Aaliyah Bilal is a fiction and nonfiction writer who focuses on the Black American Muslim experience and stories that connect Chinese and Afro-Diasporic peoples. She has experience as a director and producer of short films and she has published stories and essays with
The Michigan Quarterly Review,
The Chicago Quarterly Review, and
The Rumpus.
Temple Folk, her first short story collection and a 2023 National Book Award finalist, was acquired by Simon and Schuster after an open call for submissions, without an agent or connections to the world of publishing.
Born and raised in Prince George’s County, Maryland, Bilal obtained degrees from
Oberlin College and the
University of London School of Oriental and African Studies.
