 Lalami began writing fiction and nonfiction in English in 1996.Her literary criticism, cultural commentary, and opinion pieces have appeared in "The Boston Globe", "Boston Review", "The Los Angeles Times", "The Nation", "The New York Times", "The Washington Post", "The Daily Beast", and elsewhere.In 2016, she was named both a columnist for "The Nation" magazine and a critic-at-large for "The Los Angeles Times Book Review".