Laila Lalami (Creative Writing, University of California, Riverside) presents this talk on the interaction of scholarly and artistic creativity. She draws on the research for her most recent novel, The Moor’s Account (2014), which won the American Book Award, the Arab American Book Award, the Hurston/Wright Legacy Award, and was on the Man Booker Prize longlist. It was also a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction. Her other novels include Secret Son (2009) and Hope and Other Dangerous Pursuits (2005). Lalami holds a PhD in Linguistics from the University of Southern California, and her essays and opinion pieces have appeared in the Los Angeles Times, the Washington Post, The Nation, the Guardian, the New York Times, and in many anthologies. She is the recipient of a British Council Fellowship, a Fulbright Fellowship, and a Lannan Foundation Residency Fellowship.

Lalami’s talk occurs in conjunction with Just One Look, an exhibit of newly commissioned art books at UW Libraries Special Collections. The books are inspired by University of Washington humanities faculty, and the exhibit is created as a component of the conference Feminism and Classics VII: Visions.