The daughter of immigrants, Sahar Mustafah explores her Palestinian heritage in her writing. She earned her MFA in Fiction from Columbia College where she was a Follett Graduate Scholar. Mustafah is a Willow Books Grand Prize Winner for Code of The West, was named one of the 25 Writers to Watch by The Guild Literary Complex of Chicago, and is a member of Voices Protest and Radius of Arab American Writers. Her debut novel, The Beauty of Your Face, was named a The New York Times Book Review Notable Books of 2020 and a Finalist for the 2021 Palestine Book Award. It was long-listed for the Center for Fiction First Novel Award and chosen for Los Angeles Times “United We Read.” Mustafah writes and teaches outside of Chicago.
Photo by High Key Photography
Awards & Honors:
2023: Winner of the Lawrence Foundation Award for Best Fiction, “Star of Bethlehem,” Prairie Schooner, 2022
2022: Winner of Robert De Mott Prize for Short Prose, Quarter After Eight, “Tree of Life”
(selected by Kirstin Valdez Quade)
2021: Pushcart Nomination, World Literature, “The Bodies”
2021: The Palestine Book Award, Middle East Monitor, Finalist
2020: 100 Notable Books, The New York Times Book Review
2020: First Novel Award, The Center for Fiction, long-listed
2020: Fiction Award, Chicago Book Review, Finalist
2020: Book of the Year, Chicago Writers Association, Finalist
2019: Jeffrey E. Smith Editor Prize, The Missouri Review, Finalist, "Triumph"
2017: Pushcart Prize, nomination, "Men After All"
2016: Distinguished Story, "Failed Treaties," Best American Short Stories, Ed. Junot Diaz; Pushcart Prize, nomination, "New And Gently Use Hijab"; Best of the Net, nomination, "The Melancholy Oud," Sukoon; Willow Books Grand Prize Winner, Life, Move Leisurely (fiction collection)
2015: American Fiction Prize Finalist, "Code of the West"; David Friedman Award for Best Fiction, "Wingspan"; Columbia Scholastic Press Association, Certificate of Merit, "Wingspan"
2014 Columbia Scholastic Press Association, 3rd Place in Fiction, "Widow"
2012 Guild Literary Complex, 1st Place in Fiction, "Shisha Love"; Pushcart Prize, nomination, "Shisha Love"
Writings:
"The Case for Teaching Depressing Books," Lit Hub (2020)
"Make America," Peauxdunque Review (2019)
"Small Children," Mizna (2019)
"Lower Paradise Road," Sukoon (2018)
"The Arabians," Two Countries: US Daughters & Sons of Immigrants (2017)
"Mammogram," Minola Review, (2017)
"Men After All," Hypertext (2017)
"Public Pool," Midwestern Gothic (2016)
"New And Gently Used Hijab," Room (2016)
"Code of the West," American Fiction (2016)
"Failed Treaties," The Bellevue Literary Review (2015)
"The Thing Itself," The Grief Diaries (2015)
"The Great Chicago Fire," Story (2015)
"The Oud" Sukoon (2015)
"Wingspan," Hair Trigger 36 (2015)
"A Room of One's Own Without Windows," Chicago Literati (2015)
"No Photo Available," Hypertext (2014)
"Torn," Flyleaf Journal (2014)
"Arabs in Chicago," Great Lakes Review (2014)
"Writing Lessons," Ploughshares Online (2013)
"Light Wash," Mizna (2012)
"Shisha Love," Word Riot (2012)
"Easy to Say," Dinarzad's Children (2009)