Zeyn Joukhadar is a highly accomplished author, best known for his novels 'The Map of Salt and Stars' and 'The Thirty Names of Night.' 'The Map of Salt and Stars' was published in 2018 and has already been translated into six languages. This novel earned Joukhadar several awards, including the 2018 Middle East Book Award in Youth Literature and a place on the 2018 Goodreads Choice Awards Finalist in Historical Fiction. 'The Thirty Names of Night' was published in 2020 and has already caused waves in the reading world, demonstrating Joukhadar's exceptional talent for storytelling.
In addition to his novels, Joukhadar has also written for various publications, including PANK Magazine, The Saturday Evening Post, and The Kenyon Review. His work has been nominated for the Pushcart Prize twice and has appeared in the Kink anthology, Salon, The Paris Review, Shondaland, [PANK], and Mizna, among others. Joukhadar's writing is known for its prose, depth, and unique stories, which have captivated readers and critics alike.
Joukhadar is a member of the Radius of Arab American Writers (RAWI) and has received fellowships from several prestigious institutions, including the Montalvo Arts Center Lucas Artists Program, the Arab American National Museum, the Bread Loaf Writers’ Conference, the Camargo Foundation, and the Josef and Anni Albers Foundation. He also mentors emerging writers of color with the Periplus Collective and served as the guest editor for Mizna's 2020 Queer + Trans Voices issue. 'The Thirty Names of Night' won the Lambda Literary Award and the Stonewall Book Award, while 'The Map of Salt and Stars' was a 2018 Middle East Book Award winner in Youth Literature, a 2018 Goodreads Choice Awards Finalist in Historical Fiction, and was shortlisted for the Wilbur Smith Adventure Writing Prize. Currently, 'The Map of Salt and Stars' is being translated into twenty languages, a testament to Joukhadar's global appeal and the universal resonance of his stories.