Paula Haydar is an American

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

 academic and translator. She obtained a bachelor's degree in physics in 1987 and an M.Ed in 1991 from the University of Massachusetts

University of Massachusetts

This article relates to the statewide university system. For the flagship campus often referred to as "UMass", see University of Massachusetts Amherst...

. She then obtained an MFA

Master of Fine Arts

A Master of Fine Arts is a graduate degree typically requiring 2–3 years of postgraduate study beyond the bachelor's degree , although the term of study will vary by country or by university. The MFA is usually awarded in visual arts, creative writing, filmmaking, dance, or theatre/performing arts...

 in literary translation from the University of Arkansas

University of Arkansas

The University of Arkansas is a public, co-educational, land-grant, space-grant, research university. It is classified by the Carnegie Foundation as a research university with very high research activity. It is the flagship campus of the University of Arkansas System and is located in...

. At present, she is teaching Arabic at the University of Arkansas while pursuing a PhD in comparative literature

Comparative literature

Comparative literature is an academic field dealing with the literature of two or more different linguistic, cultural or national groups...

.

Haydar has translated novels, short stories, and poetry from Arabic to English. Her book length translations include:

• Touch by Adania Shibli
• The End of Spring by Sahar Khalifeh
  Sahar Khalifeh
  Sahar Khalifeh is a Palestinian writer born in 1942 in Nablus of the West Bank. After studying at the University of Birzeit, in the Palestinian occupied territories, she received a Fulbright scholarship and went to continue her studies in the US...
  
  
• Learning English by Rachid Al-Daif (with Adnan Haydar)
• This Side of Innocence by Rachid Al-Daif
• The Kingdom of Strangers by Elias Khoury
• The Journey of Little Gandhi, by Elias Khoury
• City Gates by Elias Khoury (also translated as Gates of the City)

She won the Arkansas Arabic Translation Prize for her translation of Elias Khoury's The Kingdom of Strangers. Her work has appeared in two issues of Banipal

Banipal

Banipal is an independent literary magazine dedicated to the promotion of contemporary Arab literature through translations in English. It was founded in London in 1998 by Margaret Obank and Samuel Shimon. The magazine is published three times a year...

magazine (1998, 2008). She is married to fellow academic Adnan Haydar and lives in Fayetteville

Fayetteville

Fayetteville is the name of a number of places in the United States of America. Many are named for General Gilbert du Motier, marquis de Lafayette, a French officer who fought under General George Washington in the American Revolutionary War....

, Arkansas

Arkansas

Arkansas is a state located in the southern region of the United States. Its name is an Algonquian name of the Quapaw Indians. Arkansas shares borders with six states , and its eastern border is largely defined by the Mississippi River...

. Their son Fuad "Kikko" Haydar currently plays basketball for the Arkansas Razorbacks

Arkansas Razorbacks

The Razorbacks, also known as the Hogs, are the names of college sports teams at the University of Arkansas in Fayetteville, Arkansas. The term Arkansas Razorbacks properly applies to any of the sports teams at the university. The Razorbacks take their name from the feral pig of the same name...

.