Lael A. Mohib’s writing explores intercultural identity, belonging and loss in a globalized and often contradictory world. Lael earned a BA in communications from Mary Baldwin College and an MA in journalism & international relations from Boston University. She has worked for a number of organizations, including BBC Media Action, the American University of Afghanistan, the World Bank, and the government of Afghanistan. 

Lael’s work has been published in Narrative Magazine, Tupelo Quarterly, The New York Times, and Foreign Policy, among others. She has completed a novel, We Belong to the Living, the story of an Afghan-American woman discovering both herself and her father’s homeland during the most violent years of the 2001-2021 war, and a short story collection, Bilagaana. She is currently working on a contemporary Southern Gothic novel, entitled Hunting Country. She is an alumna of the Bread Loaf Writers’ Conference (2024), the Key West Literary Seminar Writers’ Workshop Program (2025 and 2026), and a recipient of an Author and Poet Fellowship from the Martha’s Vineyard Institute of Creative Writing (2025). She has three children and lives in Florida.