Adi Alsaid

Mexico City, where Adi Alsaid was born in 1987, sits behind most of what he writes about leaving and arriving. He went north to the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, then drove to the California coast to try writing full time, and has since lived in Tel Aviv, Monterey and Chicago. We Didn't Ask for This, published in 2020, keeps an entire school shut in overnight: Marisa Cuevas and a small group chain themselves to the doors of Central International School during its annual lock-in and refuse to let anyone out until a list of environmental demands is met. Come On In, which he edited, collects fifteen stories about immigration and finding a home, with contributions from Zoraida Córdova, Maurene Goo, Sara Farizan, Nafiza Azad, Yamile Saied Méndez, Misa Sugiura, Varsha Bajaj, Maria E. Andreu, Sharon Morse, Sona Charaipotra, Alaya Dawn Johnson, Isabel Quintero, Justine Larbalestier and Lilliam Rivera. His other novels include Let's Get Lost and North of Happy.