Laila Lalami is a writer and critic. She lives in Los Angeles.
Laila Lalami was born and raised in Morocco. She studied Linguistics at Université Mohammed-V in Rabat, University College London, and the University of Southern California. Her work has appeared … read more >
Secret Son Book Cover
Secret Son
For years, Youssef, a young man from a Casablanca slum, has heard his mother’s stories about his dead and respectably poor father, stories he used as inspiration for his own life.
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Hope and Other Dangerous Pursiots Book Cover
Hope and Other Dangerous Pursuits
The news was relegated to the bottom of Le Monde’s online page—fifteen Moroccan immigrants had drowned while crossing the Straits of Gibraltar on a fishing boat.
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From the Blog
January 17th, 2012
I've just returned from Death Valley, where I went to decompress a bit after a particularly...
January 10th, 2012
Yesterday was the start of the winter quarter at UC, and, as a warm-up exercise for my...
January 6th, 2012
It's strange how a memory comes back to haunt you when you least expect it. Last month, I...
November 27th, 2011
The last few weeks have been difficult but also instructive for me, both as an educator and...