, and Arab American literature.
He holds a PhD in Literature and Creative Writing from the University of Houston, an MA from the John W. Draper Interdisciplinary Master's Program in Humanities and Social Thought, and a BA in English from Wayne State University. He is also the president of the national writers organization, RAWI (the Radius of Arab American Writers, Inc).