Lena Khalaf Tuffaha has lived the experiences of first-generation American, immigrant, and expatriate. Her heritage is Palestinian, Jordanian, and Syrian and she is fluent in Arabic and English. She has lived in and traveled across the Arab world, and many of her poems are inspired by the experience of crossing cultural, geographic and political borders, borders between languages, between the present and the living past.
Lena writes poetry, essays and translations. She is the author of three books of poetry: Water and Salt (Red Hen Press), for which she won the 2018 Washington State Book Award for Poetry, Kaan and Her Sisters (July 2023), the 2022 Editors' Selection by Trio House Press, and Something About Living (U of Akron Press, 2024), which was chosen by poet Adrian Matejka for the 2022 Akron Prize for Poetry.
She has also published two poetry chapbooks: Arab in Newsland, winner of the 2016 Two Sylvias Prize and Letters from the Interior (diode editions, 2019).
Lena's essays and book reviews have been published in journals and newspapers including Seattle Times, Al-Ahram Weekly, Poetry Northwest, Los Angeles Review of Books, and Kenyon Review Online. Her essay, "Muhammads in Gaza," published in Porter House Review, won 2021 best of the net.
Lena is a translator and has worked in multiple genres including poetry, essays, and screenplays. She translated the screenplay for the multi award-winning feature film When I Saw You, written and directed by Annemarie Jacir. In 2022, she was the translator and curator of the series Poems from Palestine at the Baffler magazine.
Lena's poems have been published in print and online journals including Blackbird, Hayden's Ferry Review, Michigan Quarterly Review, The Nation, New England Review, Poets.org Poem-A-Day, and West Branch. Her poems have been nominated for the Pushcart Prize and Best of the Net. Many of her poems have been anthologized: "Running Orders," published in Letters to Palestine: American Writers Respond to War and Occupation, by Verso Press, "Seafaring Nocturne," published in Gaza Unsilenced by Just World Books, "Altered States" published in Bettering American Poetry Volume 2 by Bettering Books, "Fragment," published in Making Mirrors: Writing/Righting by Refugees by Olive Branch Press, "Immigrant," published in Ink Knows No Borders by Triangle Square Press and "Elegy" published in The BreakBeat Poets Vol. 3: Halal If You Hear Me by Haymarket Books, and "The Whole Point," in The Long Devotion by the University of Georgia Press.
Lena spent ten years working with journalists and editors as a volunteer for Seattle's Arab American community organizations. She helped to tell the stories of people living between two homelands, people who speak in translation and navigate the realities of long wars. She earned her Bachelor of Arts in Comparative Literature from the University of Washington. She is an MFA graduate from Pacific Lutheran University's Rainier Writing Workshop.
Lena is passionate about poetry, the perfect cup of coffee, language, freedom and equality, travel, and gardening. She lives with her husband and daughters in Redmond, Washington.
Lena writes poetry, essays and translations. She is the author of three books of poetry: Water and Salt (Red Hen Press), for which she won the 2018 Washington State Book Award for Poetry, Kaan and Her Sisters (July 2023), the 2022 Editors' Selection by Trio House Press, and Something About Living (U of Akron Press, 2024), which was chosen by poet Adrian Matejka for the 2022 Akron Prize for Poetry.
She has also published two poetry chapbooks: Arab in Newsland, winner of the 2016 Two Sylvias Prize and Letters from the Interior (diode editions, 2019).
Lena's essays and book reviews have been published in journals and newspapers including Seattle Times, Al-Ahram Weekly, Poetry Northwest, Los Angeles Review of Books, and Kenyon Review Online. Her essay, "Muhammads in Gaza," published in Porter House Review, won 2021 best of the net.
Lena is a translator and has worked in multiple genres including poetry, essays, and screenplays. She translated the screenplay for the multi award-winning feature film When I Saw You, written and directed by Annemarie Jacir. In 2022, she was the translator and curator of the series Poems from Palestine at the Baffler magazine.
Lena's poems have been published in print and online journals including Blackbird, Hayden's Ferry Review, Michigan Quarterly Review, The Nation, New England Review, Poets.org Poem-A-Day, and West Branch. Her poems have been nominated for the Pushcart Prize and Best of the Net. Many of her poems have been anthologized: "Running Orders," published in Letters to Palestine: American Writers Respond to War and Occupation, by Verso Press, "Seafaring Nocturne," published in Gaza Unsilenced by Just World Books, "Altered States" published in Bettering American Poetry Volume 2 by Bettering Books, "Fragment," published in Making Mirrors: Writing/Righting by Refugees by Olive Branch Press, "Immigrant," published in Ink Knows No Borders by Triangle Square Press and "Elegy" published in The BreakBeat Poets Vol. 3: Halal If You Hear Me by Haymarket Books, and "The Whole Point," in The Long Devotion by the University of Georgia Press.
Lena spent ten years working with journalists and editors as a volunteer for Seattle's Arab American community organizations. She helped to tell the stories of people living between two homelands, people who speak in translation and navigate the realities of long wars. She earned her Bachelor of Arts in Comparative Literature from the University of Washington. She is an MFA graduate from Pacific Lutheran University's Rainier Writing Workshop.
Lena is passionate about poetry, the perfect cup of coffee, language, freedom and equality, travel, and gardening. She lives with her husband and daughters in Redmond, Washington.