Playwright, translator, and editor Nathalie Handal is of Palestinian heritage. She has lived in Europe, the Caribbean, Latin America, and the United States. Handal attended Simmons College in Boston as an undergraduate and earned an MFA in poetry from Bennington College, an MPhil in drama and English from the University of London, and a postgraduate certificate in fiction from Humber College in Canada. She is the author of the poetry collections The Neverfield (2005), The Lives of Rain (2005), and Love and Strange Horses (2010).

Handal’s poetry draws on her experiences of dislocation, home, travel, and exile. In a review of The Lives of Rain, critic Elmaz Abinader commented, “Handal’s language, her cultural mixtures; her chameleon-like invisibility allows us to listen in on a fusion of languages and music, the hustle and bustle of being an immigrant and finding one’s way.” Handal also edited The Poetry of Arab Women: A Contemporary Anthology (2000) and, with Tina Chang and Ravi Shankar, coedited Language For a New Century: Contemporary Poetry from the Middle East, Asia, and Beyond (2008).

Her poetry has been set to music and performed at Lincoln Center; the Chamber Music Northwest Summer Music Festival in Portland, Oregon; and the River Run Center in Canada. She has released two CDs: Spell, with music by Will Soliman, and Traveling Rooms. Her plays include Between Our Lips (2006) and The Stonecutters (2007). She has been playwright-in-residence at the New York Theatre Workshop and is a member of Nibras Theatre Collective.