Arab writers win big at US National Book Award

Lena Khalaf Tuffaha and Shifa Saltagi Safadi delve into the Arab American experience in their literary works

Shifa Saltagi Safadi won in the young people’s literature category at the celebrated US awards. AP

Palestinian-American poet Lena Khalaf Tuffaha and the Syrian-American author Shifa Saltagi Safadi are celebrating wins at the US National Book Award.

The annual literary prize recognises the best works published by American authors across several categories, including fiction, non-fiction, poetry, translated literature and young people's literature.

Safadi won the latter category for her novel Kareem Between. It is a coming-of-age story, which follows the journey of a seventh-grade Syrian-American boy and his struggles as he makes his way through school.

Safadi is an author, educator and book reviewer who was born in Syria and emigrated to the US with her parents when she was young. Aside from teaching English at a local school, she reviewed Muslim books on her blog, Muslim Mommy Blog.

She has previously written other middle-grade books about the Arab American experience and stories that delve into the facets of the Muslim experience, including Spell it Like Samar, Heaven at Mama's Feet and Pepperoni, Pitches (and Other Problems).

Khalaf Tuffaha won the poetry category for her collection Something About Living. The collection weaves Palestine's history and the challenges Tuffaha faces living in a world of violence and themes such as diaspora, colonialism and greed as well as the hope and small delights people hold on to survive.

Khalaf Tuffaha is a poet, essayist and translator of Palestinian, Jordanian and Syrian descent. She has written other poetry collections including Water & Salt, which won the 2018 Washington State Book Award for Poetry and Kaan and Her Sisters. Her work often explores the experiences of first-generation Americans and immigrants as well as themes such as cultural identity, borders and language.

Both Safadi and Khalaf Tuffaha received a $10,000 cash prize. Three others received the same prize in other categories: Lin King in translated literature for Yang Shuang-zi’s Taiwan Travelogue; Jason De Leon in non-fiction for Soldiers and Kings: Survival and Hope in the World of Human Smuggling; and Percival Everett, who received the award for fiction for his novel James, a reimagining of Mark Twain’s The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn.