Hala Alyan is the author of several poetry books and the novel Salt Houses. In Paris, she worked on her novel, The Arsonists’ City, published in March 2021, about a family that unravels as its members come together to sell their ancestral home in Beirut. Alyan lives in New York, and is also a licensed psychologist.

The American Library in Paris Visiting Fellowship was created in 2013 to nurture and sustain a heritage as old as the Library itself: deepening French-American understanding. The Visiting Fellowship offer writers and researchers an opportunity to pursue a creative project in Paris for a month or longer while participating actively in the life of the American Library.

The Visiting Fellowship is made possible through the generous support of The de Groot Foundation.