Laila Lalami

American writer · Writers · Born 1968 · age 58

Laila Lalami is read about 66 times a day, in 19 languages.

Counted to June 24, 2026, not since.

The middle day of the days counted, so one week of news cannot move it. The line under it is the last 60 days, one point a day.

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Laila Lalami is a Moroccan-American novelist, essayist, and professor. After earning her licence ès lettres degree in Morocco, she received a fellowship to study in the United Kingdom (UK), where she earned an MA in linguistics.

A life in dates

2019“There’s a disconnect between how people imagine their families and how families are in real life.”In their wordsOn her novel The Other Americans in “Migrant State of Mind: A Q&A With Novelist Laila Lalami” in The Nation (2019 Apr 23)Read the whole statement

“When you move into a new place, it does involve a refashioning of the self.”In their wordsOn fashioning a new sense of self in “Migrant State of Mind: A Q&A With Novelist Laila Lalami” in The Nation (2019 Apr 23)Read the whole statement

“(What moves you most in a work of literature?) I’m moved by voices that ring so true that they make me feel kinship with characters who are completely different from me.”In their wordswith New York Times (2019)Read the whole statement

“books hold so many memories of the times and places in which I’ve read them.”In their wordswith New York Times (2019)Read the whole statement

2016Guggenheim FellowshipAward2015American Book AwardsAward2014“A name is precious; it carries inside it a language, a history, a set of traditions, a particular way of looking at the world.”In their wordsThe Moor's Account (2014)Read the whole statement

“Nothing new has ever happened to a son of Adam, she said. Everything has already been lived and everything has already been told. If only we listened to the stories. (p52)”In their wordsThe Moor's Account (2014)Read the whole statement

1968Born24 February 1968

Also in Deutsch

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In their own words 10

Laila Lalami

10 statements, newest first

There’s a disconnect between how people imagine their families and how families are in real life.
2019, On her novel The Other Americans in “Migrant State of Mind: A Q&A With Novelist Laila Lalami” in The Nation (2019 Apr 23), Own words
When you move into a new place, it does involve a refashioning of the self.
2019, On fashioning a new sense of self in “Migrant State of Mind: A Q&A With Novelist Laila Lalami” in The Nation (2019 Apr 23), Own words
I think of history as a dialogue with the present, so whenever I’m puzzled by the turn of current events - which is all too often these days - I look to the past for context.
2019, with New York Times (2019), Own words