Threa Almontaser learned English in elementary school and began writing short stories and poems at a very young age, primarily in the form of scribbles that she read out loud to her family.
She earned her MFA in Creative Writing and her TESOL certification from North Carolina State University.
[1] Almontaser's debut poetry collection, The Wild Fox of Yemen (Graywolf Press), was selected by Harryette Mullen as winner of the 2020 Walt Whitman Award established by the Academy of American Poets.
She is a recipient of the Unsilenced Grant for Muslim American Women Writers, and has received support from Duke, National Endowment for the Arts, and the Fulbright Program.
Along with writing books, Almontaser also teaches English to immigrants and refugees in her area.