Joseph Geha

Joseph Geha
Born	1944 Zahle, Lebanon
Occupation	Professor-emeritus at Iowa State University

Joseph Geha (born 1944, Zahle, Lebanon), professor-emeritus at Iowa State University, is the author of two books, Through and Through: Toledo Stories,[1] one of the first books of modern Arab-American fiction, and Lebanese Blonde,[2] a novel. He has also published poems, plays, essays and short fiction in periodicals and anthologies such as Esquire,[3] Growing Up Ethnic in America,[4] and The New York Times.[5]

Education

Geha moved to the United States in 1946 with his family, and in 1962 graduated from St. Francis de Sales High School in Toledo, Ohio.[6][7] He graduated from the University of Toledo in 1966 with a B.A., and 1968 with an M.A. in English. Before coming to Iowa State in 1977, he taught English and Creative Writing at Missouri State University, Bowling Green State University and the University of Toledo.[7]

Awards

Geha was awarded a fellowship from the National Endowment for the Arts in 1988 and a Pushcart Prize in Fiction in 1990.[8][9] His work was chosen for inclusion in the Permanent Collection, Arab-American Archive, of the Smithsonian Institution. He was named an Arab American Book Award Winner in 2013 for his novel Lebanese Blonde.[10]

Works

• Through and Through: Toledo Stories (1990, Graywolf Press; 2009 second, expanded version, University of Syracuse Press) (short fiction)
• Flyway: Arab American Writing (2002, Iowa State University) (editor)
• Lebanese Blonde (2012, University of Michigan Press) (novel)

References

1. Geha, Joseph (2009). Through and through : Toledo stories (Second ed.). Syracuse, NY: Syracuse University Press. ISBN 9780815650966. OCLC 878804900.
2. Geha, Joseph (2012). Lebanese blonde : a novel. Ann Arbor: The University of Michigan Press. ISBN 9780472118458. OCLC 778074345.
3. Geha, Joseph (Feb 20, 2007). "Go Figure". Esquire. Retrieved January 22, 2013.
4. Gillian, Maria Maziotti (1999). Growing Up Ethnic in America: Contemporary Fiction About Learning to Be American. Penguin Books. ISBN 0140280634.
5. Geha, Joseph (July 14, 1991). "Remember Who You Are". New York Times Sunday Review of Books.
6. Purdue, Brian (November 9, 2012). "UT ALUM TO READ PASSAGE FROM NEW BOOK". UT News. Retrieved July 30, 2016.
7. Lane, Tahree (November 4, 2012). "Toledo native's past shapes novel". Toledo Blade. Retrieved 5 February 2013.
8. "National Endowment for the Arts". Archived from the original on 6 January 2014. Retrieved 24 December 2013.
9. Polk, James (November 11, 1990). "In Short: Fiction". New York Times. Retrieved 24 December 2013.
10. Lai, Daniel (July 10, 2013). "Arab American Authors Honored for Literary Contributions". Dearborn Patch. Retrieved 24 December 2013.

Scholarly criticism

• Salaita, Steven (2001). "Sand Niggers, Small Shops, and Uncle Sam: Cultural Negotiation in the Fiction of Joseph Geha and Diana Abu-Jaber" (PDF). Criticism. 43 (4). Retrieved July 30, 2016 – via Project MUSE.

External links

• Miller, Michael (November 6, 2012). "Lebanese Blonde". Toledo Free Press. Retrieved 24 February 2013.
• Nebbe, Charity. ""Lebanese Blonde" by Joseph Geha". Iowa Public Radio. Archived from the original on 6 January 2014. Retrieved 24 February 2013.