Hala Alyan Pulitzer finalist memoir

Hala Alyan’s memoir *I’ll Tell You When I’m Home* was named a 2026 Pulitzer Prize finalist in Memoir or Autobiography, according to the Pulitzer Prize Board’s 2026 winners and finalists listings published on May 4. The Pulitzer website lists Alyan among three finalists in the category and links to a separate finalist page for the book. The memoir was published by Avid Reader Press/Simon & Schuster on June 3, 2025, according to the publisher’s page. The de Groot Foundation, which has previously featured Alyan as a visiting fellow, also maintains a biography page for the author. ### Which Pulitzer category is Alyan in? The Pulitzer Prizes site lists Hala Alyan as a 2026 finalist in Memoir or Autobiography for *I’ll Tell You When I’m Home: A Memoir*. The category page for 2026 names Anelise Chen’s *Clam Down: A Metamorphosis*, Sarah Chihaya’s *Bibliophobia: A Memoir* and Alyan’s book among the finalists shown in the yearly winners-and-finalists compilation. The Pulitzer finalist page describes Alyan’s book as “a memoir that reimagines diaspora and the long consequences of war with literary clarity,” and says the author’s experiences with infertility and motherhood are set against an intergenerational family history. (pulitzer.org) That description appears on the official Pulitzer site rather than in a separate publisher announcement. ### When were the 2026 Pulitzer results announced? (pulitzer.org) The Pulitzer Prize Board announced the 2026 Pulitzer Prizes on May 4, 2026, in a release posted by the organization. The announcement says the board was releasing that year’s winners and nominated finalists in journalism, books, drama and music. The Pulitzer site’s yearly 2026 page now serves as the clearest public record for Alyan’s finalist status. (pulitzer.org) Search results and the open page both show the memoir category entry under the 2026 listings. ### What is *I’ll Tell You When I’m Home* about? Avid Reader Press/Simon & Schuster describes *I’ll Tell You When I’m Home* as Alyan’s debut memoir and says it follows her experience of motherhood via surrogacy as she reckons with family exile and displacement. (pulitzer.org) The Pulitzer finalist page uses similar language, saying the book juxtaposes infertility and motherhood with a broader family history shaped by war and diaspora. (pulitzer.org) The publisher’s page and other book listings identify June 3, 2025, as the publication date. Simon & Schuster lists Alyan as the author of the novels *Salt Houses* and *The Arsonists’ City* and says she is also the author of five poetry collections. ### What does the Pulitzer site say about Alyan herself? The Pulitzer finalist biography says Alyan is the author of *Salt Houses*, which it notes won the Dayton Literary Peace Prize and the Arab American Book Award, and *The Arsonists’ City*, which it says was a finalist for the Aspen Words Literary Prize. (simonandschuster.com) The same page says her work has appeared in *The New Yorker*, *The New York Times*, *The Guardian* and other publications. The de Groot Foundation’s author page, published in January 2020, identifies Alyan as an award-winning Palestinian American poet, novelist and clinical psychologist and says she was a visiting fellow working on *The Arsonists’ City*. That page predates the memoir and does not itself mention the 2026 Pulitzer recognition, but it ties Alyan to the foundation cited in the initial claim. ### Did the de Groot Foundation announcement establish the finalist status? (pulitzer.org) The Pulitzer Prize website, not the de Groot Foundation, is the primary source confirming Alyan’s 2026 finalist status. The official Pulitzer pages list both the category finalists and Alyan’s individual finalist entry. As of May 14, 2026, the Pulitzer listings remain live on Pulitzer.org, and the Simon & Schuster page for *I’ll Tell You When I’m Home* remains available with publication details and the book description. (degrootfoundation.org) Those pages are the most direct places to verify the finalist designation and the memoir’s publication record. (pulitzer.org 1) (pulitzer.org 2)