Nathalie Handal grew up in Latin America, Europe, the United States, and the Middle East of a Palestinian Mediterranean family. She is the author of ten award-winning books, including Life in a Country Album, winner of the Palestine Book Award; The Republics, winner of the Arab American Book Award; and Love and Strange Horses, winner of the Gold Medal Independent Publisher Book Award. Handal is the recipient of awards from the PEN Foundation, Lannan Foundation, Fondazione di Venezia, and the Africa Institute. She is professor at New York University, and writes the column “The City and the Writer” for WWB.