By Hayan Charara

I graduated from Wayne State University in Detroit and went on to earn my master’s degree from the John W. Draper Program in Humanities and Social Thought at New York University. My area of study as a graduate student was social and critical theory and cultural anthropology.

After completing my MA, I taught at Bergen Community College and at New Jersey City University. I spent a year in Detroit, my hometown, teaching at my alma mater, Wayne State University, as well as at Henry Ford Community College.

My “specialty” is creative writing—recently, my first collection of poetry was published by Hanging Loose Press. The collection, titled The Alchemist’s Diary, has received very strong reviews. The Midwest Book Review has called the collection the work of “an extraordinary poet,” and Publishers Weekly featured the book underits “Notable Debuts” section.
Jim Daniels, author of Blessing the House and M-80 and co-editor of American Poetry: The Next Generation, described The Alchemist’s Diary as “the work of a poet who possesses a healthy dose of humility and openness to the wonder and the terror of this world…these poems, both hard-bitten and meditative, capture beautifully the struggle” to remember and not forget.

I am also the editor of an annual literary anthology, Graffiti Rag, which has been published since 1994. Last year, I received a Van Lier Literary Fellowship from the Bronx Writers Center, and several poems were nominated for the Pushcart Prize.

I am currently working on a novel, The Mythology of Love and Hate, and a series of personal essays that focus on my upbringing in Detroit as the son of Muslim immigrant parents.