2019 Winner: Laila Lalami
Laila Lalami was born in Rabat and educated in Morocco, Great Britain, and the United States. She is the author of the novels Hope and Other Dangerous Pursuits, which was a finalist for the Oregon Book Award; Secret Son, which was on the Orange Prize longlist; and The Moor’s Account, which won the American Book Award, the Arab American Book Award, and the Hurston/Wright Legacy Award. It was on the Man Booker Prize longlist and was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize. Her essays and opinion pieces have appeared in the Los Angeles Times, the Washington Post, The Nation, Harper’s, the Guardian, and the New York Times. She writes the “Between the Lines” column for The Nation magazine and is a critic-at-large for the Los Angeles Times. The recipient of a British Council Fellowship, a Fulbright Fellowship, and a Guggenheim Fellowship, she is currently a professor of creative writing at the University of California at Riverside. Her new novel, The Other Americans, will be published by Pantheon in March 2019. You can order it on IndieBound and Amazon.
“I’m thrilled to receive the Simpson/Joyce Carol Oates Prize and honored to be in the esteemed company of the other finalists. This award is a wonderful gift of time, which I will use to work on my next project, a book of nonfiction about the relationship between the citizen and the state, exploring the ways in which it can be undermined by race, gender, and national origin. This is a book I have been writing for a while, but it feels especially pressing at this particular moment in American history. I look forward to meeting members of the Berkeley English Department and the Lafayette Library and Learning Center, and to discussing our shared passion for storytelling.”
“Laila Lalami is a writer of exquisite gifts—lyric, mythic, gritty and trenchant in her vision of America. Whether her storytelling is boldly surreal or intimately confiding, it is always compelling. The Moor’s Account is a magical achievement.”
– Joyce Carol Oates
“It requires the genius of Laila Lalami to take news ripped from 16th-century headlines and tell in The Moor’s Account a rollicking, urgent, whip-smart tale that moves readers in the 21st. The author of several magnificently accomplished works of fiction, including her just-published novel The Other Americans, as well as stylish and powerful essays and opinion pieces, she stood out even in the most distinguished company of the immensely talented Finalists. Ms. Lalami brilliantly guides us through the labyrinth of the past, and she illuminates the shadowy stories of our lives here and now, wherever and whoever we are. That is why the Simpson Project looks forward to celebrating her and her magisterial writing with our communities at the Lafayette Library and Learning Center and the University of California, Berkeley—and indeed with the whole Bay Area and beyond.”
– Joseph Di Prisco, Chair, Simpson Literary Project
“Nowadays, even as we face a multiplicity of stern parochialisms, Laila Lalami’s powerful novel The Other Americans reminds us that—in this country built on the backs of slaves and immigrants—we all of us in our solitude, whether we know it or not, are profoundly informed by the dreamscapes (the joys and sorrows), the desires and beliefs of people we might very well regard as Other. Put simply, The Other Americans is a poignant and moving paean to the inexorability of global and social interconnectedness.”
– Erroll McDonald, Vice President & Executive Editor, The Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group
“Laila Lalami is a consummate story teller whose work broadens and deepens our notion of the American voice. Her novels portray the immigrant experience across centuries, combining that heart-wrenching history with tender personal intimacies that resonate universally and reveal once again the redemptive powers of storytelling. These are remarkable achievements by a writer whose groundbreaking work will be read for decades.”
– David Wood, Simpson Project Committee, Teacher at Northgate High School, Walnut Creek, California
“Laila Lalami is a pure wonder. She is a world-class writer and an inspired choice to succeed our previous Prize Recipients, T. Geronimo Johnson and Anthony Marra. We take tremendous pleasure in planning to feature her throughout the year, and we fully expect that our diverse communities will warmly, and justifiably, welcome her into their hearts.”
– Beth Needel, Executive Director, Lafayette Library and Learning Center