Nathalie Handal has been described as a “contemporary Orpheus.” She is the author of ten award-winning books, including Life in a Country Album (University of Pittsburgh Press, 2019), winner of the Palestine Book Award, and The Republics (University of Pittsburgh Press, 2015), lauded as “one of the most inventive books by one of today’s most diverse writers,” winner of the Virginia Faulkner Award for Excellence in Writing and the Arab American Book Award. She is a professor at New York University.