Hajrije Kolimja is an Albanian-born writer raised in the Midwest. She is the recipient of a Fulbright research and writing grant to Albania, where she created the country’s first youth writing program and online writing lab. She holds graduate degrees from the University of Chicago and the Iowa Writers’ Workshop. An awardee of the Taylor-Chehak Prize in Fiction, she is working on a novel and short stories about Muslim Albanians in the diaspora—exploring the function of family in the face of fear. She teaches literature at the University of Iowa.