Essayist and biographer Adina Hoffman (Wes '89) writes often of the Middle East, approaching it from unusual angles and shedding light on overlooked dimensions of the place, its people, and their cultures. Her books include House of Windows: Portraits from a Jerusalem Neighborhood and My Happiness Bears No Relation to Happiness: A Poet's Life in the Palestinian Century, named one of the best books of 2009 by the Barnes & Noble Review and one of the best biographies of the year by Booklist. She is also the author, with Peter Cole, of Sacred Trash: The Lost and Found World of the Cairo Geniza, which won the American Library Association's prize for best Jewish book of 2011. A 2011 Guggenheim Foundation Fellow, she lives in Jerusalem and New Haven and is currently a visiting writer in the English department.