“The Writer Fueled by Life’s Randomness” – The Atlantic Muse on Lannan Visiting Chair Rabih Alameddine’s Unconventional Writing Methods

A banner of Rabih Alameddine and his book, The True True Story of Raja the Gullible. Rabih is smiling and laughing as he rests one of his hands on the bookshelf on the right. A green plant is in the way and blocks the top left corner of the image.

On December 24th, 2025, Lily Meyer from The Atlantic sat with Lannan Visiting Chair Rabih Alameddine as he reflected on his life, writing, and recent National Book Award win. Alameddine’s three-decade-long extensive portfolio of published work includes recurring topics such as civil war and regional conflicts, HIV and AIDS, sexuality, body dysphoria and unconformity, complex family ties, and dealing with the ever-changing tides of fate. His latest novel, The True True Story Of Raja The Gullible (And His Mother), won the 2025 National Book Award for Fiction in November 2025.

“In Raja the Gullible, Alameddine writes a character who treats the capricious twists of his life—some huge and historical, some small and personal—not just lightly but with a willful positivity that is somewhat surprising. Never before has he reached for such optimism. Its presence makes humor easy. The novel’s anger, in contrast, is more hidden, even to its hero, and yet it is vital to Raja’s trajectory. Over the course of the book, Alameddine pushes his protagonist to admit that he can be content with himself and his existence, yet angry at the swings of fate that shaped it; to understand, as many of Alameddine’s earlier characters do instinctively, that laughing at terror and tragedy, important though it may be, isn’t enough.”

Alameddine was previously a National Book Award for Fiction finalist in 2014 for his novel, An Unnecessary Woman.

Listen and read more at The Atlantic.